Bq 

Helen Conrog 
(Sister Marg Ethel) 

AGORA PUBLISHING CO. 

2 2 9 Wes t 4 8 t h St reet - New York 19, N . Y . 







What they say 

About this book 

The Los Angeles Times 
says: 

"Her appeal is to the 
American people for a 
New Deal for the For-
gotten Women in Con-
vents." 

The Christian Century says: 
"Her book contains no 
scandals about convents, 
but is a calm, candid 
and critical examination 
of the conventual insti-
tution on the basis of 
experience and a study 
of Roman Catholic au-
thorities and canon law. 
It asks questions, an-
swers them, and proves 
the answers." 

By 

Helen Conroy 
(Sister Mary Ethel) 

women— 
üt @o*t#e*tti. 

Price $1.25 
Oraer from 

AGORA PUBLISHING CO., Dept. 1ZH 
120 Liberty St. New York 6, N.Y. 







FORGOTTEN WOMEN 
(IN CONVENTS) 

by 

HELEN CONROY 
(Sister Mary Ethel) 

AGORA PUBLISHING CO. 

229 W. 48th Street 
New York 19, N. Y. 

$1.25 



Copyright, By Agora Publishing Co. 
Second Printing, 1946 

All rights reserved 
Including Foreign Countries 

PRINTED IN THE U . S . A . 









1 

Buddhist Nun Praying on Her Rosary Beads 
Note the shaved head. The Buddhist convent system ante-dated 
the Roman Catholic system of pious slavery of women by more 
than 500 years. 





Taking the Veil 
Actual photo of the ceremony of the taking of the 'white veil' at the 
Novitiate, or Mother House, in Marseilles, France, of the Order of St. 
Joseph of the Apparition, to which the author belonged. 



SISTER MARY ETHEL, born Helen Conroy in Waterford, Ire-land, in 1890, was the youngest of a family of fifteen. She 
received her primary education there in the National (public) 
schools and later in the convent school of the Visitation Nuns in 
her native city. 

After leaving school she went to Lancashire, England, and was 
employed as assistant to an older sister of hers who was house-
keeper to Father Burke, Roman Catholic priest of the parish of 
St. Mary's in Bolton. While there she came under the influence 
of one of the priests, Father Dohman, a native of Dusseldorf, Ger-
many. He was 42; she not quite 18. By him she was led to enter 
the convent of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition in Man-
chester, England. Later she took the white veil and the black veil 
and made her three vows in the Mother House of the Order in 
Marseilles, France. 

Immediately after her profession she was sent to the convent 
of the Order in Mandalay, Burma, and taught school there for 
seven years. After much internal struggle and heartache she re-
volted against both the heartless deception practiced upon her by 
her priest adviser and the slavery of convent life. She left and 
came to the United States on a passport issued by Sir Harcourt 
Butler, Governor of Burma. In her own words, she "evolved from 
being a 'God-wife' to being a 'real wife,' a happy mother, and a 
loyal American citizen." 

"He who fights with priests may make up his mind to have his 
poor good name torn and befouled by the most infamous lies and 
the most cutting slanders." —Heine 



ADDENDA 

Holy See. . . . office of the Pope in Rome 

Ordinary . . local bishop 

Discreet . trusty, a spy in the convent 

Exempt . . . not under jurisdiction of local bishop 

houselling . . communion 

juridical . . . legal 

enclosure . . closed to public, part of convent where 
none can enter without special permission, and 
none can enter alone. 

De Profundis ("Out of the Depths"). . . Latin hymn sung 
at funerals, at professions of nuns, etc., the song of 
the dead. 

Canon Law . . Catholic law 



T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S 

Page 

INTRODUCTION 1 3 

CHAPTER I. 

W H Y GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 2 1 

CHAPTER II. 

H O W CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 3 2 

CHAPTER III. 

VOCATIONS 4 5 

CHAPTER IV. 

AGE FOR ENTERING A CONVENT 6 1 

CHAPTER V. 

T H E VEIL AND THE VOWS 7 3 

CHAPTER VI. 

ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT? 8 9 

CHAPTER VII. 

HISTORY OF CONVENTS: A N E W CODE FOR NUNS. I l l 



This modest work is dedicated to the workers of the world. 
And all labor on it has been done in a shop that is fair to 
labor. 

"All truth is safe and nothing else is safe; he who keeps 
back the truth, or witholds it from men, from motives of 
expediency, is either a coward or a criminal, or both."— 
Max Muller 



INTRODUCTION 

PUBLIC OPINION when aroused, is the most potent, most powerful force of civilization. It demands its codes, its 
creeds, its laws, and indeed its very form of government. 

Basically it has the consciousness of right—right, as civilization 
has created it. Unfortunately, it is prey to political mongers, re-
ligious heirarchies, seeking to mould it to their wills, to the injury, 
yes, often to the very destruction of liberty itself. 

Only a short while back, public opinion was shocked, after ex-
tensive investigation, to find that children in workshops were la-
boring under conditions unequalled in the annals of human de-
pravity. It forced the passage of laws to protect these poor victims 
of greed. Henceforth, these workers in the mills will have recourse 
to the strong arm of the civil law to protect them from wanton 
exploitation. 

How different with the sisters and nuns in convents! For them 
there is no light of public opinion to intercede for their emanci-
pation. Confined behind gray walls where the light of love for 
humanity never penetrates; imaginary brides of Christ; slaves of 
the Catholic Church; kept in ignorance of the world; taught to 
hate their parents, and driven to drudgery and begging under the 
whiplash of the priests, they are doomed to live out a miserable, 
hopeless existence. For them the civil law does not exist. They are 
indeed "Forgotten Women," penniless slaves at the complete 
mercy of the law of the church of Rome. 

On page 79 of his Canon Law of the Papal Throne, Judge Gil-
bert Nations says: 

"Under the claim that it is a perfect society, divinely constituted 
and deriving all its prerogatives from God THROUGH THE 
POPE, the Roman Hierarchy prohibits any effort to subject any 



1 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

prelate or priest to the jurisdiction of civil courts. That prohibition 
is expressed in Canon 102 which Woywood translates into Eng-
lish in part in these words: 

"All cases against clerics, both civil and criminal, must be brought Into 
the ecclesiastical court, unless for some countries other provisions have 
been made. 

Cardinals, Legates of the Holy See, bishops, even the titular ones, 
abbots and prelates Nullius, the supreme heads of religious bodies ap-
proved by Rome, the major officials of the Roman Curia in reference to 
business belonging to their office, cannot be sued in the secular courts 
without permission of the Holy See. All others, clerics and religious, 
who enjoy the privilege of the forum, cannot be sued in a civil court 
without permission of the ordinary (bishop) of the place where the case 
is to be tried. The Ordinary, however, should not refuse such permis-
sion, if the suitor be a lay person, especially after his attempts to reach 
an agreement have failed. . 

Thousands of prelates, a quarter of a million priests, and scores of 
thousands of 'religious' of the papal government encircle the earth; vast 
numbers of them enjoy the rights of citizenship in nearly every country. 
Such rights are totally incompatible with the exemption from civil 
authority which the canon law accords to them. Though bound by para-
mount ties to the Pontifical throne, and subject to canon or Catholic 
law which they regard as divinely enacted, and which sets aside the 
whole doctrine of popular sovereignty, they enjoy protection and the 
ballot under the very law from which they claim absolute exemption. 

A hundred enthroned prelates, about thirty-six thousand priests, and 
more than two hundred religious orders of men and women, with a vast 
aggregate membership, are in the United States. Thousands of them 
are employed as teachers in the public schools which their law con-
demns. Many hold public office of great responsibility and power. This 
condition merits the serious concern of all good citizens." 

The charges made in this little volume are not new. They are 
as old as the convent system itself, having been repeated in every 
age of the church all over the world. Many now living will recall 
the sensation created by the secession from Rome of the cultured 
convert, Sister Mary Frances Clare Cusack, Mother General of the 



INTRODUCTION 15 

Sisters of Peace. Thoroughly disillusioned, this charming onetime 
nun wrote in her autobiography. The Nun of Kenmare: 

"No doubt Injustices are practiced by members of Protestant 
churches, but they who suffer have at least the protection of the 
strong arm of the law, and of public opinion. 

If I had not been a Roman Catholic sister I could have taken an 
action for defamation of character or libel against any of my 
accusers. As a Roman Catholic sister I could not do this, no matter 
of what I might be accused. Surely when the higher ecclesiastical 
powers are protected on every side from their subjects, they should 
use no ordinary justice, not to say mercy, in the exercise of their 
irresponsible power." 

Mother Mary Frances Clare tells us further: 

"In the Church of Rome evil is concealed, and exposure prevented, 
under the most severe penalties. The man who dares to speak is put 
under a ban and is condemned for 'attacking the church.' A man 
might as justly be condemned for attacking the government because 
he denounced violations of the law. Yet if the evil done in the church 
is shielded and concealed, so much the worse for the church. But if 
the evil is a blot on the church, why does the church condemn those 
who denounce it? But if the faults are condemned, those who do 
the evil must be condemned also, and if the church allowed this she 
must denounce some of her most exalted children." 

On page 404, she says: 

"The Roman Catholic church points with pride to her charitable 
institutions, and the world, too, often, taking such statements at her 
own valuation, looks on and applauds and envies this magnificent 
organization. But how little of the truth is known. The crushing hand 
of ecclesiastical despotism stifles every cry of suffering or complaint. 
How then Is the world, how is even the Roman Catholic world, to 
know the facts as they are? There is also a certain romance, and I 
use the word in its best sense, about a convent life, and while there 
is so much hard and painful fact in this poor world of ours, we do 
not like to be disillusioned, or have our little glimpses of heaven 
taken away from us." 



1 6 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

I know that Roman Catholics will cry out with indignation, and 
Protestants will be surprised, when I say that the sisterhoods of 
the Roman Catholic church have often succeeded, not because of 
the help of the church, but in the face of its determined, and I 
may say, often cruel opposition. 

I give proof of what I assert. Facts may be explained away and 
glossed over, but they remain facts all the same. Let the reader 
take up the life of the founder or foundress of any religious order 
and read it, and the truth of what I say will be made apparent. 
And let it be carefully noted that the lives of the saints are not 
written by Protestants, nor by enemies of the Roman Catholic 
church. They are written mostly by priests, who, for the most part, 
would naturally be anxious to conceal all those things, and who 
do conceal as much as possible. 

It is probable that the world would never be allowed to know 
one word of the Roman Catholic persecution of its own saints, if 
it were not that a divine Providence has so ordered it, so that at 
least some facts must be known. 

In order to obtain the canonization of a saint, it is necessary to 
prove that he or she has practiced virtue in what is called an 
"heroic degree." Hence, it becomes necessary for the promoter of 
a cause for canonization to tell at least some of the sufferings' 
which have been borne by the person to be canonized. Thus the 
truth, or at least some truth, comes out. 

What a sad record these lives are. A man or a woman, priest 
or nun, is, according to the teachings of the Roman Catholic 
church, inspired by God to do the noblest work that man or 
woman can do. He or she gives up all life's pleasures, all human 
natural interests, and all hope of personal advantage. They devote 
their existence to the poor of Jesus Christ. Might it not be sup-



INTRODUCTION 1 7 

posed that words of hope and encouragement and comfort be 
given them by the ministers of their church ? Might it not be sup-
posed that they would be at least tolerated? But no, persecution 
of the most unwarrantable kind follows them, for the most part, 
to the grave, and when there is no longer need of human comfort, 
or that spiritual comfort which is their right as children of the 
church, they are suddenly resuscitated for port-mortem honors and 
post-mortem applause. If indeed they are saints and with God, 
with what pity must they look down on this folly. They have their 
reward in the eternal sunshine of their God. They have their hon-
ors in His praise, and His praise is unchangeable. And now the 
infallible successors of the infallible men who made their lives a 
long weariness, turn and find out they were saints, and fall down 
and worship them. 

It is time for the children of the Roman Catholic church to 
awaken from their slumbers, to see themselves as God sees them. 
It is time that they should take the bandage from their eyes, and 
the deafness from their ears. 

If these founders and foundresses of religious orders were in-
deed saints, what were the men who persecuted them? 

Is there any justification, human or divine, for the sufferings 
that were inflicted on them? It is useless to say that what they 
suffered made them saints. Does that justify those who inflicted 
the sufferings ? 

Yet, in all these biographies it is usual, or perhaps obligatory, 
to make excuses for the ecclesiastical persecutors, by saying that 
they were good men, well intentioned, and that what they did was 
for the best. 

Now, this argument would pass, perhaps, for fallible people; 
but in this case, be it noted well, we have to do with those who 



1 8 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

claim in an especial manner to be divinely inspired guides. I am 
not saying that individual priests or bishops claim a personal in-
fallibility for all their acts, but this claim of infallibility has be-
come so curiously elastic that it can be stretched or contracted at 
pleasure. Besides, they act for an infallible church. 

The question of convent inspection has from time to time been 
raised both here in America and abroad. Convent inspection will 
not help the sisters nor in any way reform the system. France, Italy, 
Germany, Spain and Mexico would have adopted inspection if it 
would have solved the problem. Mother Mary Frances says on 
this point: 

"I wish to remove the impression which prevailed at one time 
in England that there would be any benefit to sisters in convent 
inspection. At one time there was a regular rage on the subject in 
England. It was supposed that there were a number of sisters de-
tained against their will in convents, who would be thankful for 
release. 

"A sister is as free to leave a convent as she was to enter it, 
from one point of view. She is bound in another and a very pain-
ful way, but no convent inspection could help her. I am saying 
this because I firmly believe that there will be a reaction against 
the Roman church in America unless there is a reform in that 
church, which its past history does not lead us to hope for. 

"A church which claims infallibility in all its doings as well 
as in all its doctrines, will neither listen to a cry for needed re-
forms nor avert calamity. It will not even learn from history. Al-
ready there are signs of the beginning of the end, if only those 
who could avert evils by reading them aright would read them." 

More than fifty years have gone by since this pitiful story of 
persecution of sisters and nuns in convents by priests was penned 



INTRODUCTION 1 9 

by a nun, whose heart was broken and whose splendid work for 
the illiterate Irish was wrecked. But the same condition exists— 
will exist—for Rome, the infallible church of the infallible popes, 
does not change. 

We need not, therefore, look to the church of Rome for any 
amelioration of the condition of the inmates in its convents. 

