When alone with him, I said: “My lord, I thank you for your kindness in allowing me to unburden my heart to you. I have passed the most horrible night of my life. Temptations against our holy religion such as I never had before, have assailed me all night. Your lordship remembers the kind words you addressed to me, yesterday, about the sermon I preached. But, last night, very different things came to my mind, which have changed the joys of yesterday into the most unspeakable desolation. You congratulated me, yesterday, on the manner I had proved that Jesus had always granted the request of His mother, and that He cannot refuse any of her petitions. The whole night it has been told to me that this was a blasphemous lie, and from the Holy Scriptures themselves, I have been nearly convinced that you and I, nay, that our holy church, are preaching a blasphemous falsehood every time we proclaim the doctrines of the worship of Mary as the gospel truth.”
The poor bishop, thunderstruck by this simple and honest declaration, quickly answered: “I hope you have not yielded to these temptations, and that you will not become a Protestant as so many of your enemies whisper to each other.”
“It is my hope, my lord, that our merciful God will keep me, to the end of my life, a dutiful and faithful priest of our holy church. However, I cannot conceal from your lordship that my faith was terribly shaken, last night.
“As a bishop, your portion of light and wisdom must be greater than mine. I hope you will grant me some of the lights which still brightly shine before your eyes: I have never been so much in need of the counsels of your piety and the help of your spiritual knowledge as to-day. Please help me to come out from the intellectual slough in which I spent the night.
“Your lordship has congratulated me for having said that Jesus Christ has always granted the petitions of Mary. Please tell me how you reconcile that proposition with this text,” and I handed him the gospel of Matthew: pointing to the last five verses of the twelfth chapter, I requested him to read them aloud.”
He read them and said: “Now what do you want from me?”
“My lord, I want respectfully to ask you how can we say that Jesus has always granted the requests of His mother, when this evangelist tells us that He never granted her petitions, when acting in His capacity of Saviour of the world.
“Must we not fear that we proclaim a blasphemous falsehood when we support a proposition directly opposed to the gospel?”
The poor bishop seemed absolutely confounded by this simple and honest question. I also felt confused and sorry for his humiliation. Beginning a phrase, he would give it up; trying arguments, he could not push to their conclusion. It seemed to me that he had never read that text, or if he had read it, he, like myself and the rest of the priests of Rome, had never noted that they entirely demolish the stupendous impostures of the church in reference to the worship of Mary.
In order to help him out of the inextricable difficulties into which I had once pushed him, I said: “My lord, will you allow me to put a few more questions to you?”