ITALIAN LIBEL CASE.

Stratford Evening Post, Volume XXIX, Issue 95, 12 June 1911, Page 3

ITALIAN LIBEL CASE.

A PRIEST IMPRISONED. The following appeared in the London Daily Nows from its Rome correspondent I—“ The gravest charge that can be brought against the Church or one of its priesthood is betrayal of the secrets of tlio Confessional. Father Verdes', a well-known young Roman priest, who for some time was private secretary to Cardinal Marlinclli and chaplain of the Nuns of the Sacred Heart, has left the Cl in roll and joined the American Methodist Mission here. In justification he accuses his confessor, Father Bricarelli, a Jesuit priest, and the Pope of having violated the secret of the Confessional, and thus forced him to leave the Church, The ex-priest declares that he told his confessor that live Roihan priests, whose names ho withhold, were confirmed Modernists, and asked to be absolved of the sin of having frequented’ their company. 'The coii lessor insisted on knowing their names, and forced the penitent to write down a statement declaring that the live priests in question uphold the doctrines of Modernism, which the Dope had formally condemned. Ho then reported the priests to the Pope, who had them expelled from the Church and excommunicated. The victims wore two Professors of Theology in the Pontifical College here, a parish priest, and two well-known clergymen. They wen; all friends of Father Verdesi, and naturally blamed him for bringing about their ruin. So great was Father Verdcsi’s 1 remorse that he decided to leave the Church and expose the method.”, to which the Jesuits and the Pope descend ,iu their campaign against Modernism. Those sensational revelations ■ have been given wide publicity in the press. The Pope, it is said, is deeply grieved Jiat .a clergyman should accuse him of violating the secrets of the Confessional. Tlio Jesuit Father Bricarelli explained that ho did not force his penitent to denounce the five’Modernist priests, nor did he insist on knowing their names, but merely’ warned him that it was his duty as a clergyman to do so, inasmuch as .Modernism had been condemned by the Pope. Fa.ther Bricarelli, moreover, insists that his penitent denounced the live Modernist prioris of his own free will, ami authorised him to report the ca.sc in Iho Pope, and that, therefore, the secrecy of (ho Confessional has not. been violated in am - wav.”

A recent cablegram announced that Verdesi bad been sentenced ! > ice. months’ imprisonment for a lined alleging that Father Bricarelli, S.J., compelled him to viol at'.' the s-. tvets of the Confessional.