Statements of a Former Priest on How to Lose Your Country

Statements of a Former Priest
Posted by: Nelson Turner in Uncategorized

STATEMENTS OF WILLIAM HOGAN, ESQUIRE, EX-PRIEST OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH AND CHAMPION OF AMERICAN FREEDOM

Hogan was active in the early to mid 1800’s and produced one of the most spiritual and violently verbose works about Popery. Possessed with knowledge and a view only an insider of the Catholic Church could have, Hogan gave repeated warnings to the nation of the bondage and moral corruption to come if the influence of Rome was not stopped. “He being dead yet speaketh.”

(From POPERY, AS IT WAS AND AS IT IS, AND AURICULAR CONFESSION AND POPISH NUNNERIES, published 1855 in Hartford by Silas Andrus and Son.)

“The continuance of Popery depends upon this country alone. Extinguish it in the United States, and it dies everywhere. The old world is sick of it; it has cursed it long enough. It is for us alone to say whether it shall live or die. Americans alone can sound the death knell of Popery…” Page 91

“The result of my experience is, that the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church are fatal to the morals of any people; at variance with sound national policy and pure religion. It is a rank and poisonous weed, which will flourish even in the soil of liberty. Would that I could eradicate it! Would that you would enable me to tear up this Upas, which is spreading its poison from one end of our land to the other! Would that you could aid me in muzzling those Popish bloodhounds, who are freely coursing over our eastern mountains and western valleys! Already they have scented blood, and I warn you to be on your guard or they will scent more.” Page 108

“He who argues with Catholic priests must have had his education with them; he must be of them and from among them. He must know, from experience, that they will stop at no falsehood where the good of the church is concerned; he must know that they will scruple at no forgery when they desire to establish any point of doctrine, fundamental or non-fundamental, which is taught by their church; he must be aware that it is a standing rule with Popish priests, in all their controversies with Protestants, to admit nothing and deny everything, and that, if driven into difficulty, they will have recourse to the archives of the church, where they keep piles of decretals, canons, rescripts, bulls, excommunications, interdicts, and c., ready for all emergencies; some of them dated three hundred to a thousand years before they were written or even thought of; showing more clearly, perhaps, than anything else, the extreme ignorance of mankind between the third and ninth centuries, when most of these forgeries were palmed upon the world. With the aid of these miserable forgeries, they attempt to prove, among other things, that the divine right of the Pope to the sovereignty of this world was acknowledged by the fathers of the church, in the earliest days of Christianity.” Page 10-11.

“A state of things may arise in this country, when its executive may be a Papist, its judiciary Papists, and a majority of its population may be Papists. These things are not beyond the range of possibility; and are you sure that your own descendants, and those of the pilgrim fathers, may not, one day or other, give this republic as a free gift to the head of the Papal church? You are strong-so was Rome. Your power now is irresistible-so was that of Rome and other countries. Your arms are invincible-so were those of Rome. You are now distinguished all over the world, for your progress in the arts and sciences; the world looks to you as models of patriotism and pure republicanism-so did the world once look at Rome. But what is Rome now, and what drove her from the high position she once occupied? I will tell you-the intrigues of the Popish church. And a similar fate awaits you, unless you cut off all connection, of whatever name, between the citizens of the United States and the Church of Rome. While this sink of iniquity breathes, it will carry with it destruction and death wherever it goeth.” Pages 14, 15.

“The history of the Popes, in all ages, shows that they never abandon any temporal or spiritual authority to which they lay claim; and had they the power of enforcing it now, they would exact from this country the same obedience which they did in the most benighted days of the middle ages.” Page 21.

“The Pope is a temporal prince. Like other kings and princes, he should never be permitted to meddle, directly or indirectly, temporally or spiritually, with this country. He should not be permitted to appoint bishop or priest to any church, diocese, living or office in the United States. The Pope’s bulls, rescripts, letters & c. should not be published or read from any pulpit this side the Atlantic; and though Roman Catholics should not be prevented from the free exercise of their religion, they should be compelled to do so without reference to foreign dictation. If they must have a Pope, let him be an American, and sworn to support our Constitution. Let him, and all Roman Catholics, be denied the right of voting, or of holding any office of honor, profit, or trust, until they forswear all allegiance, in spiritual as well as temporal affairs, to all foreign potentates and Popes. Until this is done, an oath of allegiance to this government, by a Roman Catholic, is entitled to no credit, and should not be received. This will appear evident to Americans, if they will turn their attention for a moment to the following oath, which is taken by every Romish bishop, before he is permitted to officiate, as such, in any of these United States: “I do solemnly swear, on the holy evangelist, and before Almighty God, to defend the domains of St. Peter against every aggressor; to preserve, augment, and extend the rights, honors, privileges, and powers of the LORD POPE, and his successors; to observe, and with all my might enforce, his decrees, ordinances, reservations, provisions, and all dispositions whatever, emanating from the COURT OF ROME; to persecute and combat, to the last extremity, heretics, schematics, all who will not pay to the sovereign pontiff all the obedience which the sovereign shall require.”