For those whose hands are tied by the infamous oath of obedi-
ence, whose lips are sealed by Catholic law which forbids them to 
seek the protection of the civil law of the land, I, who wore the 
black veil for seven long years, and who happily have emerged 
from my spiritual prison to a happy and normal life, appeal to 
you, the American people, for a 'new deal' for the Forgotten 
Women in the convents of Rome. 



2 0 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

"To say that the state has no right to interfere in religious mat-
ters, is tantamount to saying that the state must condone any crime 
committed in the name of religion . . . 

According to this theory Great Britain should facilitate the 
wanton human sacrifice of life by the voluntary immolation of the 
widows on the funeral pyre of the dead husbands. She should aid 
and abet those fanatics of so-called religious zeal who throw them-
selves before the car of the Juggernaut on its annual trip and be 
ground to dust that they the quicker ascend to glory. The United 
States was wrong in prohibiting polygamy among the Mormons, 
and the Canadian government should tolerate the nude processions 
of the Doukebors."—Daniel March, "Secrets of the Confessional." 



W H Y GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 21 

CHAPTER I 

WHY GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 

During the years of my public life no question was put to me 
more frequently than "Why do girls enter convents?" To this 
question the church of Rome answers, "Because they have a vo-
cation." Such an answer is not only misleading, but, in many cases, 
untrue. We shall let the church explain what a vocation is. 

According to Father William Doyle, a Jesuit priest, author of a 
widely-circulated book called Vocations: 

"A vocation, or call to the religious (convent) life, in contra-
distinction to the general invitation held out to all men to a life of 
perfection, even in the world, is a free gift of God, bestowed on those 
whom He selects; 'you have not chosen Me,' He said to His disciples, 
'but I have chosen you.' The evangelist tells us that, 'Christ called 
unto Him whom He willed.' Often that invitation is extended to 
those whom we would least expect. Magdalen, steeped to the lips in 
iniquity, became the spouse of the Immaculate. Matthew, surrounded 
by his ill-gotten goods; Saul, breathing out threatenings against the 
Christians, each heard that summons, for a sinful life in the past is, 
as St. Thomas teaches, no impediment to a vocation. 

But, though the gift is of surpassing value, and a mark of very 
special affection on His part, God will not force the free will. He 
whispers a word. If the soul turns away, Jesus often withdraws 
forever, for He only wants willing volunteers in His service. But If 
the startled soul listens, even though dreading that that Voice speak 
again, and shrinking from what it seems to lead her to, grace is free 
to do its work, and bring her captive to the feet of the Divine Hunter. 

Unconsciously, in that first encounter, she has been deeply wound-
ed with a longing for some unknown, as yet untasted, happiness. 
Almost imperceptibly a craving for a nobler life has taken possession 
of her heart; prayer, and self-denial, the thought of sacrifice, bring 



2 2 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

a new sweetness; the blazing light of earthly pleasures, once so 
dazzling, seems to die away; the joys, the amusements, of the world, 
no longer attract or satisfy; their emptiness only serves to weary 
and disgust the more, while through it all, the thirst for that un de-
finable 'something' tortures the soul. Slowly the soul comes to under-
stand the excellence and advantage of evangelical perfection, the 
Indescribable charm of virginity, and the nobleness of a life devoted 
wholly to the service of God and the salvation of souls. Louder and 
stronger has grown the faint whisper, 'Come, follow Me,' till at last, 
with an intense feeling of joy and gratitude, or even at times a 
natural repugnance and fear of its responsibilities, the weary soul 
realizes that 'the Master is here and calls for thee'—that she has got 
a vocation." 

This may sound very pretty in theory, but in actual fact it is a 
sordid game. The truth is that girls go into convents because they 
are recruited. Father Doyle gives us a good picture of the manner 
in which even very young girls are worked on in the effort to get 
them to give in and be led to the feet of the so-called "Divine 
Hunter." 

The truth is girls are recruited for the convents and nunneries 
because the church of Rome must have an unlimited number of 
pauper laborers to insure a fair return on the billions of dollars 
she has invested in "charitable" institutions, such as schools, hos-
pitals, orphanages, and laundries. 

The Divine Hunter is none other than the priest in the confes-
sional. The season is always open. The method employed is that 
of the cattle rustler. First the prey is spotted. Care is taken not to 
startle the "chosen one." At the proper time the "chosen one" is 
roped and branded, and led to the feet of the Divine Hunter. The 
rustler can truly say, "you have not chosen me, but I have chosen 
you." In both cases the chosen one is not consulted. Neither is it 
necessary that the chosen one be willing to go. 



W H Y GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 2 3 

The method outlined by Father Doyle is diabolical in its cun-
ning and cruelty. Versed in the ways of human nature, the girl, a 
mere child, is as wax in the priest's hands. He does with her un-
tutored mind as he pleases. This religious rustler is careful to 
choose only perfect specimens. The law of the survival of the fit-
test works even among the Spouses of Christ. Moral defectives can 
be made whole and sound in the confessional. Does not St. Thom-
as teach that "a sinful life in the past is no impediment to a voca-
tion?" This opens up a wide field in which to recruit. All those 
who are physically and financially sound are eligible. 

On the subject of health the law of the church says: "111 health 
is not a sufficient motive for dismissal, unless it can be proved with 
certainty that it had been fraudulently hidden or dissimulated be-
fore profession." 

I recall an instance of how this carefully worded law is operated 
for the protection of the convent, and the benefit of the church. 
While I was in the novitiate of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the 
Apparition, La Cappelette, Marseilles, France, where I took the 
veil, there was an Irish girl, Sister Bridget, a big, rawboned peas-
ant from the west of Ireland. Like myself, she began her convent 
life in the boarding-house convent operated under Mother Zoe, 
in Whally Range, Manchester, England. 

When she entered she was a picture of robust health, but six 
months of eating garbage which the "lady boarders" left took its 
toll, as did the fact that we had no regular outdoor nor indoor 
recreation. Baths were "permitted" when the boarders could not 
stand the 'odor of sanctity' which the sisters emitted. The postu-
lants, or beginners, were supposed to be detained only three 
months in the house where they entered before being sent to the 
novitiate to start their training. We did not learn till we arrived 



2 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

in the novitiate, six months later, that the delay was caused by an 
outbreak of smallpox in the convent. Imagine our horror at the 
deception of Mother Zoe in not telling us the truth of the delay. 
But a nun in the hand is worth two in the bush, and she feared 
that we might withdraw from the Order if we were informed. 

Poor Sister Bridget soon caught the malady which, for lack of 
proper medical attention ahd thorough fumigation and sanitation, 
still lingered in the old convent. After a terrible seige of it she 
recovered, but so shattered did it leave her, that it was considered 
best and cheapest to send her back to her people in Ireland. She 
pleaded that it was not fair to send her home when she had lost 
her health in the convent. She was informed that if her health 
had been good when she entered, a dose of smallpox would not 
have injured her! 

Broken in body and in spirit, she was shipped back to face the 
humiliation which Catholics attach to one who has been sent back 
from a convent. 

As soon as a priest selects his prey in the confessional, he loses 
no time in approaching the subject of entering a convent. As 
Father Doyle, the learned Jesuit priest, puts it: "He whispers a 
word." In other words, he makes a veiled suggestion, puts out a 
feeler. Then he sits back and watches the girl's reaction to the 
suggestion. If "the startled soul listens," the priest knows that she 
is an easy mark and can be influenced to enter a convent. 

The idea of abandoning parents, brothers and sisters, and going 
into a convent is distasteful to most Catholic girls. This does not 
discourage the priest in the least. He knows that in time he can 
familiarize her mind with the thought, and thus break down her 
resistance. The wisdom of urging Catholics to select a priest and 



W H Y GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 2 5 

confess their sins to him alone will here be seen to advantage. 
If a girl confessed to any priest who came along, there would be 
little chance to work on her. A regular confessor gets to know a 
girl's very thoughts. Her mind is his. 

When a girl starts to go to confession, which is usually about 
seven years of age, the priest suggests, pleads, urges, louder and 
louder, till after a few years a girl becomes convinced that she is 
being called by God, and must make a choice. Can she refuse to 
become a bride of the Lord ? Turn God down ? She does not want 
to go into a convent, but she feels ashamed to tell the priest so. 
Wearied by the constant harpings of the religious recruiting offi-
cer, the "chosen one" realizes that there is no way to get around 
it and yields. The divine hunter has hounded her into a convent. 

All, however, is not smooth sailing for the hunter, for, in spite 
of the training in psychology and diplomacy which he brings to 
his job, he sometimes chooses the wrong prey. Frequently he picks 
a girl whose will is as strong as his. What happens when this oc-
curs? The hunter informs the rebel that of course she is free to 
turn down so brilliant an offer of marriage as that of marrying 
Jesus Christ, but she will have to take the consequences of her step. 

What consequences? The "startled soul" wants to know. Then 
solemnly the priest pulls the card out of his sacred sleeve in the 
form of a veiled threat. Father Doyle tells us in his book on Voca-
tions: 

"There is no more important moment in the life of a young boy or girl 
than when they stand with trembling feet at the parting of the ways. With 
St. Paul they had said, 'When I was a child, I spake as a child, I thought 
as a child,' but the days of irresponsible childhood are gone forever, and 
now they must launch their bark alone on the stormy waters of life, and 
steer their course for eternity. It is a solemn moment, a time big with 



26 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

possibilities for good or evil, for the youth is face to face with the ques-
tion what he will do with his life. A choice upon which not merely his 
happiness on earth, but even his eternal salvation may depend. 

He has been made by his creator and given a precious gift to spend in 
a certain definite way marked out from all eternity by the hand of divine 
Providence. What this life is to be for many, circumstances and surround-
ings clearly indicate. But in the hearts of others arises a violent storm from 
the clashing of rival interests. On the one hand comes the call of the 
world, the pleading of human nature for a life of ease and pleasure; on 
the other the voice of Christ, softly, yet clearly, 'Come, follow Me—I have 
need of you—I have work for you to do.' 

This then is the meaning of His life, the reason why he was drawn out 
of nothingness 'to work the works of Him who sent Him.' Is she or he 
free to hesitate? Is it a matter of indifference for her to live in a God-
chosen state of life or in a self-chosen one now that her vocation is certain?" 

To this question St. Liguori answers: 
"Not to follow our vocation when we feel called to the religious state, 

[convent life] is not a mortal sin; the Counsels of Christ, from their 
nature, do not oblige under this penalty. However, in regard to the 
danger to which our salvation is exposed, in choosing a state of life 
against the Divine Call, such conduct is rarely free from sin, much more 
so when a person is persuaded that in the world [outside the convent] 
he or she places himself in danger of losing his or her soul by refusing 
to follow a vocation. Though one would not sin "mortally" by refusing 
to follow a clear vocation since it is an invitation, not a command, a 
person would run a great risk of imperilling his salvation by so acting. 
God foresees the dangers and temptations to each one; some, He knows, 
would never save their souls in the midst of a sinful world, and these 
He calls away to protect them from its dangers. 

To the Vocation He has attached helps and grace to strengthen the 
weak soul. But, deprived of this help, for God may refuse to give them 
in the world the graces He would have granted in the convent, many 
will find salvation extremely difficult. 

Hence, though the deliberate refusal to correspond to the Divine Vo-
cation does not necessarily imply the commission of a sin, even when 



W H Y GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 2 7 

the call is clear and unmistakable, yet it is a serious responsibility, 
without sufficient reason, to refuse to correspond to such an invitation, 
offered with so much love and liberality; for a Vocation not only shows 
God's eagerness for the sanctification of the person called to follow in 
His footsteps, but implies that the Saviour looks for her or his constant 
cooperation in the divinest of all works—the salvation oi human souls. 

Can it be wondered at, then, that, deprived of the special graces des-
tined for them, the lives of those who have refused to follow, or have 
abandoned a decided Vocation, are generally unhappy, and, too often, 
as every confessor knows, sullied with great and numerous sins." 

What is a poor girl to do in such an awful dilemma ? God cre-
ated the world without her assistance, but now He cannot go on 
without her help. In the face of this deceitful doctrine, which is 
secretly preached in thousands of confessionals and as many pa-
rochial schools, the church of the popes dares to say that girls are 
not forced to go into convents! 

They are informed that they have a Vocation and if they go 
into the convent God will shower all kinds of graces on them to 
make it easy, but if they refuse to enter, God will withdraw His 
help and they are almost sure to go to hell. And this sweet choice 
is not forcing a girl to choose the convent! 

Another obstacle to the schemes of the priest is the fact that 
among the Catholic people there is great diversity of opinion as to 
the wisdom and propriety of urging girls to go into convents be-
fore they really know anything of life. Many priests even share 
this view, which is bitterly condemned by the church. 

On this subject, Father Doyle says: "It is a curious fact that al-
though many pious and learned persons do not shrink from dis-
couraging, in every possible way, aspirants to religious [convent] 
life they would scruple to give them any help or encouragement. 
'A Vocation must be entirely the work of the Holy Ghost* they 



2 8 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

say. Willingly they paint the imaginary difficulties and trials of 
convent life, and hint at unhappiness sometimes to be found there; 
they speak of the long and serious deliberation necessary before 
one takes such a step, and thus, unintentionally perhaps, but most 
effectually, extinguish the glowing enthusiasm of a youthful heart. 

"Some even assume a terrible responsibility by deliberately turn-
ing, away souls from the way into which the Master is calling 
them, forgetting the warning, 'It is I who have chosen you,' never 
reflecting on the irretrievable harm they are causing by spoiling 
the work of God. Others calmly assure a postulant [beginner} 
who has been found unsuitable for a particular Order, that this is 
a certain sign that God does not want her, that she has no Voca-
tion and should not try again. It is quite true that a Vocation 
comes from above, but God's design can be hindered or helped by 
His creatures, and He has ever made use of secondary agents in 
their execution. The formation of character and the direction of 
the steps of the young towards the sanctuary, is largely in the 
hands of parents and teachers. How many a happy priest and nun 
daily thank their Maker for the gift of a good mother who first 
sowed the seeds of a vocation in their childish hearts. . . 'Know 
well,' says St. Thomas, 'that whether it be the suggestion of the 
devil, or the advice of a man, which inclines us to the religious 
[convent] life, and makes us thus walk in the footsteps of Jesus 
Christ, this suggestion is powerless and inefficient as long as God 
does not attract us inwardly to Him. Therefore, the proposal of 
entering religion [a convent] in whatever way it may be suggested 
to us, can come only from God.' 'No man can come to Me unless 
it be given him by My Father.' Hence, the saint adds, that even if 
the religious Vocation came from the devil it ought to be em-
braced as. an excellent counsel given by an enemy." 



