A Word About Chiniquy.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 15, 10 April 1902, Page 2

A Word About Chiniquy.

A correspondent writing from Fairfax, Southland, asks us to please state ' What was the cause of Chiniquy's dismissal from the priesthood.' The dishonesty of Chiniquy's character and the unspeakable infamy of his books have been so often and so completely exposed that decent-minded people are rather tired of hearing about him and it is with reluctance that we make even a brief reference to the career of one whose sole mission in life during the last forty years of his existence was to fan and keep alive the flames of bigotry. Our correspondent intimates, however, that an alleged ' dying confession ' of Chiniquy's is being widely circulated in his district and is being used as a means of appealing to sectarian passion and working up anti-Catholic feeling in the community and it is perhaps as well therefore that we should say just a word by way of answer to his query. Briefly stated, the cause of Chiniquy's downfall and suspension was intemperance. Although at first remarkable (at least publicly) for his zeal as a teetotaller he afterwards became careless and was suspended for intemperance on September 20, 1851, and again (by the Bishop of Chicago") on August 19, 1856, and November 20, 1856. He was also subsequently expelled by the Chicago Protestant Synod in 1862, ' for fraud and gross swindling.' An American priest, the Rev. Father Brune, of Haverhill, lowa, writing from personal knowledge, in the Irish World of March 2, 1895, gives the following account of Chiniquy :—: — ' I spent several years in Canada. I saw the place where Chiniquy was born, visited various places where he officiated as a Catholic and afterward as a Protestant minister. I am in possession of unmistakable proofs as to Chiniquy's life and character.

' Chiniquy was born in the town of Kamarouska, Canada, studied at the seminary of Quebec, and was ordained a priest in 1833. He distinguished himself by his talents, as also by his great zeal as a teetotaller. His successes and the consequent honors elated him and caused his fall. He became careless in his duties and soon fell into many irregularities. His trial followed, and on September 28, 1851, he was suspended and deposed. He then Canada, -and for several years loomed up at various placesnn Illinois, until the Bishop of Chicago, having learned who Chiniquy was, suspended and deposed him again, November 20, 1856. Subsequently Chiniquy travelled to Europe to collect money for a pretended seminary in Chicago and his thirty promising pupils. In 1862 his fraud was discovered, that he had neither seminary nor pupils ; he was accused of fraud and gross swindling and rejected or expelled by the Protestant Synod of Chicago. . . For a few years the Presbyterians managed to get along with him, but soon he was accused of having squandered great sums of money intrusted to his care. He was consequently rejected by the Presbyterians, and wandered about, giving vent to his anger against the Catholic Church that had ex. pelled him.'

So much for the occasion of Chiniquy 's expulsion from the Church and for the simple facts of his career. As to the infamous and loathsome character of the man, we have at hand abunc'ance of even Protestant testimony, but we have space for only a single specimen. It is from an article written by a Protestant, Mr. F. H. Baker, and published in his paper, the Halifax Mayflower, in 1876. The article was written on the occasion of the publication of one of Chiniquy's abominable books, and we make the following extracts :—: — 'The man's mind seems to be one mass of corruption and grovelling' lust. He would impute sinister and impure motives to the very mother of his Saviour — nothing is too holy or sacred for his slime to cover, or his impious hand to clutch. His personal appearance, as we saw him at the Halifax Hotel, was not particulaily prepossessing, and now that we have read his book we can quite understand the very deformity of soul that is stamped upon those repulsive features. We ask any man who has the slightest deference or respect for women, who loves his wife and little ones, who almost worships the name of mother, to read Chiniquy's book, and then ask himself if it can be possible if such a viper as this can be received with open armsk into the bosom of any church — not only received, but actually ordained as a minister of Christ, and allowed to preach salvation to anything that is made in the image 01 God We would not have it on our soul — it would stain it like blood — to publioh^evtn in this worldly paper an extract of this vile

•work in English — we could not look into the eyes of our wife and children and do ii. We would not read it again for its worth in gold. There is something simply indescribably horrible about it. We are no saint, nor are we Roman Catholic ; we are not at all thin-skinned, and know what life in large cities is ; but we have to thank Pcre Chiniquy for one particularly poisonous, sickening sensation that stifles us like a blast from the lowest depths of hell ; and all we have to say in conclusion of these painful lines is, that God knows we pity from the bottom of our heart any man or woman in possession of their rational faculties who can take this human monster by the hand, who can sit under his teachings, and listen to his impious voice ascend in very mocking to the the throne T>f God, and call it Prayer. 1 That is the view, not of a Catholic, but of a representative Protestant, and, severe though it is, it is not beyond the mark. If the people of Fairfax are as level-headed as most of our country settlers are, a whole shipload of the ' dying confessions ' of such a character will not be likely to do them any harm.