Take away honorable marriage from the priests, and what do you get in place of the bed undefiled? Read again that tremendous sentence of Saint Bernard, and then ask yourself, Has human nature changed?
A typical illustration of priestly seduction is the following:
"A lady of the name of Maria Catharine Barni, of Santa Croe, declared on her death-bed, that she had been seduced through the confessional, and that she had during twelve years maintained a continual intercourse with priest Pachiani. He had assured her that by means of the supernatural light which he had received from Jesus and the holy virgin, he was perfectly certain that neither of them was guilty of sin, &c." (Secrets of Female Convents, p. 58, cited by Elliott, Vol. II., p. 448.)
Substantially, that is the way every priest seduces every nun who yields to him.
Almost the very formula is mentioned in Dr. Justin D. Fulton's book which was submitted to Anthony Comstock, the modern Cato, before it was published. And Dr. Fulton asserts that Pope Pius IX. authorized this concubinage of priests with nuns, by a formal Vatican decree of 1866.
Dr. Fulton says—page 97 of "Why Priests Should Wed"—
"In the year 1866, Pope Pius IX. sanctioned the establishment of one of the most appalling institutions of immorality and wickedness ever countenanced under the form and garb of religion."
Briefly, this institution authorized priests and nuns who had been in service long enough to inspire confidence, to live in sexual relations, like man and wife. Dr. Fulton proceeds at length to describe how the priest selects his nun, how he makes his wishes known to her, how he quotes Scripture to overcome her scruples, how the "love room" is adorned with holy emblems and images, how the priest sprinkles holy water over the bed, how he then kneels and prays for a blessing on the union about to take place, and then——!
As I have said a number of times, Dr. Fulton submitted his manuscript to Anthony Comstock. The chaste Cato of New York, advised the omission of many passages; but the whole of this hideous chapter describing how Pope Pius IX. authorized the priests to make use of the nuns, sexually, appears in the book with sufficient clearness to lay it in parallel columns with the abominations of Sodom, Gomorrha, the White Slave Traffic, the Decameron, the Heptameron, and Balzac's Merry Tales of the Abbeys of Touraine.
Dr. Fulton's book was published in 1888. He was never prosecuted for that terrible charge against Pope Pius IX. He was never sued for libelling the priests and nuns. His charges were never officially denied.