W H Y GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 2 9 

From this mass of Jesuitical jugglery certain facts stand out in 
bold relief: 

The church of Rome admits that "many pious and learned per-
sons" refuse to be a party to any shady schemes of stampeding 
girls into convents and do all in their power to stop the traffic, by 
revealing to these immature girls the fact so carefully concealed 
by the church* that human nature is the same in the convent as 
out of it, and that therefore the convent is not the bed of roses 
it is deliberately said to be. 

Many of those "pious and learned persons" have been convent 
confessors who know from first hand what the life of a nun really 
is. They also know that the trials and tribulations of the convent 
are far from "imaginary." They believe that a girl should be told 
the truth before being inveigled to enter a convent. These "pious 
and learned persons" may, it is true, spoil some priest's game, and 
rob holy mother of an innocent victim, but God's work they can-
not spoil. 

Vocations, according to St. Thomas come from two sources, 
God and the devil. At least a use has been found for the devil. 
He has come into his own. Nevertheless, it does not seem fair to 
accuse even the devil of getting girls to go into convents. That is 
strictly the work of "God's secondary agents," the priests. Con-
vents must be supplied with pauper laborers at any price. Even the 
devil has to pitch in and help. 

We have seen the psychology of selling the convent. Following 
are the four steps to be observed in putting the deal through. 

First, get your prospect. 

Second, do not "startle the timid soul," but rather approach the 
subject at the psychological moment. 



3 0 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

Third, do not permit the prospect to build up sales resistance. 
Fourth, don't take no for an answer. 
A girl may tell a priest that she has a "natural repugnance" for 

the convent life, but that will not make any difference. As long as 
Catholic hospitals need unpaid nurses, and Catholic schools need 
unpaid teachers, and Catholic laundries need unpaid washer-
women, and as long as beggars are needed to panhandle for the 
church, so long will the Divine Hunter seek free help, and peddle 
Vocations instead of handing out pay checks to those "forgotten 
women" who do the work of the Roman Catholic Church. 

With so much pressure from so many of God's socalled second-
ary agents, parents, teachers, and, above all, priests in the confes-
sionals, with such dire threats of heavenly revenge on those who 
dare refuse to be led captive to the feet of the Divine Hunter, it 
should be plain to any one why girls enter convents. 



W H Y GIRLS ENTER CONVENTS 31 

"There is an incalculable power of conviction and devotion of 

idea in the daring of one against all. To brave at once, with no 

other power than individual reason, with no other support than 

conscience, human consideration, that cowardice of the mind, 

masked under respect for error, to dare the hatred of earth, and 

the anathema of heaven, is the heroism of the writer."—Voltaire 



3 2 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

CHAPTER II 
m 

HOW CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 

EVEN AMONG CATHOLICS there is a widespread notion that convents are financed by the church, so that those who 
are inclined may retire from the world of reality and spend 

their lives in seclusion. 
Nothing could be farther from the truth. The church of Rome 

operates convents for profit, a fact which has been studiously cam-
ouflaged by most writers, though the church admits it in her own 
law. 

I have before me a copy of a "Specially authorized translation" 
of a Latin work called Canonical Legislation Concerning Religi-
ous. This book was printed on the Vatican Press in Rome in 1919. 

Before quoting from this authorized translation of canon law 
with regard to persons in convents, I would like to explain that 
the term "religious" is the name given to all inmates of monastic 
institutions, whether they be men or women, that is, monks or 
nuns. 

Though the laws of the church of Rome are binding on all 
members of the church, they are deliberately placed beyond the 
reach of all except the few favored ones, by keeping them in the 
Latin tongue. Even translations are rarely found in the hands of 
any save the priesthood. 

Canon 469 of Canonical Legislation Concerning Religious says: 
"No religious house may be erected, unless it can be prudently 

estimated that it will be able to provide suitably for the habitation 
and maintenance of its members, either from its own resources, or 
from habitual alms, or otherwise." 



H o w CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 3 3 

This law clearly proves that the opening of a convent is a 
business venture, and therefore must comply with the first law of 
sound business. It must be self-supporting. 

The methods commonly used in "suitably providing for the 
habitation and maintenance of the members" of these institutions 
are, hospitals, boarding schools, laundries, and boarding houses. 
Where none of these are feasible, begging is carried on in a very 
businesslike and aggressive manner. In the church of Rome, as 
among the Hindoos and Buddhists, begging is a profitable busi-
ness, a fine art in which the sisters are carefully coached in the 
novitiates before being turned loose to ply their trade on a too 
gullible public. The plea of these begging sisters is "sweet char-
ity," a term so elastic that it can be made to mean anything the 
church needs money for. 

In justice to the unfortunate sisters who are forced to panhandle 
for the wealthy Catholic corporation, we must admit that the la-
borer is worthy of his hire, and the nuns have a perfect right to be 
"suitably maintained" out of the proceeds of the day's pickings. 

This ever-increasing army of holy beggars are not only a burden 
to the already overburdened wage earner, but a drain on the pros-
perity of the nation, for the staggering sums of money which are 
collected yearly, and of which there is never an accounting, are 
taken out of circulation, and, when invested in non-taxable securi-
ties, add immeasurably to the wealth of a foreign corporation 
whose headquarters is in Italy. 

Our legislators and labor organizations cannot possibly be ig-
norant of these self-evident facts, yet they either ignore them, or 
are afraid to demand that all "houses," whether religious or 
otherwise, be taxed; that so-called "charitable institutions" be 
charitable, and not, as all too frequently happens, a mere excuse 



3 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

for all kinds of lotteries and gambling devices for wringing money 
from the public. Institutions that prey on the public for support 
should be under public supervision. Unpaid labor, whether it be 
convent or convict, should not be allowed to enter into unfair com-
petition with paid labor. Panhandling, whether by nuns in robes, 
or bums in rags, should be prohibited. 

We shall now turn our attention from the sisters and the ways 
in which their convents are financed, and examine the other and 
less known monastic institution, the nunnery, whose inmates are 
called "nuns." The term "nun" is often applied to both nuns and 
sisters. Sisters meet the public, nuns do not. How, then, are nun-
neries or cloistered convents financed ? 

The question of financing nunneries is taken care of by the law 
which requires every girl who applies for entrance into one of 
these institutions to bring with her a specified sum of money, 
known by the romantic name of 'the dowry," or marriage portion 
of the Spouse of Christ. 

This money, properly invested, is more than enough to take care 
of the meagre wants of the nun as long as she lives. Later we shall 
see who gets the money when the nun dies. 

Canon 546 says: 
"In the monasteries [convents] of nuns, the postulants [beginners] 

shall provide the dowry fixed by the constitutions, or determined by 
lawful custom. 

" (2 ) This dowry must be given to the monastery before the recep-
tion of the habit, or at least its payment guaranteed in a mannet 
recognized by the civil law. 

" ( 3 ) In the institutes with simple vows, the prescriptions of the 
constitution must be followed with regard to the dowry of the reli-
gious women. 

" ( 4 ) The prescribed dowry, in the case of institutes approved by 
the Holy See, cannot be condoned, either entirely, or partially, with-



H o w CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 3 5 

out an lndnlt [special permit] of the Holy See. In the case of diocesan 
institutes, without the consent of the local Ordinary [bishop]." 

Canon 548 says: 
"The dowry is irrevocably acquired by the convent or the institute 

on the death of the religious, even though she has only made pro-
fession of temporary vows." 

Canon 551 says: 
"If, from whatever cause, a professed religious, with either 

solemn or simple vows, leaves the institute, her dowry must be re-
turned to her intact, but not the interest already derived therefrom." 

The above laws of the church of Rome are like a powerful 
X-ray which enable us to see through the pious fraud of the con-
vent and nunnery systems. A close examination of these illumi-
nating laws will bring out some interesting points. 

First, the girl who goes into a nunnery pays her way in. 
Second, the sum of money required for admission into a nun-

nery is fixed by the church. 
Third, this sum of money must be paid to the convent before 

the nun takes the white veil, not afterwards. 
Fourth, if the money is not paid in advance, it must be guaran-

teed in a manner recognized by the civil law. 
Rome has her price for everything, even salvation. Price fixing 

is no new experiment in the papal corporation. The pope will have 
his pound of flesh if he has to go into civil court to collect it. Nun-
neries are run on a strictly "pay as you enter" basis. When going 
to heaven via the Roman route, money is the golden key that most 
effectually unlocks the pearly gates. 

Canon 459 says: 
"After the first profession of the religious, the superior, with her 

council, and with the consent of the local Ordinary [bishop] and of 



3 6 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

the regular superior, if the house be dependent on Regulars, must 
place the dowry in a safe, lawful and productive investment. It is 
strictly forbidden that before the death of the religious, the dowry 
be expended for any purpose, even for the building of a house [con-
vent] or the liquidation of debts." 

I shall here explain the meaning of the term, "first profession." 
When a girl enters a convent or nunnery she is sent to a train-

ing school called a "novitiate." After a period of intensive train-
ing which may vary in some Orders from one or two years to three 
or more, she makes what is known as "first profession." She makes 
the three oaths, or vows, of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience for 
a certain number of years, instead of for life. A sister or nun who 
has made her "first profession" is really on trial. She is said in 
convent parlance to have made temporary vows. 

At the end of this trial period of "first vows" the sister or nun 
can renew the vows for another period. At the end of the second 
try-out, she either makes perpetual vows, that is, for life, or she 
leaves the convent or nunnery. It is not uncommon, however, for 
a sister to refuse to make vows for life, but she sometimes is allow-
ed, even urged to stay in the convent. Discretion is sometimes the 
better part of valor. Such sisters do pretty much as they please. 

Canon 643 says: 
"Whoever leaves his or her institute or convent, whether at the 

expiration of his or her temporary vows, or by virtue of an indult of 
secularization [permit from the pope] or whoever has been dis-
missed, cannot seek compensation for the services rendered by them 
to the institute." 

Note carefully the way in which the church of Rome has laid 
down law after law to protect the interests of the hierarchy, but 
has left the inmates to shift for themselves. These "Forgotten 
Women" are even forbidden to leave the premises without a 
permit from the Pope which must be obtained by miles and miles 



H o w CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 3 7 

of red tape, and yet Rome wants us to believe that all a sister has 
to do is walk out when she wants. In reality she leaves when the 
warden tells her. 

With regard to the "first profession" or temporary vows, it 
should be understood that the ceremony of profession is looked 
upon by the church of Rome as a real marriage ceremony in which 
the girl really marries Jesus Christ. Therefore, as soon as a girl 
makes her vows, or is professed, she is looked upon as a married 
woman, a "Spouse of Christ." The incongruity of such a marriage 
does not bother the church. 

The Catholic church's boastful denunciation of divorce, which 
she permits to the wealthy, and her condemnation of trial mar-
riage become a hollow mockery in view of the practice of the 
same things with the phantom Brides of Christ in her convents 
and nunneries. 

What are temporary vows but a trial marriage to Christ? Not 
until the church is sure that the bargain is a suitable or a profitable 
one, does she make the union permanent. Here is an example of 
the well-known double doctrine of the church of Rome. By means 
of trial marriage the church has a chance of seeing what she is 
getting. Defects which perhaps were not apparent when the girl 
made her temporary vows, or trial marriage to Christ, might crop 
out later. Should this occur, the church is as usual protected, for 
she has been careful to have a law whereby she can dismiss any 
girl who can be proven to have had certain defects of health at the 
time she made her "first profession" and deliberately concealed 
them. No matter whether or not the girl had bad health at the 
time she entered makes no difference. It can easily be proven she 
concealed the fact. Christ wants only healthy spouses. The neces-
sity for trial marriage to Christ will be realized when we consider 



3 8 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

that according to Catholic law, "a sinful life in the past is no im-
pediment to a vocation." Thanks to the confessional, by which 
criminal records are wiped out, any one can become a Spouse of 
Christ who has the health and the money. 

It is the physical defects which cause trouble and resist absolu-
tion. Should one of these remodeled souls bring to the convent a 
disease which had not had time to show up, the church, instead 
of saying, "Arise, take up thy bed and walk," says, "Arise, take 
all you brought except the interest on your money, which we shall 
keep to pay for your room and board, and go back to the world. 
It costs too much money to cure you." And back the unfortunate 
girl goes. Trial marriage has saved the church a large doctor bill. 
A convent is a religious Monte Carlo where priests, prelates and 
theologians are the croupiers who see to it that the house wins. 

From Canon 550 we learn that: 

" ( 1 ) Dowries must be carefully and integrally administered at the 
monastery [convent] or house of habitual residence of the Mother 
General, or the Mother Provincial." 

" ( 2 ) Local Ordinaries [bishops] must diligently see that the 
dowries of the religious are conserved, especially at the time of the 
pastoral visitation." 

By pastoral visitation is meant the regular visit which the local 
bishop of the diocese in which the convent is located must make 
at stated times. Business is business, and the bishop, as general 
manager for the pope, who is too far away in Italy to attend to 
such minor details, makes a tour of inspection of all the monastic 
institutions under his jurisdiction to see that all is well, especially 
with the "dowries." Such reports are not mailed to his liege lord, 
the pope, but taken in person at stated intervals. 

Canon 513 says: 



H o w CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 3 9 

"The visitator, or someone delegated by him, has the right and 
the obligation of interrogating the religious, whom he deems it well 
to hear, and to inform himself on all matters which pertain to the 
visitation; all the religious, however, are under the obligation of 
replying according to the truth, and it is not lawful for the superiors 
to divert them in any way from this obligation, or otherwise impede 
the scope of the visitation." 

Who would think that it should be necessary to warn the 
"Spouses of Christ" to reply "according to the truth?" Or to warn 
superiors not to throw any obstacles in the path of the visiting 
bishop ? 

The fact is that the average convent is a hornet's nest of in-
trigue. In them are cliques and factions, and many an ambitious 
sister gets to be superior, the most coveted position in a convent, 
not by an honest election, but by stuffing the ballot boxes, crush-
ing all opposition ruthlessly, and by catering to the priests. 

I could name a host of other and possibly more serious abuses 
found in convents. It is to prevent the crushed minority from com-
plaining to the bishop at the time of his inspection that superi-
ors are prone to do all in their power, from cajoling to threaten-
ing, to prevent exposure and possible deprivation of office. No 
matter what scandal the bishop found in any convent, he would 
not dream of calling in the civil authorities. The Roman Catholic 
church is a law unto itself. The only time it calls on the civil law 
is when some sister or nun fails to pay the dowry, which, as we 
have seen, is guaranteed in a manner recognized by civil law. 

