The Soul Of An Ex-Catholic Priest

[ÃÂoppleganger]

THE SOUL OF A PRIEST
My Conversion to the Pauline Succession
BY L. H. LEHMANN

A Synopsis By a.k.a Doppleganger

"For a priest, there is nothing so dangerous before God, nothing so shameful before men, as not to speak out his convictions freely." St. Ambrose.

Introduction

This book makes an appeal to the hearts of all who believe in the message of Jesus, who rejoice at the message sanctified by a "royal priesthood." St. Peter wrote, "to show forth the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His own marvelous light" (1 Peter 2: 9). The author thought he had learned that message, and that he had been set apart to that priesthood. The Spirit of God made it clear that he had been misled. His relation to Jesus Christ became sweet and personal. The papal yoke under which he had staggered was severe and burdensome like that of the Pharisees which Christ repudiated. But he found rest for his soul when he entered into fellowship with those whom he had been compelled to term "publicans and sinners." To his surprise he found that they were of the "royal priesthood."

Now he regrets that ever in thought or word evangelical Christians had been deemed by him as "infidels," "heretics," "pagan worshippers," for they have given him the sweet boon of Christian fellowship. In contrast, his former companions have reviled and persecuted him, and said all manner of evil against him falsely, as Jesus said they would. His new associates say of him, as was testified of St. Paul: "He who persecuted us in time past now preacheth the faith of which he once made havoc" (Gal. 1: 23).

Before the light came he had struggled to conform to the minutiae of man-made regulations; now he finds the law of Christ written in his heart. He has been punctilious in offering innumerable sacrifices on earthly altars. Now he knows that by one sacrifice on a heavenly altar the blessed Son of God has brought such sacrifices to an end, " For by one offering He has perfected forever them that are sanctified" (Heb. 10: 14).

Now, like the great apostle, he finds no room for his former priesthood. Jesus did not appoint priests to minister His gospel. Those who claim to offer sacrifices in mass come near to being imposters, and those who believe in them are in darkness and under a delusion, themselves blind being led by blind guides. Thus Jesus spoke in His day. The author is now in the apostolic succession, not man-made but Christ-chosen; in the royal priesthood of believers and true worshippers.

Had not St. Paul expressly warned "that in the latter times some, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of demons," should "forbid to marry, which God hath created to be received with thankfulness of them who believe and know the truth" (1 Tim. 4:1-4) ? It was not from God, for Jesus chose married men to be His apostles (Matt. 8: 14), and St. Paul affirmed that he had as much right to have a wife as a traveling companion as had St. Peter (1 Cor. 9: 5). Again the author found himself in the Pauline succession.

Then fell the last bulwark, the papacy. A careful reading of the New Testament made it clear that Peter never claimed to be head of the apostles or of the church; that this distinction was never accorded him; and that, if he were in Rome when Paul was there a prisoner, he was lacking in Christian courtesy, for he never called to offer aid. Then he remembered reading a book entitled, "Was the Apostle Peter Ever in Rome?" In which the legend of Peter's being Bishop there for 25 years was riddled by abundant testimony; and he recalled the confession of Professor Marucchi, the noted Roman archaeologist, made before him and his fellow students, that in all his researches, not one shred of evidence of Peter's being in the Eternal City had been unearthed. The papacy fell, a shattered ruin, impossible of credence by any one who has learned the full meaning of the gospel of Christ, and who accepts His undisputed headship of His Church. The papal church is not of Christ.

The yoke of bondage gives place to the freedom with which Christ makes His disciples free. Repressions of mind and heart and life are removed, and the golden rule becomes the law of service. Now he has found further that in the Pauline succession are hundreds of thousands of former sworn vassals of the papacy, who, following the great evangelical leaders of the Reformation period; whom he had been taught to execrate, to vilify, and to damn to the lowest level of hell had joined with those who maintained the apostolic fervor, and were helping to make this world a better place to live in.

And coming further into the full light, he discovered that every step along the trail toward political, social, and religious freedom had been blazed by those whose worship he had been compelled to term "pagan." It is true that for propaganda purposes they are sometimes spoken of as "separated brethren." But that is not official, as all will see!

The following profession of faith in the papal church must be sworn to by all Protestant converts to Rome

"I, N. N., having before me the holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand, and knowing that no one can be saved without that faith which the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church holds, believes, and teaches, against which I grieve that I have greatly erred, inasmuch as I have held and believed doctrines opposed to her teaching: I now, with sorrow and contrition for my past errors, profess that I believe the Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Roman Church to be the only and true Church established on earth by Jesus Christ, to which I submit myself with my whole soul. I believe all the articles of Faith that she proposes to my belief, and I reject and condemn all that she rejects and condemns, and I am ready to observe all that she commands me. I believe in Purgatory . . . in the Primacy, not only of honor but of jurisdiction, of the Roman Pontiff, successor of St. Peter, Prince of the Apostles, Vicar of Jesus Christ.

