Excerpt from The Confessional: What It Is Not, What It IsIt is a matter of no little surprise with what alacrity non Catholics speak Ofthe achievements of the Church. They are willing. To look down the vista of ages and in the light of history to accord to the Church the civilizing and christainizing of every tribe, people and nation that npw has or ever had the light of faith. The preservation of the Sacred Scriptures and the ancient classic literature from the de vastating hand of the northern barbarians that swept Europe, leaving but ruin and destruction in their wake, is readily attributed to the Catholic Church. There is nothing but praise for that Church which gave birth to the ancient republics of Venice, Genoa, Florence and Pisa, and which gave to the world the universities of Rome, Florence, Padua, Louvain, Salamanca, Paris, Oxford and hundreds of others of lesser note. They are loud in praise of a religibn that made the marble breathe, the organ Sing, the canvas speak and the cold ca thedral stones glorify God. They love to dwell upon the Church's charity, which, like that of her divine Master, knows no person, no people, no nation, but the world over, in the hospitals, asylums, plague-stricken districts, on the battle-field, amidst shot and shell, among the dying and dead, her gentle hand is felt, her sympathetic voice is heard and her hopeful smile is soul-inspiring. In a word, the Church's glories are discussed with as much warmth and admiration by non-catholics of intelligence as by some of her own sons, while her doctrines are spoken of in no disparaging tone, but seemingly for the purpose of being better understood. There is one doctrine, how ever, one subject which they do not wish to hear or discuss and this is the sacrament of penance or, as they are want to call it, the4. The confessional.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.