"Now the Spirit speaketh expressly that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron; forbidding to marry, and commanding to abstain from meats, which God has created to be received with thanksgiving of them which believe and know the truth. For every creature of God is good, and nothing to be refused, if it be received with thanksgiving: for it is sanctified by the word of God and prayer." 1st Timothy 4:1, 5.
All my life I had lied in hypocrisy, not that I wanted to, but just what the Roman Catholic system had made of me by their hypocritical teachings, such as the "Johnny Morgan" story; and my conscience had been seared many, many times with a hot iron. Who forbids to marry but the Roman Catholic system? Who commands to abstain from eating meat but the Roman Catholic system on Fridays, ember days and during Lent?
The Protestant people that I came in contact with from time to time was not the class of people that the Roman Catholic system had pictured to me—they were refined, educated and, above all, charitable. I attended Protestant churches, and heard sermons preached from the Word of God according to Christ's teaching—with the man-made Latin mass missing.
At last, I learned that I was to be saved by faith and not by penance. "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ." Romans 5:1. I also learned that there was no mediator between God and man, except Jesus Christ as I have explained under the heading "Confession," and that if I would confess my sins to Him, He would forgive me and help me. So I gave myself to His keeping, and on Sunday, April 20, 1913, I was baptized into the Protestant faith—which was the happiest day of all my life.
The following Sunday I became a member of that church and have been a Protestant, not in name only, but in reality, ever since. God keep me strong in the faith.
I continued doing nursing for a livelihood. Some of my doctor friends gave me a few private cases, and I also was called on by some of the Protestant people I had become acquainted with to wait on them in sickness.
Several times I was asked to take obstetric (maternity) cases, but had to refuse them on account of the lack of training in this particular line. I have stated before that we were kept in ignorance in regard to this line of nursing at St. Vincent's Hospital. Finally, I decided that I would take a special course in obstetrics, and I spent about six months studying very hard. Now, remember, that I had spent eighteen years at St. Vincent's besides two more years in hospital work and yet I was not allowed to learn this very important branch of nursing, regardless of the fact that I had the maternity ward on my floor all the time I was superintendent, and was held responsible for any errors in the nursing of these cases.
Before very long the saying of "Father" Carti, "You will have trouble in the world," became very vivid to me. The boycott was working well. I remember one case I was called on, that of an old lady. She was very sick and needed care night and day. She had one nurse, but she could not work all the time. I worked only two days, when the other nurse, who was a Roman Catholic, went to the lady and told her that she could get along without me. This only came about after she learned that I had been a sister in the Roman Catholic sisterhood.
In this, and other cases, my qualifications as a nurse were not taken into consideration. It was only the fact that I had once been a Roman Catholic and sister, but was now a Protestant. Another incident of the boycott that will be very clear to my readers is that a prominent doctor, whose name is on my recommendation, told a nurse I was working with that she could not get any more cases as long as Sister Lucretia was working with her.
In many of the states there has been agitation about a law protecting ex-convicts from the boycott of the public, simply because he is an ex-convict. Let us also have a law for the protection of ex-nuns against the boycott of the Roman Catholic system and the public, simply because she is an ex-nun.