Page:John Feoktist Dudikoff - Beasts in Cassocks (1924).djvu/13



The clergy are puzzled and are seeking the cause for the people's ever-growing rebellion against priests and the Church.

From childhood on we were taught reverence for priests and the Church rites and sacraments. We were told that in order to reconcile our souls with ourselves, to purify the inner man in us, it was necessary to confess at least once a year, particularly before the Great Lent. We were told that at the confessional one could tell of his most secret sins and that the priest-confessor would rather die than betray what was confided to him at the confessional. We were also told that there was a Church canon, according to which a priest who betrayed the secrets of a confession would be prohibited from officiating at services, would be subject to public penance in a monastery, and would even be unfrocked. People, believing this, used to go to the confession to share with their spiritual Father the tormenting secrets of their hearts. This they did to obtain relief, to make peace with their souls.

At one time a rumor was circulated to the effect that a priest receiving a confession disclosing revolt against the Czar or against the Government, was under obligation to report this to the authorities. Little by little, the people grew cool to the confessional, and later on ceased "confessing" altogether. The priests, in order to compel people to come to confession, resorted to force. They summoned to their aid the police, the administration, etc. If a man did not come to confession for three years in succession, the Father or his deacon would come to him with threats. After that the police would be sent. The man would be dragged from one court to another, etc. All this used to take place in the "good" old, fortunately, never to return, time in Russia.

In America, our missionaries, in order to curry favor with the authorities, made it a point to find out, through the medium of the confessional, how much money one had, what his political views were,