A superior in a convent holds the same position as a warden in 
a penitentiary. There is, however, a difference in favor of the in-
mates in a penitentiary. Penitentiaries are open to inspection, and 
the findings are made public. Fear of publicity does not exist in 
the convent. 



4 0 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

Canon 569 decrees: 
" ( 1 ) Before the profession of simple vows, whether temporary or 

perpetual, the novices must cede, for the whole period which they 
will be bound by simple vows, the administration of property to 
whomsoever they wish, and dispose freely of its use and usufruct, 
except the constitution determines otherwise." 

" ( 2 ) If the novice, because he possessed no property, omitted to 
make this cession, and if subsequently property came into his pos-
session, he must then make the provision according to the regula-
tions of § 1, for the newly acquired property, even if he has already 
made simple profession." 

" ( 3 ) In every religious congregation, the novice, before making 
profession of temporary vows, shall freely dispose by will of all the 
property he actually possessed, or may subsequently possess." 

Father Papi, in a book called Religious Profession, says on this 
subject, "But novices, whether belonging to a religious congrega-
tion, or to an Order of Regulars, are forbidden to give up their 
property by gift or donation under penalty of invalidity." 

Canon 568 says: 
"If, during the novitiate, a novice in any way whatever renounces 

his or her benefices, or property, or encumbers them, such a renunci-
ation, or encumbrance, is not only illicit, but null and void." 

Father Papi further explains, "Within sixty days before they 
make their solemn profession, they must renounce their property, 
and this renunciation must be entire, embracing all that they pos-
sess. This renunciation has to be made on condition that the sol-
emn profession will actually take place. After the solemn profes-
sion has been made, care must be taken that the renunciation holds 
good in civil law. When the time of their solemn profession ap-
proaches, they are bound to renounce all they have. This renunci-
ation, which they must make, is not in the nature of a will, but 
is an actual giving up of what they possess. This renunciation must 



H o w CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 4 1 

be made on condition that the solemn profession will actually take 
place. The reason of this is to avoid all possibility that religious 
may be deprived of their property before their status in religion 
has become permanent. 

"What is the juridical value of a will and a renunciation if a 
religious made a will before she made this renunciation ? The re-
nunciation has a preferential character. Hence, if a religious made 
a will, this will loses all value the moment her renunciation goes 
into effect, but not before. 

"Consequently, if a religious dies before having made her sol-
emn profession, the will will have its full effect, whereas, the will 
will have no effect at all if the religious dies after having made 
solemn profession. 

"Finally, in making this renunciation, it is necessary to comply 
as soon as possible with all the formalities the law requires for 
the validity of similar acts. Were the formalities omitted, the heirs 
at law could claim before the civil courts whatever property the 
religious might have in their possession at the time of death." 

From this confused jungle of Catholic laws, which not one 
Catholic in a million ever heard of," and which no sister or nun 
knows anything about, though they are governed by them, we 
gather some very important facts. 

First, we learn that nuns and sisters are not paid for their ser-
vices to the church of Rome. 

Second, convents are self-supporting, money-making institu-
tions. 

Nuns, or cloistered sisters, are financed by the sum of money 
which each girl must bring to the institution of her choice. This 
sum is specified by the church, not by the candidate. This money 
must be paid before the girl takes the veil, not after, unless pay-



4 2 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

ment is guaranteed in a manner which will enable the church to 
collect legally. This money must be safely and profitably invested. 
If a girl decides to leave, the interest on her money, which the 
church had safely and profitably invested, stays with the convent. 
In the case of a very wealthy girl the interest would amount to a 
tidy sum. 

A nun or sister who for any reason leaves a convent, or is ex-
pelled from one, cannot sue for compensation. This, however, is 
sometimes done, and wherever it is done, an honest jury usually 
gives a verdict to the ex-sister or nun. 

When a girl enters a convent she is forbidden to dispose of her 
property or in any way encumber it. Sixty days before her solemn 
profession she is forced to renounce her property. This is a legal 
renunciation, a binding document. The object of this is to prevent 
legal heirs from taking it from the church, in whose favor, in most 
cases, it is renounced. 

I wish to draw particular attention to this last law which forces 
the sister to renounce her property sixty days before she makes her 
perpetual vows, while it strictly forbids her from disposing of her 
property when she enters. These two rulings are of great impor-
tance to the church. The church tells us that the novice is free to 
choose the beneficiary to whom she wishes to bequeath her prop-
erty. Why, then, if this is the case, does the same church sternly 
forbid the girl from doing as she pleases with her property before 
she enters the convent, or immediately afterwards ? Why does the 
girl have to wait till sixty days before she makes solemn vows. 

We are told that Christ, before He had so many spouses, told 
his followers, "Go, sell all thou hast, give it to the poor, then 
come and follow me." Apparently Christ and the pope do not 
agree on money matters. 



H o w CONVENTS ARE FINANCED 4 3 

My answer to the two questions which I have raised regarding 
the renunciation of property sixty days before making solemn pro-
fession, is that nuns and sisters are papal 'Janissaries.' The Janis-
saries were the corps d'elite of the army of the Ottoman Turks, 
one of the most formidable bodies of shock troops of all time. 
From 1313 through five centuries they were the cutting edge of 
the sword of Islam. They were literally a foreign legion, in the 
ranks of which originally not a single soldier was a born Moslem. 
Sons of Christian parents, they had been seized as tribute from 
countries overwhelmed by the Turks, or captured in daring sea 
raids. Probably every European nation was represented in the 
ranks of the Janissaries. It has been estimated that half a million 
boys were thus conscripted by the Turkish press gangs. 

The baptismal records of the parish priests were used as draft 
lists, and from ten-to-twelve-year-old lads forced to report, from 
which only the fittest, physically and mentally, were chosen. Then 
they were marched away (along with their pretty sisters destined 
for the harems) to the barracks of Constantinople. There they 
underwent the most rigorous kind of religious and military train-
ing, which forced them into a furious, fanatical fighting machine. 

All family ties were severed, and a Janissary was forbidden to 
marry. Fortunately their families rarely ever saw them again, for 
parents would find their son had become an utter stranger, a Mo-
hammedan, as Asiatic in all but birth, abhorring his Christian par-
entage; they might even perish by his sword. 

Such were the Janissaries, "the strongest and fiercest instrument 
of imperial ambition which remorseless fanaticism, prompted by 
the most subtle statecraft, ever devised upon earth."* 

* Children of the Conquered by Fairfax Downey, in the Legion Maga-
zine of March 1935. 



44 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

Likewise boys and girls of tender years are today being recruited 
all over the world by the papal press gangs in the confessionals 
and parochial schools. Only those mentally and physically superior 
are taken. 

After an intensive course of training in novitiates, these once 
devoted sons and daughters are taught to abhor their parents. 
Father and mother, brother and sister are now looked upon as 
their deadliest enemies. Hate has taken the place of love. They 
are papal Janissaries. Women without a country. Soldiers of the 
Pope. 

Common kidnapping is respectable beside the so-called religion 
which resorts to alienation of affections to gain her end, which is 
not souls, but money. These modern Janissaries are the strongest 
and fiercest instrument also of Roman Catholic ambition, which 
remorseless fanaticism, prompted by the most subtle statecraft, 
ever devised upon earth. 

The Roman Catholic Church claims to have 138,079 nuns and 
sisters in the United States, 138,079 women who are not free to 
follow the dictates of their own conscience, but who are bound by 
a stringent oath of Obedience, which means that they must obey 
the voice of the superior as the voice of God. The superior in turn 
is bound to obey the voice of the local bishop, who, in turn, obeys 
his master's voice, the pope. This vast army of papal Janissaries, 
separated from the humanizing influence of home, forbidden to 
marry, the private property of a private corporation, is the bul-
wark of the church of Rome. 



VOCATIONS 4 5 

CHAPTER III 

VOCATIONS 

HOW DOES A GIRL KNOW whether she has a vocation or not? Father Doyle, the Jesuit priest, answers this ques-
tion in his widely-circulated booklet called Vocations. In 

this booklet Father Doyle quotes another Jesuit priest, Father 
Gautrelet, who lays down no fewer than a dozen symptoms where-
by a girl, or rather her confessor, may know whether she has a 
vocation or not. 

The first sign of a vocation is: "A desire to have a religious 
vocation, together with the conviction that God is calling you. 
This desire is most strongly felt when the soul is calm, after holy 
communion, and in time of retreat." 

That religion and sex are closely allied no one needs to be told, 
least of all the priests. At the age when a girl is budding into a 
new phase of life, the normal desire for the ideal mate presents 
itself to her romantic imagination. At this time wise mothers step 
in to protect the girl from possible mistakes. Gently, but firmly, 
the frail bark is steered over the rapids and into the deep waters 
of beautiful womanhood. That is, if the girl is not a Catholic; if 
she is, no kind mother will tell her the truth of her strange desires 
and feelings. That is left for the priest, the bachelor in the con-
fession box. 

What does the priest tell the girl ? Not that sex is the normal 
procreative instinct found in every healthy animal, from man 
down, but that these romantic imaginings are a sin, something she 
should be ashamed of. 



4 6 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

The girl who makes her first confession of "romantic inclina-
tions" steps into the confessional a clean, healthy-minded young-
ster, but often steps out soiled and mentally confused. Christ, 
the priest tells her, is the only spouse who can fully gratify her 
desires. He alone understands her thoroughly. Christ is the great 
lover. She must give herself to Him without reserve in order to 
taste the sweetness of His love. Little by little the ignorant child 
falls into the carefully prepared trap, and before long she takes 
Christ as her secret lover. 

Soon she craves a more intimate relationship with her secret 
lover. She is on her way to become a wife, a "Spouse of Christ." 
But nature will not be fooled. Secret or phantom lovers, whether 
they be Christ or the devil, lead to secret excesses, as witness the 
number of mentally affected women to be found in the novitiate or 
Mother House of any convent, where as a rule sisters are retired 
through age, infirmity, insanity, or depravity. 

Since the priest in the confessional holds the place of God, it 
is easy for him to convince the girl that God is calling. Nothing 
could be simpler. 

Father Gautrelet tells us that "Christ is the Divine Hunter." 
That the Divine Hunter always uses "secondary agents" in run-
ning down eligible souls. 

It is the "secondary agent," the manhunter in the confessional, 
on whom He depends, as Father Gautrelet expresses it, to "bring 
the soul captive to his feet." When one of these pious bloodhounds 
gets on the trail of a suitable soul, nothing will stop him. At first 
"his voice may be a mere whisper," but as he warms to the chase, 
it becomes a bay not to be denied. Louder and louder it becomes 
till at last "the weary soul realizes that she has a vocation, and 
consents to be led captive to the feet of the Divine Hunter." God's 



VOCATIONS 4 7 

secondary agent, the religious mountie, has got his woman. It may 
have taken years, but he got her. She is now private property. 

We are in a good position now to see through the secrecy of the 
confessional. Between the Catholic parent and the Catholic priest 
there is perpetual warfare for the possession of the child. The 
odds are on the side of the priest, for he is protected by the "con-
fessional." 

"This desire is most strongly felt after communion." 

A person under the influence of liquor is not held responsible 
for his actions. A person who could believe that the host which 
he has eaten is actually the body and blood, teeth, hair, and toe-
nails of Jesus Christ, his blood, sinews, muscles, entrails, etc., 
neither should be held responsible for his strange desires. That a 
girl, after such a feat of holy cannibalism, should imagine that 
she felt a call to enter a convent is not at all surprising. Why go 
into a convent to be nearer to God, when, if she really believes in 
the doctrine of "Transubstantiation," she has God in her stomach? 

But, Catholics do not think. A girl, after communion, is really 
on an emotional spree, a spiritual jag. Every priest knows this, and 
it is part of his game to get her to act while under the influence of 
a powerful emotion. He must not wait till she comes to a more 
sober frame of mind. It may then be too late. He must strike while 
the iron is hot. What happens when the first heat of fanaticism 
cools is no business of his. His business is to get the girl. 

A "retreat" is a fine speciman of mob psychology. It is a sort of 
spiritual housecleaning. A group of girls withdraw to some se-
cluded place, usually a convent. This catering to "retreats" is an-
other of the many ways of "suitably providing for the sisters." 
Each girl pays for her room and board while on retreat. Here, 
again, it is pay as you enter. All communication is cut off. The 



4 8 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

priests hate competition. They can get better results if there is no 
one to interfere with them. 

A retreat usually lasts from one day to ten, depending on how 
well off those on retreat are. Most working girls can stay only 
from Saturday night till Sunday night. Retreats, like everything 
else in the line of religious luxuries, cost money. 

In the small grey hours of the morning the girls on retreat are 
in the chapel for meditation. How delightfully different from 
their usual employment. Seated like so many spectres in the dim 
light of the significant red lamp, which keeps constant vigil before 
the altar where rests the object of their affections, what sweet 
dreams are theirs. The services are usually in the hands of Jesuit, 
Dominican or Franciscan, or some priest belonging to one of the 
Orders. 

Countless hymns are sung and countless rosaries are recited. 
The chapel bell tolls incessantly for one exercise after another. 
Meals are eaten in silence. It is all so marvelously different. The 
very air is charged with mystery and novelty. 

Under the hypnotic spell of a priest of dynamic personality, 
these poor cinderellas are not to be blamed if, through the incense, 
they fail to perceive the deception. They are being given, for a 
reasonable sum, the outlet which their inferiority complex craves. 
In the world of reality they could never hope to be anybody. Here, 
they can be queens, prospective wives of God. It is only natural 
that some of them would be willing to exchange the menial garb 
of a common servant for the robes of a religious slave. 

The church of Rome is the greatest title-monger in the world. 
She has for centuries been exchanging the empty-sounding title 
of "Spouse of Christ" for the life and labor, body and soul, money 
and property of pious, unsuspecting girls. She is the greatest free 



VOCATIONS 4 9 

employment agency on earth. All who enter her fold must work 
for her—free. 

The deference which the church forces the Catholic people to 
pay the priests and nuns is another incentive to a certain class of 
people, particularly to those on the outer fringe of society. These 
upstarts, desiring to feed their hunger for social recognition, in-
stinctively turn to the church, the back door to society. This defer-
ence extends itself to the family of the boy who becomes a priest, 
and of the girl who becomes a nun. 