I believe in the veneration of the Saints and their images. And, I believe in everything else that has been defined and declared by the sacred Canons and by the General Councils, and particularly ... by the General Council of the Vatican, especially concerning the Primacy of the Roman Pontiff, and his infallible teaching authority. With a sincere heart, therefore, and with unfeigned faith, I detest and abjure every error, heresy, and sect opposed to the said Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Roman Church. So help me God, and these His holy Gospels, which I touch with my hand." Over against these fearful conditions, arrogantly laid down by the Papacy as essential for salvation, I place the sweet, simple invitation of Jesus Christ in Matt. 11: 28-30: "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart. For my yoke is sweet, and my burden is light."

Inspired by new experiences and new knowledge the author has revealed his soul. He tells how he found that, to be honest, he must renounce the papacy and demit its man made priesthood. Many teachings of the Council of Trent, with its more than 100 anathemas, are to him heretical because they do not square with the teachings of Christ as set forth in the Gospels,
and as understood and proclaimed by His apostles.

Well 12 more Chapters to go. I felt inspired to do something, I was planning on doing something like this, latter on, on a different subject, or with a few other book I liked. I'm kinda busy right now. But it seemed like the right time. I hope you liked this, I'll finish the rest piece by piece in time. Or you can even add the rest of the chapters if you like!

 

[ÃÂoppleganger]

THE SOUL OF A PRIEST
CHAPTER I
CONVERSIONS AND PERVERSIONS


With the first beginnings of Christianity, conversion meant a straight "turn-over" from pagan and Jewish beliefs and practices to those set forth by Jesus Christ. This called for a complete "change of mind," for that is the exact meaning of the Greek Gospel word "metanoia." It involved an entirely new outlook upon the social and cultural, as well as the religious order of things which had theretofore existed. For the teachings of Jesus were intended to establish a different relationship between God and man and also between man and man.

Since that time, however, much confusion has arisen within Christendom itself as to the correct interpretation and practice of the teachings of Jesus Christ. Fanciful superstitions, lust for power, and human greed, have greatly hampered Christian development. Christianity, like all religions, has never been without need for reform, and it has had its prophets who corrected its priests, many of these prophets were likewise often slaughtered by the priests for their pains.

Perversions, conversions and reversions have taken place all throughout the history of Christian church development. Of special interest and importance have been the conversions of some of those priests themselves from the practice and policies of the Roman church to a better and more enlightened interpretation of the teachings and ideals of Christ. The position, however, in which such a change places a priest is not an enviable one. By his own brother-priests and their faithful followers he is watchfully shunned and looked upon with dread and dismay. And so, wearied, broken-hearted and discouraged, he must often walk a loveless, friendless path
alone.

The lot of ministers and laymen of note who renounce their allegiance to Protestantism, on the other hand, is never as difficult. Their Protestant brethren merely "regret" their desertion to the Roman church. By papal propagandists they are lauded and welcomed-held up, indeed, as shining examples of spiritual heroism, and often loaded with honors. They are looked upon as "converts" of the only kind which the Roman church admits; they are praised for having "come back" from error to truth.

Since there are so few to praise or even defend the priest who leaves the Roman church, he must defend himself, at least state his own case truthfully before the world and his brethren, and leave it to them to fill the measure of praise or blame. A Protestant, whether he be clergyman or layman, can, with comparative ease at any time in his life, change his religious affiliation. Not so a Roman Catholic. A Protestant, in changing his religious views, has not to undergo an internal struggle with himself like a Roman Catholic. For Protestantism, happily, is not founded like Roman Catholicism upon any rigid creedal system, nor upon fixed human laws, nor upon a specialized code of metaphysics. It depends, primarily, upon the individual consecration of a life by personal prayer and worship.

Roman Catholicism, on the other hand, is something more than a church for prayer and worship. It is also a cleverly organized system of law, ritualistic emotionalism, and rigid doctrine. It is made to grip the entire life of its children, to root itself into their very bodies and souls. To break with it, therefore, in life requires the doing of violence to oneself. Something of oneself must be rooted out with it.

The avowed aim of the Roman church, as taught officially in its schools and universities, is to establish its own world politic of universal dominion over all churches and states. It begins with the individual from childhood's tenderest years. History tells us how near it succeeded in its design in the past in Europe. There was a time when all Europe could have been styled "the United States of the Papacy."

