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New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 149, 10 March 1876, Page 15

Four German priests have been already punished by the German Government for refusing to give absolution in the confessional on the accusation of their " penitents.' 5 Father Gabriel, a Capuchin of Ehrenbreitstoin, to three months imprisonment ; Chaplain Bichter, of Eberseoof, in Silesia, to a fine of fifteen marks, or five days imprisonment ; Chaplain Nietsh, of Katschcr, to a fine of 150 marks, or fifteen day's imprisonment. Penalty has not been yet awarded in the fourth case, that of the parish priest Nitschke, of Moschin, in Posen. The mouths of the accused being perforce shut by the seal of confession, their accusers and the government had it all their own way. Tbese arc the famous laws which "do not in any way attack the purely interior domain of the Catholic Church." St. John Nepomucene taught their lesson to these confessors of the faith. What Catholic Germans think of the May laws may be inferred from the action of the parishioners of Berglicht, near Treves, who, having learned that their pastor had signified to the government his acceptance of them, will no longer have anything to do with him. They even bury their own dead, not asking for assistance. The parish church was closed all through the Jubilee.