FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XX, Issue 32, 27 May 1892, Page 13

FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH.

An interesting story, showing with what inviolable secrecy the revelations made in the Confessional are guarded, has justj ust oome to light. Three years ago, a Catholic priest, the Abbe Damoulin, of the arch-diocese of Aix, France, was tried and convicted of murder to the utter consternation of the Catholic population, by whom he was much revered. The victim of the murder was a Madame Blanchard, a wealthy and pious lady, and the evidence, though entirely circumstantial, was sufficient to convict the accused priest. Madame was president of a Catholic obaritable association, and in that capacity she called one day at the parocial residence to remove some funds deposited with Fal her Dumonlin . The amount was 12,000 francs (about £400), which Father Dumoulin gave her on demand. The approach to the presbytery was through an old monastery which had been suppressed, but of which the building was still in good preservation. Madame Blanchard was admitted to the presbytery by the sexton, named Eloser, who returnei to bis work after letting her through the gate. When the priest had given her the money he offered to see her through the gate, as far as the old cloister, but as he was slightly indisposed, Madame Blanchard refused to permit him, saying she knew the way perfectly, and as it was little after midday she apprehended no danger. Mme. Blanobard did not leturn to her home that evening, and her family became alarmed, and searched for her unavailingly, Four days later her body was discovered in one of |he empty cells of the oil

monastery. It bore marks of a violent death from stabs with a knife and the money sbe had received was gone. Search was then made in the presbytery, and one of the table knives was fonnd covered with human blood, and also a handkerchief belonging to the dead woman, in which, presumably, the money bad been rolled. Suspicion at once fell on Father Damoulin, who was, by bis own statement, the last person who had seen Mate, Blancbard alive. He was tried and convicted, and sentenced to transportation for life — sentence of death not being inflicted, partly on account of his former unblemished character, and partly through the nature of the evidence. The occurrence excited much comment at the time, but was gradually forgotten, and Father Dumoulin was only remembered as an awful instance of human depravity by most of his former parishioners. Some five months ago, however, a startling revelation occurred. Kloeer, the sexton was stricken with remorse and publicly confessed that it was himself who bad murdered Mme. Blanchard for the sake of plunder. He detailed all the circumstances of his crime with minute precision. He knew that the lady had a large sum in her possession, and procuring a knife in the kitchen, be waylaid her in the corridor, stabbed her to death, and threw the body into a cell where it was subsequently found. The knife stained with blood and the handkerchief he hid again in the presbytery and kept himself out of sight for some time. The remarkable fact was that the next day after the body was discovered he was struck with remorse for his crime and told it in confession to Father Dumoulin himself. The latter, when afterwards accused of the murder, made no attempt to exculpate himself, even by casting suspicion on the real culprit, who thus actually was protected by the priests self-devotion. He not only guarded the secret of the Confessional, but lest he might impair its obligations, he refrained from even suggesting that the sexton could have committed the murder — a suggestion which he would naturally have made had not the crime been fully revealed to him in the sacred tribunal. In view of Kloser 's fall confession, the Superior Court of Aix formerly decreed a new trial for Father Dumoulin, when he was unanimously acquitted of the crime of which he had been so wrongly adjudged guilty. His return to his church after nearly three years' exile was the occasion of a demonstration of the most striking kind, and he is now again employed in the work of his ministry after giving the world one more lesson of what the zeal of Confession means for a Catholic priest.— Exchange.