Here we have another interesting feature of the girl who be-
comes a nun. She becomes a wife, or spouse, of Christ. Her mother 
and father then are Christ's in-laws. Can He refrain from saving 
them? Well, hardly. The Church of Rome wastes nothing, not 
even human foibles, and social climbers are encouraged to give as 
many of their boys and girls to the church as they possibly can; 
all, if they can manage it. By showering honors and dignities on 
the families that have donated children to the convent, or priest-
hood, Rome cleverly makes them her active allies. For, should the 
boy or girl desert his or her vocation, it would be a reflection on 
the family, and many a Catholic family that owed its prosperity 
to the influence of the church marked its decline from the day a 
son or daughter abandoned the religious life, especially where the 
parents sympathized with them and helped them. 

In a retreat the priest works on these things. Sermons that fairly 
sizzle with ardor are poured forth with an eloquence that sweeps 
the inexperienced girls off their feet. Christ becomes a prince 
charming, and the convent as alluring as Hollywood. 

The priest offers a premium to all who give their young lives 
to the church without pay. This premium is nothing less than a 
throne in heaven. 



5 0 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

"I hold it for certain," says St. Alphonsus Liguori, "that the 
greatest number of the vacant thrones of the fallen Seraphim will 
be occupied by souls sanctified by the religious state [monks and 
nuns}. Among the sixty persons canonized, made saints, during 
the last century, there were only five who did not belong to reli-
gious orders." 

What girl could pass up such a bargain ? Nor is this the whole 
story. Father Doyle says: "Seeing how pleasing is this lifelong sac-
rifice to God, the Fathers of the church, St. Jerome, St. Bernard, 
the Angelic Doctor, and many others, have always called religious 
profession a 'second baptism,' by which the guilt and punishment 
due for past sins is entirely remitted." This offer makes a power-
ful appeal to those damaged souls who abound in all churches. 

The magician who tries to make us believe he can bring a rabbit 
out of an empty hat is a piker beside the church which says it can, 
for a consideration, restore the lustre to a tarnished soul, and the 
state of virginity to an erring sister. For such a favor, plus a throne 
in the sky when you die, any sinner should be willing to wash, 
teach, beg or do anything else for the rest of her life. 

No wonder the "desire to have a vocation is felt during retreat." 
The business of the retreat and of the priest who conducts it is to 
create this very desire. These spiritual dope peddlers give the girls 
an emotional 'shot in the arm' by painting the delights of the con-
vent and the wonders of a throne in the sky, till they create the 
desire for the life. No mention is made, of course, of wash tubs, 
begging tours, poor food, mean superiors, smelly nun's robes, hy-
sterical and homosexual nuns. 

Each retreat leaves a girl more unsettled than before, more un-
willing to come down to earth and resume the ordinary duties of 



VOCATIONS 5 1 

her every-day life, till at last she can stand it no longer, and con-
sents to be led captive to the feet of the "Divine Hunter." 

A second sign of a vocation is, Father Gautrelet tells us, "A 
growing attraction for prayer and holy things in general, together 
with a longing for a hidden life, and a desire to be more closely 
united to God." 

Why should an attraction to prayer and a desire to draw closer 
to God mean that the girl should bury herself in the convent? 
Should a family man who felt drawn to spiritual things desert his 
family and go into a monastery? The idea that one cannot enjoy 
spiritual things without fleeing human society is fallacious, and 
the church knows it. But there must be free help to run the con-
vents. 

The third sign is: "To have a hatred of the world, a conviction 
of its hollowness, and insufficiency to satisfy the soul. This feeling 
is generally strongest in the midst of worldly amusement." 

It is not easy to see how a mere girl could hate a world she 
knows so little of. The church leaves no stone unturned to get pos-
session of the girls as early in life as possible, in order that they 
have no chance of getting to know the world; so that they may 
never get to know the sweets of freedom and develop character. 
No normal girl hates the world. The priest in the confessional 
can, however, destroy her young life by telling her of the awful 
punishment she is laying up for herself in the next world by en-
joying innocent pleasure now. Thus a priest can nag a girl into a 
convent, just as a woman can nag a man into a saloon. 

The fourth sign is: "A fear of sin, into which it is so easy to fall, 
and a longing to escape from the dangers and temptations of the 
world." 



5 2 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

Fear, the favorite weapon of every priest, is the destroying 
angel. Fear is man's oldest and worst enemy. I believe it was Frank 
Crane who said, "What indescribable misery has been caused by 
fear! From that came the terrors of the dark ages when the world 
was tormented by the nightmare of superstition and intolerance. 
Fear is the father of cruelty. Fear dehumanizes. When the devil 
can make us afraid, we are right in his hand. It is when they are 
in a panic of fear that the rattlesnake strikes, the dog bites, the 
horse runs away, the cat scratches, the bee stings, the scorpion 
attacks, the bull gores, the woman lies, the man kills. Fear is the 
devil's other name." 

* Fear is the chief weapon that yearly drives thousands of girls 
to sacrifice their young lives by entering convents. 

Elbert Hubbard tells us that "the feeling of fear of evil is large-
ly, if not entirely, a morbid, and therefore an insane idea." 

And again Hubbard says: "Don't run away from a difficulty; 
if you do, you'll find the difficulty, like a polar bear, will follow 
you. Besides, you cannot run away from a fault; because you carry 
the cause of a fault with you." 

The church knows this. The girl does not. So much the worse 
for her. The church will take advantage of her ignorance and pro-
fit by it. This is the church which says that public-school education 
is godless. If God could not keep temptation out of the garden of 
Eden, how can the superior keep it out of the convent ? 

The fifth sign is: "It is sometimes a sign of a vocation when a 
person fears that God may call them, when they pray not to have 
a vocation, yet cannot banish the thought from their minds. If the 
vocation is sound, it will soon give way to an attraction!" Father 
Lehmkuhl says: "One need not have a natural inclination for the 



VOCATIONS 5 3 

religious life; on the contrary, a divine vocation is compatible with 
a natural repugnance for that state?." 

Of all the strange signs whereby God is supposed to make 
known that a person has a vocation, this last is surely the strangest. 
The first sign of a vocation is a desire to have a vocation. The 
fifth sign of a vocation is a desire not to have a vocation. Either 
way, the girl has a vocation and is perfectly safe in entering a con-
vent. The fact of the matter is, it does not appear to make any 
difference whether a girl has any vocation or not. All that is neces-
sary is that she go into a convent. Her vocation or lack of vocation 
will in no way effect the quality of the washing she puts out. St. 
Peter may have been a great fisher of souls, but for plain sheep 
herding, he cannot hold a candle to the priests of the Catholic 
church. 

The sixth sign of a vocation is: "To have zeal for souls. To 
realize the value of an immortal soul, and to desire to co-operate 
in their salvation." 

To the mature man or woman the idea of sacrificing a life to 
save the soul of another is all nonsense. To the poor half-educated 
girl in the hands of the priest it is a reality. For every prostitute 
in the lands where Rome flourishes, and elsewhere, there is a girl 
wearing her life out in a convent somewhere. Instead of one was-
ted life, we have two. Education would save both. 

The seventh sign of a vocation is: "The desire to devote our 
whole life to obtain the conversion of one dear to us." 

We believe that Christ died to save souls, but it seems not. Note 
well that the church of Rome does not guarantee salvation to any-
one—not even to a girl who sacrifices her whole life in a convent. 
The church of Rome is a religious opportunist who loses no chance 



5 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

to get slaves to man her vast enterprises. One lie is as good as an-
other. Results are what count. The Hindoo widow, who immolates 
herself on the funeral pyre of her dead husband that she may ac-
company his soul to the other world, suffers torture for a brief 
period. The Catholic girl who immolates herself in a convent suf-
fers a long, drawn-out hell in this life, with no assurance that she 
is benefiting her loved one, and with no guarantee of salvation in 
the next life. 

Hell ? In a convent ? Yes, if we are to believe Rome's prince of 
theologians, St. Alphonsus Liguori. On page 22 of his famous 
work, The True Spouse of Christ, Liguori says: 

"It is true that even in the cloister, there are some discontented souls; 
for even in religion there are some who do not live as religious ought. 

To be a good religious and to be content, are one and the same thing, 
for the happiness of a religious consists in a constant and perfect union 
of her will with the adorable will of God. 

Whoever is not united to Him, cannot be happy, for God cannot infuse 
His consolations into a soul that resents His divine will. 

I have been accustomed to say that a religious in her convent enjoys a 
foretaste of paradise, or suffers an anticipation of hell. 

To endure the pains of hell is to be separated from God; to be forced 
against the inclinations of nature, to do the will of others; to be distrusted, 
despised, reproved, and chastised, by those with whom we live; to be shut 
up in a place of confinement from which it is impossible to escape; in a 
word, it is tc be in continual torture without a moment's peace." 

The eighth sign is: "The desire to atone for one's own sins and 
the sins of others; and to fly from the temptation we feel too weak 
to resist." 

The same old story. The futility of flight is too absurd to be 
discussed again. It appeals to cowards and moral weaklings. The 



VOCATIONS 55 

girl who has not enough sand in her makeup to resist temptations 
before she enters the convent, will not resist them after she gets in. 

But, are there temptations in the convent ? Yes. But, do not take 
my word for it. Listen to St. Alphonsus Liguori, a great Catholic 
authority: 

"A religions, after a dispute with some of her sisters, will, at first, 
retain feelings of dislike, and thns is held by a single hair. 

After a little time, she will neither speak to them nor salute 
them; she is bound by a slender thread. Next, she will begin to injure 
them by words, and 'deeds;' she is fettered by a strong cord; then, 
on the first occasion for provocation, she conceives a mortal hatred 
toward them, and thus puts on the chains of hell, and the slavery of 
the devil." (True Spouse of Christ, page 66.) 

And the church of Rome says to a girl, "Go into a convent to 
avoid the temptations you are unable to overcome." 

Temptations against charity are not the only ones to be found 
in convents. Listen to this from the same saint: 

"Another religious will, at first, entertain a human affection for 
a friend. She then cherishes 'his' affection under pretext of gratitude; 
mutual presents follow; they are succeeded by words of endearment, 
and at the first assault of passion, the miserable soul is bound in 
the chain of death." 

What? Passion in a convent? 

The reader will, I hope, pardon me if I relate a little experience 
along this line which I witnessed while in the convent. 

During the hot summer months the sisters of the convent of St. 
Joseph of the Apparition in Mandalay, Burma, closed school and 
retired to the convent of the Order in the hill station of Maymyo, 
where we owned a cottage on the grounds of the convent there. 

A very devout sister of the Maymyo branch worried so about 
the health of the priest, Father J—, a French priest, that she 



5 6 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

took a daily stroll over to his house, which was close to the con-
vent, and could be reached by a little path. Her daily visits roused 
the ire of a Turkish sister, who was called the 'Terrible Turk', 
because she was known to be a spy. 

The superior put a stop to the pleasant visits, not, as she ex-
plained, that she cared, but Maymyo was a military station, and 
some of the soldiers, who were largely Protestants, might get wise 
and there would be scandal. Sin could be handled in the confession 
box, but not scandal. 

Angered, the Irish sister set to work to find out who the stool-
pigeon was. It was no easy task, for the convent system is honey-
combed with spies, who are known by the name of "discreets." 
They are the G-men, the undercover agents. They are seldom 
known. This is what makes friendship among sisters and nuns an 
impossibility. 

One night we were celebrating the feast-day of Mother Maltilda, 
the Superior. There are no birthdays in the convent. A nun cele-
brates on the feast-day of the saint whose name she received when 
she was professed. 

We had recreation, which meant that we were free to talk, 
where otherwise we would have eaten in silence. Wine loosened 
our tongues, and talk flowed freely, too freely, in fact; for the 
'Terrible Turk,' from her place of honor by the right hand of the 
Superior, made an insinuating remark about the Irish sister and 
the loss of her privileges in visiting Father J . 

True to the tradition of our race, we might fight among our-
selves, but when an outsider stuck his nose in we forgot our pri-
vate quarrel to gang up on the common enemy. Before the Su-
perior could intervene, we had rushed the head of the table and 



VOCATIONS 5 7 

were beating the "spouse of Christ" till she looked like a lost 
soul. Bottles were smashed over holy heads, curry and rice were 
plastered on the ceiling, and the Superior had to call in the native 
servants to stop the riot. 

Next morning, with black eyes and bruised faces, we lined up 
outside the confession box of Father J to confess our part in 
the fight and receive absolution from the very man we had fought 
over! Three years later I left the convent and the Irish sister and 
the 'Terrible Turk' had not up to that time ever spoken a word to 
each other. 

The ninth sign of a vocation is: "An attraction to the state of 
virginity." 

Roman Catholicism, like its counterpart, Hindooism, is a reli-
gion of sex worship. Hindooism is based on sex gratification; Ro-
man Catholicism on sex repression. Under the misleading name of 
"virginity," the church of Rome has capitalized on the false no-
tion that the instinct of procreation is, in itself, the greatest foe 
to spiritual advancement, and should be crushed out of existence. 
The whole theory of virginity rests on a solid foundation of ig-
norance of man's physical nature, and has given rise to some sad 
results. 

The very fact that something is prohibited adds immeasurably 
to its attractiveness. 

Ths late Justice Holmes said that "anything that assumes the 
necessity of the extermination of instincts which were given to be 
regulated, no matter by what name you call it, no matter whether 
a fakir, a monk, or a deacon believes it, if received, ought to pro-
duce insanity in every well-regulated mind." 



5 8 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

The tenth sign is: "The happiness which the thought of the re-
ligious life brings, its spiritual helps, its peace, merit and reward." 

How much does a girl, or anyone else, really know of the life 
of nuns in a convent? Nothing but what she sees of them as they 
walk two by two in public, and in some school or hospital. 

The girl who goes into a convent in the hope of finding happi-
ness there, will learn that Frank Crane was right when he said: 
"We carry happiness into our condition, but must not hope to find 
it there." 

The eleventh sign of a vocation is: "A longing to sacrifice one-
self, and abandon all for the love of Jesus Christ, and to suffer 
for His sake." 

The convent is a good place for a girl with a martyr complex. 
She will have plenty of opportunity to gratify her sadistic tenden-
cies, from stepping out on a cold stone floor at four or five on winter 
mornings, to having to eat fat meat, even if she throws it up. Soon, 
these brave souls would gladly lie down and die, but they will find 
they cannot do so. It is against the rule. Rome is not looking for 
martyrs. One nun on the hoof is worth a thousand on the calendar. 

The twelfth sign: "A willingness in one not having any dowry, 
or much education, to be received in any capacity, is a proof of a 
real vocation." 

