Bible Burning In The United States!
To the best of our knowledge, it is not being done publicly at the present time, but the sketch accompanying this article depicts an artist's conception of an instance of Roman Catholic Bible burning at Champlain, New York, on October 27, 1842.
We copy from Dowling's History of Romanism:
"The following account of this sacrilegious outrage is from an official statement of facts, signed by four respectable citizens appointed as a committee for that purpose.
"'About the middle of October, a Mr. Telmont, a missionary of the Jesuits, with one or more associates, came to Corbeau in this town, where the Catholic Church is located, and as they say in their own account given of their visit, 'by the direction of the bishop of Montreal.' On their arrival they commenced protracted meeting, which lasted several weeks, and great numbers of Catholics from this and the other towns of the county attended day after day. After the meeting had progressed several days, and the way was prepared for it, an order was issued requiring all who had bibles or testaments, to bring them in to the priest, or lay them at the feet of the missionaries. The requirement was generally complied with, and day after day bibles and testaments were carried in; and after a sufficient number was collected, they were burned. By the confession of Telmont, as appears from the affidavit of S. Hubbell, there were several burnings, but only one in public. On the 27th day of October, as given in testimony at the public meeting held there, Telmont, who was a prominent man in all the movements, brought out from the house of the resident priest, which is near the church, as many bibles as he could carry in his arms at three times, and placed them in a pile, in the open yard, and then set fire to them and burned them to ashes. This was done in open day, and in the presence of many spectators
"In the affidavit of S. Hubbell, Esq., above alluded to, who is a respectable lawyer of the place, it is stated that the President of the Bible Society, in company with Mr. Hubbell, waited upon the priests, and requested that inasmuch as the bibles had been given by benevolent societies, they should be returned to the donors and not destroyed; to which the Jesuit priest, perhaps with less cunning than usually belongs to his order, coolly replied, that 'they had burned all they had received, and intended to burn all they could get."
QUESTION: Does Roman Catholicism change?