"Quis, quid, ubi, quibus auxiliis, cur, quomodo, quando. Who, which, where, with whom, why, how, when." (Dens, vol. 6, p. 123. Liguori, vol. 2, p. 464.)
The celebrated book of the Priests, "The Mirror of the Clergy," page 357, says:
"Oportet ut Confessor solet cognoscere quid quid debet judicare. Deligens igitur inquisitor et subtilis investigator sapienter quasi astute interrogat a peccatore quod ignorat, vel verecundia volit occultare."
"It is necessary that the Confessor should know everything on which he has to exercise his judgment. Let him then, with wisdom and subtility, interrogate the sinners on the sins which he may ignore, or conceal through shame!"
The poor, unprotected girl is thus thrown into the power of the priest, soul and body, to be examined on all the sins she may ignore, or which, through shame, she may conceal! On what boundless sea of depravity the poor fragile bark is launched by the priest! On what bottomless abysses of impurities she will have to pass and travel, in company with the priest alone, before he will have interrogated her on all the sins she may ignore, and which she may have concealed through shame!! Who can tell the sentiments of surprise and shame and distress, of a timid, honest young girl, when, for the first time, she is initiated to infamies which are ignored even in houses of prostitution!!!
But such is the practice, the sacred duty of the spiritual physician. "Let him (the priest confessor) with wisdom and subtlety interrogate the sinner on the sins he may ignore or conceal with shame."
And there are 100,000 men, not only allowed, but petted, and often paid by the governments to do that, under the name of the God of the Gospel!
Fourthly, I answer to the sophism of the priest, When the physician has any delicate and dangerous operation to perform on a female patient, he is never alone; the husband, or the father, the mother, the sister, or some friends of the patient are there, whose scrutinizing eyes and attentive ears make it impossible for the physician to say or do any improper thing.
But, when the poor deluded spiritual patient comes to be treated by her so-called spiritual physician, and shows him her diseases, is she not alone—shamefully alone—with him? Where are the protecting ears of the husband, the father, the mother, the sisters, or the friends? Where is the barrier interposed between this sinful, weak, tempted, and often depraved man and his victim?
Would the priest so freely ask this and that from that married woman, if he knew that the husband could hear him? No, surely not; for he is well aware that the enraged husband would blow out the brains of the villain who, under the sacrilegious pretext of purifying the soul of his wife, is filling her honest heart with every kind of pollution and infamy.