I agree. Anyone who would want to go into a convent that 
much, should be given the opportunity. Note the important place 
given money. It ranks first in importance. After money comes edu-
cation. How carefully "God's secondary agents" select His spouses. 
Under these circumstances a vocation would be genuine. Not even 
the devil would be cruel enough to urge a girl to enter a convent 
without money or education. 



VOCATIONS 5 9 

In most convents where sisters are received without money or 
education, they are called "lay sisters," or servant sisters. They 
do all the dirty work of the convent. 

"Choir sisters," those who bring money or education, or both, 
and "lay sisters," those who bring neither money nor education, 
are supposed to be "Spouses of Christ," the same Christ who chas-
ed the money changers from the temple. 

Were it possible to find a Catholic girl who did not show any 
of the various signs of a vocation, the cause for the church is by 
no means lost. Father Doyle, the learned Jesuit priest, says that 
even though a girl has no sign of a vocation, she may, nevertheless, 
go into a convent for any or all of the following reasons: 

"Thwarted ambition." 

"The failure of cherished hopes." 

"The disappointments of a loving heart." 

Many honest Catholics vehemently deny that girls are urged to 
enter a convent because of some blighted romance, yet Father 
Doyle, a Catholic writer of note, especially on the question of con-
vents, readily admits the fact. 

A jilted girl, in the first rush of shame and agony at the shatter-
ing of her romance, is an easy victim of any priest. Knowing that 
such intense grief cannot last very long, the girl is urged to go 
into a convent at once. The poor girl sees in it a chance to get 
away from an embarrassing situation, and this, coupled with the 
fact that she is assured she can leave any time she wishes, has led 
thousands to rush headlong into the convent. 

The methods used to entrap the unwary into so-called voluntary 
slavery are reminiscent of the fable of the spider and the fly. Pic-
ture, if you can, the fate of a girl who impetuously follows the 



6 0 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

advice of an ambitious priest and hastens into a convent because 
of a disappointed love affair. Can she shut out memory? No. 
"Memory is the only thing that grief can call its own." Salvation 
for her lies in motion, not emotion. 

In active Orders of sisters, the activities we are familiar with, 
such as nursing, teaching, begging and so forth, are not in the 
novitiate curriculum. It is at this time that the girl mentally and 
emotionally sick needs action. This is exactly when she does not 
get it. 

One little word sums up why girls go into convents; that word 
is fear. Fear on the girl's part that she may have a vocation and 
must either go into a convent in this world, or go to hell in the 
next. Fear on the part of the church that the girl it wants may 
slip through the net, and thus deprive its organization of the 
wealth, health and labor of one more religious slave, which it 
badly needs to keep down the overhead on its invested billions. 



61 

CHAPTER IV 

AGE FOR ENTERING A CONVENT 

PRIESTS and preachers everywhere are loud in their condem-nation of the flippancy with which young people now enter 
the married state. With many of them marriage is a gay 

experiment into which they enter with the mental reservation that 
if they do not like it they can leave it. While most creeds hold that 
marriage is indissoluble, and can end only with the death of either 
party, the church of Rome holds that marriage between two hu-
mans is indissolable unless the parties to it happen to be wealthy, 
when it can be annulled. But marriage to God, or, as she likes to 
put it, "Becoming a spouse of Christ," is strictly a trial marriage. 

The chameleon church of the popes, while publicly condemning 
trial marriages for the people in the world, actually practices trial 
marriage in the convent. 

Just what this has to do with the age for entering a convent will 
be seen presently. 

The State has laid down laws governing the age for legal mar-
riage. Where these laws have been violated parents and guardians 
have the right to demand the annulment of such marriages. The 
girl who regrets her too hasty entrance into marriage has her par-
ents and the civil law to fall back on. 

The girl who regrets her too hasty entrance into a convent has 
neither. She is not free even to communicate with her own parents. 
Her mail, like that of prisoners in any other penitentiary, is cen-
sored, and, if necessary, mutilated before she gets it, if she gets it 



6 2 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

at all. The girl in the convent is in a pitiful quandary, for even to 
own up that she had all she wanted as Christ's spouse is to put 
herself on the spot. She automatically becomes her own accuser. 
She says to the petrified superior that she is no longer in love with 
Jesus Christ, not at least to the extent of wanting to marry Him. 
She is guilty of spiritual breach of promise, a monster of iniquity, 
a child of the devil, yellow to the core. She can leave, of course; 
no girl is wanted in the convent if she does not want to marry 
Jesus. If she wants to turn Him down, she may. It is nobody's busi-
ness but her own. If she wants to return to her people branded a 
yellow renegade, she may. They will give her back her clothes and 
open the gate. She was only a fraud anyway. Good riddance to 
bad rubbish! She is in the pillory. How many girls want freedom 
enough to ask it at such a price? The girl who leaves the convent 
is in the position of a soldier who has been drummed out of the 
army. 

Breaking humans is like breaking horses. The sooner it is done 
the easier it is. No institution in the world knows this any better 
than the church of the popes, for they have been breaking and 
crushing humans for centuries. Rome needs trained servants to 
keep the wheels of her machinery going, and it must get them 
early if the training is to be done easily. The earlier the better. 

In his book on Vocations, Father Doyle says: 

" 'It is well for a man to have borne the yoke from his youth,' says 
holy scripture; mindful of this counsel, and realizing that the pure heart 
of the young receive the impressions of virtue without difficulty, and easily 
form good habits, that it is above all the time of earnestness and gener-
osity, the church has always encouraged her children to give themselves 
to her service from their tender years. 

"The Council of Toledo has laid it down that, 'As soon as a child has 



AGE FOR ENTERING A CONVENT' 6 3 

arrived at adolescence, that is to say, at the age of twelve for girls, and 
fourteen, for boys, they may freely dispose of themselves by entering 
religion.' 

"It is not forbidden to enter at any age. The Council of Trent simply 
ordained that no one should be admitted to profession before the age of 
sixteen years complete. It did not forbid entrance before that time. 
According to recent legislation of the holy See, novices are not to be 
received below the age of fifteen. Experience has proven that a larger 
number of 'subjects' persevere among those who enter between the ages 
of sixteen and twenty, than among those who enter when they are older." 

The reason for this legislation is plain: 

The girl of tender years will of course receive the impressions 
of "virtue," especially in the novitiate where the impression is 
made with the mailed fist of a soul-destroying, heart-breaking dis-
cipline. The older girl is more liable to be critical, to defend her-
self, and to resist the branding iron and halter. It is so much easier 
to put the blinders on girls of tender years. It is therefore impor-
tant that girls be turned over to the convent as early as possible, 
that their immature minds and hearts may be warped into the 
thing the church of Rome wants them to be, empty shells of hu-
manity, soulless husks, fanatical morons, papal Janissaries, crea-
tures of a system stealthy and roguish as a fox, tortuous and treach-
erous as a snake, secret, cold and greedy as the grave. 

The Word of God is cleverly twisted to aid materially in the 
work of exploiting helpless childhood. 

It is well for man to have borne the yoke from his youth, for-
sooth! It is well to learn the art of the treadmill from one's tender 
years. It is so much easier than cracking one's shins later in life. 
It is good, indeed, to erase all trace of love for mother, father, 



6 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

brothers and sisters, lest these frivolous, worldly sentiments clash 
with thé loyalty which they owe the church of the popes. It is good 
to balk nature early and turn the procreative instincts into the 
sterile channels of religious ecstasy and borderline insanity. 

Much is heard of the regimentation of women in Soviet Russia, 
but little is heard of the regimentation of women in convents ev-
erywhere, not for the defense of the country in case of need, but 
in the interests of the politico-religious borer in international poli-
tics, the pope. 

A girl who has been in a convent from her tender years may 
reasonably be expected to persevere, for, like a child born in pris-
on, she knows no other world. Such girls have no trouble in dying 
to the world; they never lived. 

Father Doyle sighs for the days when the church was in the hey-
day of her power. He tells us in Vocations, that: 

"Special provisions were made in the Kule of St. Benedict for the 
admission of little children, who were offered by their parents to 
be educated and thereafter to persevere perpetually in the Order. 

The reception of a child in those days was almost as solemn as a 
profession in our own. His parents carried him to the church. Whilst 
they wrapped his hand which held the petition, in the sacred linen of 
the altar, they promised in the presence of God, and of His saints, 
stability in his behalf. 

Little beings, three or four years of age, were brought in the arms 
of those who gave them life, to accept at their bidding, the course 
in which that life was to run. 

They were brought to the sanctuary, received the cowl, and took 
their places as monks In the monastic community. St. Benedict was 
only twelve when he entered the cloister; St. Thomas of Aquin barely 
fourteen; St. Catherine of Ricci was professed at thirteen; Blessed 
Imelda died in a Dominican convent at the age of eleven; St. Rose of 



AGE FOR ENTERING A CONVENT' 6 5 

Lima VOWED HER CHASTITY TO GOD WHEN ONLY FIVE! 
In our own day Socur Therese, the Little Flower, was scarcely fifteen 
when she entered the monastery at Lisieux. 

The spirit breatheth where it will. There is no rule for vocations. 
No age limit for the 'call.' 

Innocence attracts the gaze of God; deep-rooted habits of sin (pro-
vided they are not persevered in) do not always repel Him. One 
comes because the world disgusts him; another loves it, and LEAVES 
IT WITH REGRET; docility draws down more graces, while re-
sistance often increases the force of His invitation. The little child 
hears His whisperings, while others have not been summoned till 
years were far advanced." 

Picture, if you can, a band of toddlers, some still in diapers, 
wearing the outlandish robes of monks and nuns and living in 
convents and monasteries, whose "chastity" was vowed to God 
before they knew they had any sex. The mind and heart revolt 
against parents who could thus abandon mere babes to the care 
of half-human fanatics, who, by swearing stability on their behalf, 
sold them into a bondage worse than death. 

A girl put on the auction block and sold to the highest bidder, 
was no worse off than a baby girl dumped into a convent for life. 
For sheer brutality I know of no religion except Hindooism which 
can even compare with the church of Rome in child traffic. 

Alexander Powell in his superb book, The Last Home of Mys-
tery, says on page 73: 

"It is by no means unusual for the pregnant Hindoo woman, in the 
hopes of obtaining a safe delivery, to make a vow that she will devote to 
the service of the gods the child which she is carrying in her womb, should 
it turn out to be a girl." 

It will be argued that the barbarous custom of putting babies 



6 6 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

in monastic institutions is no longer tolerated in our day. But the 
Roman Catholic church never changes of her own accord. 

Nothing but modern enlightenment prevents her from being 
her old intrinsic rotten self. Rome never changes, public opinion 
merely forces her to be cautious. 

The putting of children into monastic institutions is still prac-
ticed where feasible. Orphanages, for instance, are a fruitful field 
for future Spouses of Christ. This was forcibly brought home to 
me when I was a sister in St. Joseph's Convent, Mandalay, Burma. 

One day some of my pupils were discussing who had been the 
longest in the convent. One bragged that she had been in the con-
vent since she was two years old; another had been there since she 
was a year old, and so on. At last, Mother Superior Marie's pet 
chimed in and told the others that she had been in the convent 
longer than any of them—she had been born there! 

Therefore, according to Father Doyle, and he has the infallible 
Council of Trent back of him, a girl is never too young to go into 
a convent, or to be put there by her parents. The younger she is 
put in the better the church likes it. She is not to be given the white 
veil till she is fifteen, and not to be allowed to make the three 
vows till she is sixteen. Outside of that there is no age limit. 

Have Catholic parents nothing to say about girls of twelve free-
ly disposing of themselves by entering convents ? Are all Catholic 
parents willing to let the church cash in on their years of toil in 
bringing the girl up and educating her ? 

Father Doyle answers the question for us: 

"So jealous," he says, "is the church of this liberty for her children, 
that the Council of Trent excommunicates those, who, by force or fear, 



AGE FOR ENTERING A CONVENT' 6 7 

hinder anyone from entering religion without a just cause. As parents 
often exceed the authority given them by God, over their children, in 
the question of a choice of a state of life, it will be well here to quote 
the words of the great Jesuit moralist, Father Ballerini. He says, 'Paternal 
power cannot take away the right which sons and daughters have of 
making their own choice of a state of life, and if they will, to follow 
Christ's counsels. 

" 'The duty, however, which filial piety demands, ought not to be dis-
regarded, and leave of the parents ought to be asked. If it is refused, the 
children ought not to at once take their departure, but should wait for 
some little time, till the parents have realized their obligations. 

" 'If, however, there should be danger of unjustly hindering the fulfill-
ment of their children's vocation, they may, and ought to go without 
their parent's knowledge.'" 

St. Liguori quotes a number of theologians who hold that "par-
ents who prevent their children from entering religion sin mor-
tally." 

"To turn one from a religious vocation," says St. Jerome, "is 
nothing else than to slay Jesus Christ in the heart of another." 

Parents' objections do not count with the church of Rome when 
there is a chance of getting another slave for the treadmill. The 
priest in the confessional has duly impressed on the mind of the 
girl the fact that she does not have to pay any attention to her 
parents in the question. If they object, all she has to do is sneak 
off without saying anything. 

The parents are on the spot. The priest generally wins. Many 
parents try to talk the girl out of the notion of deciding in too 
big a hurry. Even this, honest as it seems, is bitterly condemned 
by the church. 

Father Doyle says in Vocations: 



6 8 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

"Endless harm has been done by well-meaning people, who, under 
pretext of trying a vocation, keep their girls from entering a religious 
house for years. They urge that getting to know the world will develop 
their faculties, and enable them to understand their own minds better; 
that such a process will broaden their views, and help them to judge 
things at their proper values; finally, that a vocation that cannot stand 
such a trial, the buffetings of dangerous temptations, and the seductive 
allurements of worldly pleasures, to which it has been unnecessarily ex-
posed, is no vocation, and had better be abandoned." • 

To all of which I heartily agree. Not so the church, whose 
greedy fingers itch to get possession of the girl before she has a 
chance to find out whether she is fitted for life in the convent or 
not. 

Father Doyle goes on: "Is the world the place for testing a voca-
tion?" asks St. Vincent de Paul. "Let the soul hasten as fast as 
possible to a secure asylum." As "secure" as a penitentiary. He 
continues: 

"The church, realizing the necessity of such a trial, prescribes at least 
a year of probation in every novitiate. There, safe from the contagious 
atmosphere of a corrupt world, with abundant time for prayer and thought, 
with liberty to remain or leave at will, each one can test for himself the 
sincerity of the desire he felt to abandon all things and follow Christ, 
before binding himself irrevocably by his vows." 