Cardinal Newman, for instance, was not influenced in mind by his change to Roman Catholicism. But he obtained a physical comfort from its ritual and color, and a sense of security from its corporate greatness. Mr. G. K. Chesterton, on the other hand, found in Roman Catholicism an opportunity to exercise his strange mind. It offered him a most fertile playground for his jumbled paradoxes. The very inconsistencies of the bewildering illogic of Roman philosophy and theology provided meat for his peculiar mental make-up. The fanciful topsy-turvyism of Roman Catholic history and teaching supplied him with abundant opportunity for mental gymnastic exercises. His paradoxes were, of course, a convenient substitute for defects of truth. The word "paradox" really means "sidestepping the truth." Protestant ministers who become Roman Catholic priests find ample scope and are given opportunity to obtain public notoriety. Often they make themselves sensationalists in order to obtain this notoriety. The Rev. Ronald Knox in England, after his change from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism, made himself the chief scaremonger about communism. He once set all the fire alarms clanging in London, and had all the police reserves rushed to emergency quarters, by broadcasting a sensational description of London in the control of the communists, as if it had already taken place.

No such scope is afforded the priest who turns away from the Roman Catholic priesthood. Special effort is made, in fact, to keep him from all contact with the public. He has to suffer the fate of "the prophet in his own country." No matter what his qualifications may be, he will not be heard with any grace. He must go about as a marked man, not unlike an ex-convict. He is advised, by whatever friends he may still have left, to hide his identity in order to earn his daily bread. The varied experience of my still young life should not be without benefit to my fellowmen, especially to my former co religionists. I have tested the worth of religion on three continents of the globe.

Dressed in crimson robes, I have ridden with cardinals in their luxurious limousines past the Swiss Guards at salute through the Damascus gate of the Vatican leading to the pontiff's private chamber's. I have watched while a pope died, saw him buried and his successor elected and crowned. I stood beside the late Pope Pius XI while Pope Benedict XV made him a cardinal by placing the quaint pancake hat on his head, myself holding up the long crimson train of another newly-made cardinal. I have studied the piety and the blasphemies of the people in many capitals of Europe. I have ministered as a priest, not only in magnificent cathedrals of Europe, but also in Dutch farm-houses on the wide African veldt and in tumble-down shacks of churches in the backwoods of Florida. I made my bed at night behind the mass altar of one such shack till a Florida hurricane came and swept the framework from its foundations, hurtling it several feet through the air.

I have shared the confidences of bishops and archbishops in America, and know how helpless they are made by the inexorable power of Roman Catholic church authority as exercised by the Jesuit Order. In expressing his true feelings against the machinations of the Jesuits in America and elsewhere, the late bishop of Buffalo once said bitterly to me: "I don't mind an enemy who will meet you face to face; but it is damnable when somebody comes behind you to stick a knife in your back!" I have heard with breaking heart the story of crushed hopes and the failure of boyhood ideals from priests whom I knew as bright and fervent students in seminary.

My conversion came about, not because of any lack of sentimentality or color in the religion of my boyhood, as in the case of Newman; nor from any desire to become a mental gymnast like Chesterton; nor in order to attract attention as a religious sensationalist like so many of Rome's converts. I have been truly actuated by a deep pity and sympathy for the mass of ordinary men deprived of the true light of Christianity by a priesthood, whose personnel are powerless to help even themselves.

My conversion comes at a time in the world's history when men are beginning to see how much the progress of the race has been hampered by the misuse of religion and God by ecclesiastical systems, greedy of the power which untold wealth and a large unenlightened following afford to those in high places. Men have now the freedom and scope to examine and hear about the inner working of things which before this were too fearfully sacred to be mentioned by the common people.

Many use that scope only to mock at and attempt to destroy what has only been misused by human greed. They wish to wipe out everything labelled "religion" because church powers have abused it. They would destroy God, if they could, because self-asserted church rulers have, without warrant, preached a God to the people who is unlike the God in Christ. In ceasing to minister as an official priest of such a church system, and in spite of the repudiation and social ostracism which I incurred by so doing, I have confidence that I can effectively lend a hand to convince all men of religion's worth.

Religion, as the professional piety of politically powerful church systems, can no longer serve the race in its present and future needs. In order to satisfy the nobler ideals now emerging, religion will have to be identified more and more with an honest life dictated, not by the bewildering illogic of dogmatic definitions, but by the urge of the individual conscience wherein abideth the true kingdom of God. It is with this aim in mind that I pen the simple story in the following pages of the bitter struggle of experiences which led me to break with the priesthood of the Roman church.