II. On The Relative Morality Of Catholic And Protestant Countries.
It has been gravely asserted that the confession of sin and the doctrine of absolution tend to the spread of crime and immorality. Statistics are produced to show that murder and illegitimate [pg 370] births are largely in excess in countries under Catholic influence, and that this prevalence of wickedness is the result of confession and easy absolution.
If our system of absolving those only who both repent and confess leads to laxity of morals, how much more must the Protestant system, which omits that which is most humiliating and admits the sinner to reconciliation on condition of mere interior dispositions? As all our catechisms teach, and as every Catholic knows, there is no pardon of sin without sorrow of heart and purpose of amendment. It is a great mistake to suppose that the most ignorant Catholic believes he can procure the pardon of his sins by simply confessing them without being truly sorry for them. The estimate which so many Protestants set on the virtue of even the lower classes of Roman Catholics is clearly enough evinced in the preference which they constantly manifest in their employment of Catholics—practical Catholics—Catholics who go to confession. I maintain, therefore, that confession, far from being an incentive to sin, as our adversaries have the hardihood to affirm, is a most powerful check on the depravity of men and a most effectual preventive of their criminal excesses.
But is it true that crimes, especially murder and illegitimacy, are more prevalent in Catholic than in Protestant countries? I utterly deny the assertion, and also appeal to statistics in support of the denial. Whence do our opponents derive their information? Forsooth, from Rev. M. Hobart Seymour's “Nights Among Romanists” and similar absolutely unreliable compilations, the false statements of which have been again and again refuted.
Rev. Mr. Seymour gives the following list of the number of murders in England, France and Ireland:
Ireland: 19 homicides to the million of inhabitants
France: 31
England: 4
The reader of the above might well draw back in astonishment and exclaim, “Truly moral atmosphere of England!” But how do these statements compare with the official records which I submit to the unprejudiced reader? Recent returns from the “Hand-Book” for France, and “Thom's Official Directory for England and Ireland, 1869,” are as follows:
| Convictions (and sentences to death). | Executions. | |
| 1864.--France | 9 | 5 |
| 1867.--England and Wales | 27 | 10 |
| Ireland | 3 | 0 |
These figures, which are from authenticated sources, do not bear out our accusers in their assertion that murders are more prevalent in Catholic than in Protestant countries. The statistics of this crime are limited, or they are not in very general circulation. But we have more extensive information in reference to the other great crime which, it is charged, prevails to a much more alarming extent in countries under Catholic influence, viz., illegitimacy. Here again we shall meet statistics with counter-statistics to refute unjust declarations. We do not wish to be understood as advocating the immaculateness of Catholic communities. We frankly admit and heartily deplore the disorders which Catholics commit, but we deny that they are worse than their Protestant neighbors; and still more emphatically do we deny [pg 372] that the Church is responsible for their disorders.