It follows from what has been said that once the voice of God 
has been recognized, that is, when the thought of leaving the 
world has been more or less constantly before the mind for some 
time, and the soul realizes, though she dreads it, "that the Lord 
hath need of her," the call ought to be promptly obeyed. 

St. Thomas holds that "the invitation to a more perfect life 
should be followed without delay, for those lights and inspirations 



AGE FOR ENTERING A CONVENT' 6 9 

from God are transient, not permanent, and therefore the divine 
call should be obeyed instantly. As of old when He worked His 
miracles, He went about doing good. Jesus of Nazareth passeth 
by. If you do not take advantage of His passing, He may never 
return. 'I stand at the door and knock,' He said. 'If any man shall 
hear my voice, and open to me, I will come to him,' if not, He may 
never call again." 

"Make haste, I beseech you," exclaims St. Jerome, "and cut, 
rather than loosen, the rope by which your bark is held fast to the 
land, for even a day's delay deprives a person of invaluable merit, 
which he would acquire in religion." 

"Delay is dangerous, and long deliberation," as Msgr. Malou 
assures us, "is unnecessary, for, of all the states of life, the reli-
gious life is, without any deliberation, and is that of which the 
choice should cause less doubt, and provoke the least hesitation, 
for it is in this state that fewer difficulties are met with, and the 
most means are found for saving souls." 

After listening to Father Doyle and a whole army of saints and 
theologians who assure us that a girl should take wings and fly 
into a convent without the least deliberation, one is tempted to 
ask a few questions. 

Why the hurry? 

Why should a day's delay be dangerous ? 

Why should a girl go into a convent if she dreads it? 

Why should a priest, "God's secondary agent," care whether 
a girl goes into a convent or not ? 

Why are Catholic parents excommunicated if they try to reason 
with a girl and get her to take her time about going in? 



7 0 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

Why are pious and learned persons accused of "spoiling God's 
work" if they insist on telling girls the truth about the convent be-
fore they go in, instead of letting them go in and find out from 
bitter experience? 

Because the church fully realizes and admits that the idea of 
going into a convent is only a "transient" notion, not a "perma-
nent" resolution, therefore they must rush the girl in before the 
notion passes out of her head. They must strike while the iron is 
hot. 

The church admits she is afraid to allow a girl to get a little 
experience of life before shutting her up. It is maddening for the 
priest to see years of urging, threatening, cajoling in the confes-
sional lost. Rather than do that the girl must be stampeded in. 
She can take as many years as she wants, all her life, if she cares 
to, to think it over—in the convent. 

This puts the girl who regrets her haste in a quandary. She has 
rushed into the nearest convent, perhaps over the protest of her 
parents, who wanted her to think it over. Now she has thought it 
over and regrets her unwise haste. Being a spouse of Christ seemed 
a grand thing, but living in a religious harem with an army of 
other spouses of Christ has cooled her ardor. What is she to do ? 

She is a criminal; a renegade. She is guilty of breach of promise. 
She has turned down Jesus Christ. The stigma which the church 
deliberately attaches to all those who dare to abandon convent 
life is another powerful reason why a girl, happy or not, feels she 
must remain. 

Stripped of its sanctimonious camouflage, we can see the naked 
truth of conventism, which is nothing but the recruiting of as 
many as possible of the mentally, physically, and financially fit 



AGE FOR ENTERING A CONVENT' 7 1 

into an army of soldiers of the pope, whose uniform they wear, 
whose laws they obey, and to whom they owe allegiance as to God. 

Candidates for the honor of spouse of Christ need not be moral-
ly fit, for the damaged souls can be given a dip in the confessional, 
the sacred Ganges of Rome. Nothing is permitted to stand in the 
way of the selective draft for the Battalion of Death. 

Slavery of the Negro has been abolished, but slavery in the 
church of Rome has not been interfered with. 

Frank Crane says truly: "Slavery is a danger to the nation, be-
cause it makes a politically non-active group of inhabitants. Any 
group or class for whatever reason, that does not participate in 
public responsibilities, is dangerous, including slaves, women, the 
idle rich, the highbrows who despise politics, and the anarchists 
who do not believe in government. The same prinicple holds true 
of the world. The world will never be 'safe for democracy' till the 
last autocratic government is removed. Liberty is a boat we're all 
in. A leak anywhere will sink it." 

While we pity the child-wives of Mother India, let us not forget 
the child-wives of mother church. 

One system is as disastrous as the other, and as detrimental to 
the welfare of the State. 

Should the pope, the most absolute ruler in the world, be per-
mitted to cull the best of the youth of both sexes, and under pre-
text of religion maintain thereby a veritable army of religious 
slaves, answerable to no one but him ? 

When will the American Catholic people wake up ? 



7 2 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

"In case of doubt, the presumption is in favor of the superior. Thus in 
cases where the lawfulness of an order given by a superior is doubtful, 
an inferior is bound to obey." —Manual of Christian Doctrine 

* # * * 

Q. "In what case should we refuse obedience to the civil authorities? 

A. "In case if should demand something opposed to divine law or to 

conscience." —Catholic Manual of Christian Doctrine 

* * * * 

Q. "Are we sometimes allowed to use mental reservation in a loose 
sense or determinable equivocation?" 

A. "Yes, when there is grave reason to do so. Such a manner of speak-
ing is not bad in itself; we have not the intention in that case of deceiving 
our neighbor, nor do we, as a fact, deceive him. We merely permit him 
to deceive himself concerning matters which he has no right to know and 
which oftentimes it were better for him not to know." 

—Catholic Manual of Christian Doctrine 



THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 7 3 

CHAPTER V 

THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 

THROUGHOUT the Orient the veil worn by women has been a badge of inferiority to show that woman is the prop-
erty of man. 

Happily, civilization has made great strides. In our own day 
the women of the Orient have risen in revolt against being the 
mere chattels and slaves of the men. 

In the Orient the veil is rapidly becoming a thing of the past, 
to be preserved in museums as a token of the times when women 
were considered unclean animals, who were created for the sole 
purpose of satisfying man's needs. In the world of emancipated 
women the veil is an anachronism, to be found nowhere save in 
Roman Catholic convents, being still worn by the "Lost Tribe," 
the Forgotten Women of the papal hierarchy. 

For them the veil, the emblem of slavery to man, is in order, 
for they are slaves of the pope who holds them in thrall by the 
Triple Cord of Poverty, Chastity, and Obedience. 

The New Century Dictionary defines the word "slave" as "A 
person who is the chattel or slave of another, and is wholly sub-
ject to his will; a bondservant, a serf." 

"Slavery" is defined as "Entire subjection to the will and com-
mands of another." 

Nuns and sisters are chattels of the church of Rome, slaves, en-
tirely subject to the will of the pope. 

Canon 499 of Canonical Legislation Concerning Religious, says: 
"All religious are subject to the Roman Pontiff as to their high-



7 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

est superior, and they are bound to obey him even by virtue of 
their vow of Obedience." 

Does any girl of sixteen realize the importance of such an oath? 
Is it fair to put mere children into monastic institutions and rear 

them up to be slaves of the pope ? By virtue of this oath and the 
law just quoted, when the pope cracks his whip in Rome, the 
puppet army of Janissaries all over the world jump to execute his 
commands for they are bound to him as to their highest superior. 
Orders from the pope are orders from God, whose vicar on earth 
the Pope claims to be. 

In every conflict between church and state, the pope has always 
relied on his "loyal subjects" to swing the tide in his favor. 

With regard to the use of the veil in the church of Rome, Mur-
phy & McCarthy in the Pictorial Catholic Library, a Catholic pub-
lication carrying the seal of approval of Michael Augustin, Arch-
bishop of New York, tell us: 

"The nuptial veil, or flammeau, as is well known, was in use among 
the Romans. St. Ambrose speaks of a veil (pallium stretched over the 
heads of the bride and groom during the celebration of marriage) with a 
mystical significance. 

"The priest officiates with veiled head in several Oriental rites—Coptic, 
St. Anthony, Abyssinian, Maronite." 

In Maskell's Monumenta Ritualia is printed a form for the con-
secration of nuns: 

"On the day of profession, the novices, clad in white, each bearing on 
the right arm the habit that the religion and profession requireth, with 
the veil, ring, and scroll of her profession attached upon said habit, and 
in her left hand bearing a taper without light, go in procession from 
the place where they were arrayed towards the western door of the choir, 
with looks bent on the ground, singing the response, Aud'tvi vocem. 
Passing through the choir and going up to the altar, they lay their veils, 



THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 7 5 

rings, and scrolls on the right end of it. Then they take the oath of Chas-
tity, and after receiving the habit from the bishop, return whence they 
came. 

After the credo the virgins return to the western door of the choir, 
bearing lighted tapers in their right hand. The rite proceeds; after the 
litanies each makes her profession before the bishop and the Abbess, and 
signs her scroll of profession with the cross. 

After the psalm, Domini qu'ts habitabit, during which the virgins 
prostrate themselves, they rise and go with the bishop to the right hand 
of the altar, and, taking their veils therefrom, hold them in their hands 
with their faces turned towards the bishop. He, standing in his place, 
blesses the virgins' hands with orisons. 

The first of these prayers is: 
'We suppliantly beseech thee, Oh Lord, that in thy clemency, a blessing 

may come down upon these veils which are about to be placed on the 
heads of thy handmaidens, so that they may be blessed, and consecrated 
and spotless, and holy for thy handmaidens.' 

The second prayer is: 
'Oh God, creator of all things visible and invisible, be mercifully pres-

ent with us, and vouchsafe to bless and sanctify with the streams of thy 
grace these veils which are the type of holiness, and the sign of humility; 
may Thy servants deserve through Thy gift, to take and hallow them in 
heart and body.' 

Every virgin, before the bishop puts the veil upon her head, kisses his 
hand. 

Being veiled, she sings, "The Lord hath clothed me with a garment 
woven of gold, and with immense jewels hath He adorned me.' 

The ritual of the ring succeeds, followed by the long Benediction, dur-
ing which the virgins lie prostrate. Before their 'houselling' the bishop 
draws down their veils over their eyes. After the communion, each gives 
up her taper to the bishop, after kissing his hand, and he gives to them 
all his benediction. 



7 6 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

Then the Abbess pulls their veils down beneath their chins, and so 
they remain for three days. On the third day, after they have communi-
cated, the Abbess lifts up their veils, and from that time on, they go and 
come as the other nuns in a convent." 

The above ancient form of taking the veil in a convent has been 
very slightly changed in our day. I took the veil in the Novitiate 
of the Sisters of St. Joseph of the Apparition, in Marseilles, France, 
in 1910. 

When I took the vows we were covered by a black pall com-
monly used to drape caskets, while we prostrated ourselves. The 
object of the pall was to show that we were dead to the world. 
A very pretty story was kept constantly in circulation about a 
novice who, when the "De Profundis" had been chanted while the 
candidates were lying face down under the black pall, had died, 
of love, of course, and she lived happily ever after. 

Before the ceremony of profession the church gives the convent 
authorities a good coat of whitewash. This is accomplished by 
means of an official visit to the novitiate, either by the bishop of 
the diocese, or some priest delegated by him. The object of this 
visit is to see that the girls are taking the veil of their own accord, 
and not being forced into it. 

A feast is served the visiting priest. After wining and dining, 
the priest takes up his place on a divan in the parlor. The novices 
are lined up like convicts outside the door, and are presented to 
him one at a time. 

According to canon 522 of Canonical Legislation Concerning 
Religious we learn that: 

"The superioress even of exempt religions, must Inform the local 
bishop at least two months In advance, of the approaching admis-
sion to the Novitiate, and to profession of temporary, and perpetual, 
or of solemn or simple TOWS. 



THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 7 7 

(2) The local Ordinary [bishop] or if he Is absent, or otherwise 
impeded, a priest delegated by him, must, at least thirty days before 
the admission to the Novitiate and to profession, carefully examine 
the disposition of the aspirant, and this gratuitously, without how-
ever, entering the enclosure. 

He must Inform himself whether she has been constrained or 
beguiled, and if she understands the import of the step she is about 
to take; and, I f he is fully satisfied, regarding her pious intentions, 
and freedom of action, then the aspirant may be admitted to the 
novitiate, or if already a novice, to profession." 

This law proves that it is customary to "constrain and beguile" 
girls to enter a convent. The right of parents to force their daugh-
ters to enter a convent even against their will, is freely admitted 
by the great Ligouri, and many others of equal standing. We have 
already seen that in the Rule of St. Benedict little children were 
dumped into monastic institutions by their parents and the latter 
swore "stability in their behalf." This attempt at fair play is most-
ly stage play, and is staged to keep the public quiet. 

"Tell the truth, but God help you if you do," was the advice 
given to us before we were examined by a priest. What does the 
visiting priest do if a novice tells him she had been "beguiled or 
constrained" or, to put it in plain language, "railroaded?" He 
merely informs the Mistress of Novices, and washes his hands 
of it. 

There is little danger, however, of many girls telling the priest 
they were forced, constrained, beguiled, lured, or whatever you 
like, into the convent. The church knows that after a year or two 
in the novitiate a girl will be sufficiently cowed not to have enough 
moral courage left to dare speak out. 

As I stood in line awaiting my turn to go in to the parlor and 
answer the question of whether or not I was beguiled or con-
strained to enter the convent, an Irish novice had the courage to 
tell the priest she was leaving for Ireland with her brother, a 



7 8 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

priest, who had come from Ireland to be present at her reception. 
Why did she do it? She had backing in the presence of one of 

her own flesh and blood. A girl far from parents and not at liberty 
to write them without censorship, would have hesitated to do so 
brave a thing. It would have required less moral courage to go on. 

Some days before the taking of the vows, which is known vari-
ously as "the ceremony of the Triple Cord" and "reception," the 
chosen few are headed for the last shampoo. The hair is carefully 
washed, braided, and cut off as closely as possible. It is sold to 
the hairdresser who makes the highest bid. 

God, we are told, tempers the wind to the shorn lamb, and the 
church tempers the wind to the shorn nun by forcing her to wear 
a bonnet which is as unsanitary as it is outlandish. 

The day before the taking of the vows and the black veil is 
looked upon as the last day of single blessedness for the novices. 
In the morning they will become the wives of God, phantom 
Spouses of Christ. 

For a week before the appointed day the Mistress of Novices 
takes the candidates to the chapel where she puts them through 
their paces. In most novitiates today it is the custom to allow a 
certain number of prominent people to witness the ceremony of 
profession. There must be no hitch. The girls are coached. Ques-
tions and answers are memorized, and the whole thing, instead 
of being spontaneous, as the public is led to believe, is mere pan-
tomine. 