“While this oath is obligatory upon Romish bishops, they are not to be trusted. They should not be permitted to interfere, directly or indirectly, with the institutions, laws, or ordinances of any Protestant country. Their oaths should not be taken in courts of justice; their followers, every one of whom is bound by a similar oath of allegiance, should be excluded from our grand juries, from our petit juries, but more especially from the halls of legislation; for wherever and whenever the supposed interest of the Pope clashes with that of the civil authority, or even with the administration of reciprocal justice, a Papist, under the control of his bishop, will not hesitate to sacrifice the good of the country, the interest, life, and prosperity of his fellow being, for the good of the church. Of the truth of this, history abounds with examples, and Popish writers are replete with authorities.” Pages 22-23.

“Pope Boniface VIII says, “It is necessary to salvation that all Christians be subject to the Pope.” Bzovius, an orthodox Roman Catholic writer, whose authority no bishop or priest will venture to question, says of the Pope-“He is judge in heaven, and in all earthly jurisdiction supreme; he is the arbiter of the world.” Moscovius, another eminent Popish writer, informs us that, “God’s tribunal and The Pope’s tribunal are one and the same.”” Page 44

“Judge you, Americans, what safety there is for your republic, while you support and sustain among you a sect numbering two millions, who are sworn to uphold such doctrines as the foregoing. The very domestics in your houses are spies for the priests. Nothing transpires under your own roofs which is not immediately known to the bishop or priest to whom your servants confess.” Page 45

“Such is the avarice of the Popish church and Popish tyrants, that, if a farmer in Cuba kills even a beef for his own use, he must pay the government ten percent upon its value…..Do Americans desire this republic reduced to such a state of vassalage as this? Or will you profit by those lessons, which experience is daily teaching you? Wherever you turn your eyes, and see Popery in the ascendant, you will find it in the Pandora’s box, out of which every curse has issued, without even leaving hope behind. It should therefore be suppressed on its appearance in any country. It should be the duty of every good man to extirpate it, and sweep it, if possible, from the face of the globe. It is nothing better than a political machine, cunningly devised, for the propagation of despotism. It is the masterpiece of satanic wickedness. Execrated and exploded be this infernal machine! And thanks forever be to that God, who has shown me it intricacies, in time to save me from becoming what, I know of my own knowledge, what Roman Catholic priests are-hypocrites, infidels, and licentious debauchees, under the mask of sanctity and holiness. Their religion is supported by curses; as I have before stated, and will prove form the doctrines of their own church.” Page 64

“The Popish priests never deemed it prudent to pronounce this curse publicly, in the United States, but while I was among them, we never omitted to do so privately, on the morning of Thursday before Good Friday. It commences with the following words on the part of the Pope:- “We, therefore, following the ancient custom of our predecessors, of holy memory, do firstly-excommunicate, and curse, in the name of Almighty God, Father, son, and Holy Ghost, and by the authority of St. Peter and St. Paul, and by our own authority, all Heretics, Hussites, Wickliffites, Lutherans, Calvinists, Huguenots, Anabaptists, Trinitarians, and all apostates from the faith, and all who read their books,” etc., etc. This curse includes every soul in the United States, who is not a Roman Catholic. Will you, Americans, give these men and their doctrines footing among you? Will they longer dare to curse you and your children with impunity?” Page 74

“I would again ask Americans whether Roman Catholic priests, or bishop, or the two millions of followers which they have in this country, are any longer to be trusted. I tell Americans, and I proclaim to the world, that they are spies upon our republic; they are the sworn foes of our laws, of our principles, and of our government; and they are untied by the most fearful oath never to rest while our religious liberty lasts, and to use every means which ingenuity can devise, and treachery and perjury can accomplish, to effect it overthrow, and substitute in its place, the religion of the Pope; a religion, if such a name can be given to a most infamous system of policy, which for sixteen hundred years has deluged Europe in blood.” Page 75-76

“This is the church, and her members are the men, whom you are countenancing among you. The Romish church never surrendered the right which she once claimed of destroying heretics. She only suspends it for the moment, until her strength and numbers shall enable her to enforce it. But there are some who will not believe this, especially when Catholic priests and bishops deny it. Many Protestants, who are natives of this country, and unacquainted with Roman Catholic doctrines, will not believe it. Many, even, of our Protestant clergymen will scarcely believe it: such is the craft and consummate falsehood of priests and bishops, that I have never met with one Protestant who entertained the most remote idea that keeping no faith with heretics, and persecuting them to death, formed any portion of the doctrine of the church of Rome.” Page 85

“The persecution and destruction of heretics, and the confiscation of their property, is an integral part of the Roman Catholic faith, and the watchword of Papists.” Page 89

“It was during this century, that the “GREATER EXCOMMUNICATION,” as it is called, was pronounced by the Pope, and the whole church, against all who should interfere with the clergy in the exercise of their temporal and spiritual rights. The curse was pronounced, by every parish priest, throughout the Papal year,-Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and All-Hallows day. The curse is in the following words, and is now repeated on the same days, by the Pope and all priests and bishops of the Romish church, not publicly, that they dare not do,-but in private. “Let them be accursed, eating and drinking, walking and sitting, speaking, and holding their peace, waking and sleeping, rowing and riding, laughing and weeping, in house and in field, in water and on land, in all places; cursed be their heads and their thoughts, their eyes and their ears, their tongues and their lips, their teeth and their throats, their shoulders and their breasts, their feet and their legs, their thighs and their inward parts; let them remain accursed, from the sole of the foot to the crown of their heads; and just as this candle (the curser has a lighted candle in his hand, which he extinguishes) is deprived of it present light, so let them be deprived of their souls in hell.” Page 94

“And as the Bible reading and Bible loving people now constitute a vast majority of our citizens, I call upon them to rise in the full force of their moral power and ward off from themselves and their children, the curse of Popery, or the fate of Wickliffe and his followers will most assuredly be theirs. Many of you Americans are followers of Wickliffe. You believe as he believed! You live as he lived! You love peace as he loved it. Do you wish to continue as you are now? Or, will you permit a flood of vile priests, monks, and nuns, to overrun your country, and seduce your children from the paths of virtue, in which your own example and the perusal of their bibles has aught them to walk?” Page 103

“The same power which authorizes them to officiate as priests empowers them to destroy heretics, whenever it is expedient; and is ready to absolve them from the commission of this foul deed. Thomas Aquinas, in his second book, chapter the third, page 58, says; “Heretics may justly be killed.” Page 112

“We know, from history, that Popery and liberty cannot co-exist in the same country. A Popish government has never advanced human happiness. It never promotes any object truly great or philanthropic. How deplorable would it be, did this country fall a prey to those who are trying to establish it among us. The truth is, Popish glory, the trappings of its court, have always been the silly objects of the Roman church, while the mass of her people has ever been left in the recesses of want, obscurity, and ignorance.
Americans, at present, seem sunk in a sort of political lethargy; and this taken advantage of, by foreign priests and Jesuits; but I would tell those disturbers of our peace, not to trust too much to this apparent sluggishness; a calm often proceeds a storm; the continued insolence, abuses, and threats of Papists, may arose a young lion, and, if I mistake it not-although appearances are at present against it-His HOLINESS and his minions, who are trying to set up a power in this country unknown to our constitution, and not enumerated in our bill of rights, may have occasion to tremble.
To effect this, however, without the shedding of blood, it is necessary-indispensably necessary- that no papist should hold office, or even vote, until he ceases to have any connection, or hold any alliance with the Pope, who is a foreign potentate, as well as head of the church. Let them come amongst us, if they will, but let it be with healing on their wings, and not to disturb our peace and tranquility. Let them prove themselves the friends of liberty, religion, and mankind, and Americans will receive them with open arms, admit them to a full participation in their own privileges, and extend to them the hand of friendship; but never let this be done, until they forswear expressly and without mental reservation, all allegiance, of whatever kind, and under whatever name, to the Pope of Rome, who is a foreign potentate, and acknowledged as such by the powers of Europe. When a Papist refuses to do this, trust him not. I repeat it, trust him not, Americans. He is a spy amongst you, a traitor to your country, and the sworn enemy of your religion and your liberties.”