Working girls into the convents and working them after they 
get in is a many-sided graft. Apart from the methods employed 
in "constraining and beguiling" girls to rush headlong into these 
institutions, there is a little side line which is worked overtime in 
most convents. 



THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 7 9 

If the girl who is about to become the bride of a mere man 
should have a wedding dress, how much more important is it that 
the girl about to become the "Spouse of Christ" have a trousseau? 

Each novice is told to write her parents or closest relative and 
ask them to send her a sum of money to purchase a fitting layout 
in which to be married to the Lord of Lords. 

The poorest of parents respond to this, and beg, borrow or steal, 
the money to send to the girl. It goes where all other money goes, 
into the bank to swell the bulging coffers of the papacy. Does the 
girl get a new bridal outfit? Certainly not. The robes in use for 
the ceremony last years and years. When they do wear out, some 
rich Catholic is persuaded to replace them with new ones. The 
holy racket goes merrily on. 

The three vows of a sister or nun are, Poverty, Chastity, and 
Obedience. 

As has been said, convents are operated for economic reasons, 
to supply the Catholic corporation with an army of slaves. There-
fore the first vow is, as it should be, that of Poverty. 

The vow of Poverty not only deprives the girl of the fruits of 
her labor, but denies her the right to sue for just compensation 
in case she should ever abandon the system. The church is pro-
tected all the way around. The vow of Poverty reduces those who 
take it to the status of paupers. 

St. Alphonsus Liguori on page 159 of his True Spouse of Christ, 
says: 

"Woe to them who introduce into religion a relaxation of holy 
poverty. Examine, Oh blessed sister, whether you keep money or 
any other kind of property without leave. And remember that the 
permission of the superior is invalid whenever its object is not just; 
for she cannot permit you to retain what cannot be lawfully kept. 



8 0 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

All the money, furniture, clothes, and whatever species of prop-
erty you possess, all that you receive from your parents or rela-
tives. or the fruits of your industry, belong, not to you, but to th® 
convent. 

You have only the use of what the superior gives you. Hence, if 
you dispose of anything without her leave, you are guilty of theft, 
by violating the vow of poverty." 

The saint goes on to explain that this oath of poverty, rigid as 
it is, is not enough. The poor sisters and nuns should practice 
"perfect poverty," of which there are three degrees. 

Liguori says: "The first degree of perfect poverty, is not to pos-
sess anything as one's own." 

"Hence," he tells us, "a religious should regard only as a loan 
whatever she possesses, and should be ready to give it up at the 
first inclination of the superior's will. She ought to be like a statue, 
which when dressed, is not elated, and when stripped, is not de-
jected. 

"The second degree of perfect poverty is to deprive yourself 
of whatever is superfluous; for the smallest superfluity will pre-
vent a perfect union of the soul with God." 

The same saint says that "The third degree of perfect poverty 
requires that you not complain when you are in want of necessi-
ties. Never ask your relatives anything for yourself; you may ask 
them something for the community, but never reserve anything 
for yourself." 

This oath of poverty includes such luxuries as love of parents, 
who must not only be given up, but actually hated for the love of 
God. 

St. Alphonsus, Rome's prince of theologians, tells us that: "If 
attachment to relatives were not productive of great mischief, 
Jesus Christ would not have so strenuously exhorted us to es-
trangement from them." 



THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 8 1 

Liguori continues: 
" 'If,' he says, 'any man come to me, and hate not his father and mother, 

and brethren and sisters, he cannot be my disciple.' (Luke xiv:26) And 
again, 'I came to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter 
against the mother.' {Matt. * :35) 

But why does the Redeemer insist so strongly on alienation from rela-
tives? Why does He take so much pains to separate us from them? 

He, himself, assigns the reason; it is because 'A man's enemies shall 
be those of his own household.' (Matt. x:36). Relatives are the worst ene-
mies of the sanctification of Christians, and particularly of religious; 
because they are, according to St. Thomas, the greatest obstacle to advance-
ment of virtue. 'Frequently,' says the holy Doctor, 'carnal friends oppose 
the progress of the spirit; for in the affairs of salvation, the nearest of kin 
are not friends, but enemies.' (2.2.-q.l89) 

The truth of this assertion is fully established by experience . . . He 
who desires to walk in the way of perfection must fly from relatives, must 
abstain from taking part in their affairs, and when they are at a distance, 
must not even enquire about them. The religious who tells her parents, and 
her brothers, and her sisters, that she knows them not, is the True Spouse 
of Christ." 

"It is," says St. Jerome, "a great advantage to forget your par-
ents; for then 'the King shall greatly desire your beauty.' " 

"For my part," says St. Teresa, "I cannot conceive what consola-
tion a nun can find in her relatives." 

"How many monks," says St. Jerome, "have by compassion to-
wards their father and mother, lost their own souls. A religious 
who is attached to her relatives has not as yet left the world." 

This infamous system, not satisfied with getting the girl away 
from her parents, poisons the mind and heart of the girl against 
the mother who bore her, as well as against father, sisters and 
brothers. 



8 2 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

Of all the crimes committed in the name of religion, this for-
cing of hatred of parents is the blackest. Siva may be the Great 
Destroyer, but Rome is the Great Dehumanizer. 

This doctrine of hatred of parents by nuns and sisters fully ex-
plains why a girl is not allowed to dispose of her property till 
sixty days before she is to take the veil and the vows. The church 
fully expects that by that time the girl will have learned the hymn 
of hate, and refuse to leave them anything. 

Chastity is the second vow. 
Catholics are wont to believe that their church is the only one 

which requires a vow of celibacy from its devotees. Paganism 
abounds in cults where a vow of celibacy is required. 

The teaching of the Roman Catholic church on this question is 
too well known to require only passing mention. She holds that 
sexual relationship, even in marriage, is a shameful thing, the 
married state little better than whoredom. Virginity, which mere-
ly means the unmarried state, is held up as the perfect state, and 
therefore more pleasing to God. Marriage is spoken of slightingly, 
as a lower form of morality, especially designed for the less per-
fect. 

On page 3 of True Spouse of Christ, Liguori says, " 'The un-
married woman/ says St. Paul, 'and the virgin thinketh on the 
things of the Lord; that they may be holy both in body and in 
spirit. But she that is married thinketh on the things of the world, 
how she may please her husband.' " (I Cor. VII. 34) 

In the confessional the married state is painted as dangerous. 
Dire warnings are given to any desirable girl who may be matri-
monially inclined in order to turn her toward the convent. 

St. Alphonsus Liguori even brings up the in-law question. He 
says: "The married woman must provide for her family, educate 



THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 8 3 

her children, please her husband, his brothers, parents and rela-
tions, who are sometimes to her a constant source of trouble." 

He says further: "The husband must be attended to, and if his 
directions are neglected, or his commands be not immediately ex-
ecuted, he breaks out into complaints and reproaches. The servants 
disturb the house, at one time by the clamor of their quarrels, at 
another, by their importunate demands. The children, if small, are 
a perpetual source of annoyance, either by their screams and cries, 
or by the endless variety of their wants; if grown up, they are an 
occasion of still greater inquietude, fears and bitterness, by asso-
ciating with bad companions, by the danger to which they are ex-
posed, or the infirmities with which they are afflicted." 

This pious monstrosity is the holy Roman Catholic church, who, 
when occasion demands, can preach with so much unction: "Suf-
fer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdom of 
heaven." This is all right when she is wildly exhorting the illiter-
ate masses of Catholics to increase and multiply like flies, but 
when her priests are luring a suitable girl into a convent, marriage 
and motherhood are condemned as degrading. Children then are 
a "perpetual source of annoyance." 

Liguori again says: 
"How unhappy and miserable is the life of the generality of married 

persons, from the highest to the lowest classes of society. I have known the 
circumstances, feelings, and dispositions of a great number of married 
persons, (through the confessional). How few of them were content! 

The bad treatment of husbands, the disaffection of children, the wants 
of the family, the control of relatives, the pains of childbirth—pains which 
are always accompanied by danger of death—plunge poor seculars into 
constant trouble and agitation; and fill their souls with continual regret 
for not having been called to a happier and more holy state. God grant, 
that in the middle of such trouble and agitation many of them may not 



8 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

lose their immortal souls, and that, along with passing through a hell in 
this life, they may not be condemned to an eternity of torture in the next." 

Yet the Catholic church, which thus paints marriage as a sort 
of hell on this earth, and a good beginning for the real hell to 
come in the next world, will not even let people get out of it by 
means of divorce. 

There is no lie, no slander, I may say no crime to which the 
church of the popes will not stoop to get slaves for her institutions. 
Perversion of the truth is her chief means. 

If marriage has its drawbacks, celibacy has them also, but of 
these no words ever escape the priest. 

Forbidding something is only another way of making it popu-
lar, and desirable. A writer on the subject of celibacy has said: 
"A morbid fear of sexual excitement, a constant turning of the 
thoughts to dangers of sin from that source, are calculated, in 
some temperaments, to weaken, and not to strengthen the resolu-
tion. Nature seeks what is not allowed, and the result of over-
strained terrors manifests itself occasionally in fearful scenes of 
violence." 

Like the vow of poverty, that of chastity is purely economic in 
its objective. It secures in almost all cases the wealth of the mem-
bers of religious orders. Married nuns, sisters, monks, and priests 
would naturally leave their wealth to their families. 

Obedience is the third oath. 

Elbert Hubbard says in his Note Book, "That which would des-
troy initiative, would destroy civilization." 

The vow of obedience destroys initiative completely. A glance 
at Catholic countries is proof of this. Even the laity feel the dead-
ening effects of the obedience which the church requires of them. 



T H E VEIL AND THE VOWS 8 5 

Catholic lands stagnate. The vow of obedience is the death of 
morality. It substitutes the voice of the priest for the voice of con-
science. The vow of obedience destroys conscience. Blind obedi-
ence and conscience cannot live under the same roof. One must 
go, and it is conscience. 

The first effect of the vow of obedience is to deify the superior 
and the confessor, so that the sisters need have no scruples in 
blindly obeying either in any thing they might choose to command. 
The theory of that is that these two are God's representatives, and 
therefore can do no wrong, and, anyway if they do, the sister need 
not let that worry her, since she will not have to answer for it. In 
the hands of a skilled casuist of the church, Holy Scripture be-
comes a sort of pious poison. 

Liguori says in True Spouse of Christ: 
"The principal and most efficacious means of practicing the obedience 

due to superiors, and of rendering it meritorious before God, is to con-
sider that in obeying them, we obey God himself; and that by despising 
their commands, we despise the authority of our Divine Master, who has 
said of superiors, 'He that heareth you, heareth Me, and he that despiseth 
you, despiseth Me.' Hence, St. Paul addressed to his disciples the follow-
ing words, 'Not serving to the eye, as it were pleasing men, but, as the 
servants doing the will of God from the heart." 

When, then, a religious receives a precept from her prelate, superior, 
or confessor, she should immediately execute it, not only to please men, 
but principally to please God, whose will is made known to her by their 
commands. In obeying their directions she is more certain of doing the 
will of God, than if an angel came down from heaven to manifest his 
will to her." 

What a cinch for the priest! 
Liguori has more to tell us about the divinity of the priests and 

the superior and the bishop. He says: 



8 6 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

"St. Bernard says God deigns to make prelates His own equal, 
hence he takes to Himself the reverence or contempt manifested 
towards them. Obedience shown to superiors Is obedience shown to 
God; for He has said, 'He that heareth you, heareth Me, he that 
despiseth you, despiseth me.' 

Bear then always in mind, oh blessed sister, that the obedience 
which you practice towards your superior is paid to God Himself. 
If Jesus Christ Himself came down from heaven and imposed any 
duty upon you, or gave you any particular charge, would you attempt 
to decline it? Or would you dare to disobey His commands? 'But,' 
continues St. Bernard, 'whether God, or a creature who is His 
representative, impose a precept, they are both to be obeyed with 
equal exactness.' 

H, then, you receive a command from one who holds the place 
of God you should observe it with the same diligence as if it came 
from God Himself. By some masters of the religious life, the priest 
and the superior are placed higher than God. Blessed Egidius used 
to say that it is more meritorious to obey man for the love of God 
than to obey God Himself." 

In spite of the efforts of the church to make gods out of priests, 
prelates and superiors, these persons remain very human, as his-
tory plentifully proves. 

The reader is liable to wonder what a sister should do in case 
she would receive an order from the superior or priest which she 
knew was manifestly bad. 

Saint Alphonsus Liguori says: 

"There is more certainty of doing the will of God by obedience to super-
iors than by obedience to Jesus Christ, should He appear in person and 
give the commands. Because, should Jesus Christ appear to a religious, 
she would not be certain whether it was He who spoke, or an evil spirit, 
who, under the appearance of the Redeemer, wished to deceive her. But 
when her superiors speak, she knows for certain, from the words of Jesus 
Christ, that in obeying them, she obeys Him. 'He,' says the Lord, 'that 
heareth you, heareth Me.' 



THE VEIL AND THE VOWS 8 7 

Even when it is doubtful whether the object of a precept is conformable 
to the law of God, the generality of theologians and masters of the 
spiritual life teach that a religious is bound to obey, and in obeying, she is 
certain of not sinning, and of even pleasing God. 

Speaking particularly of nuns, the Lord once said to St. Catherine of 
Sienna, 'Religious will not be obliged to render an account to Me of what 
they do through obedience; for that I will demand an account from the 
superior.' 

And, Oh blessed spouse of the Lord," Liguori goes on, "if you practice 
obedience, when, after death, you shall be asked by Jesus Christ why have 
you not done greater penance? Why have you not made more mental 
prayers ? You can answer with confidence, that in all this you only fulfilled 
His commands by obeying your superiors, whom He commanded you to 
obey as you would Himself; and that if you have done wrong, the blame 
is imputable to your superior, whose authority you obeyed." 

This scandalous doctrine not only victimizes the helpless women 
in these institutions, but is a dangerous weapon in the hands of 
a dissolute confessor. No question is raised as to the moral char-
acter of the priests, prelates, and superiors who are raised to the 
godhead, and given power of life and death over these Forgotten 
Women. 

St. Gregory teaches that "The commands of superiors should 
be respected, though their lives be not deserving of praise." 

And again St. Liguori tells the unfortunate women in the con-
vents, "All things whatsoever they say to you, observe and do, 
but according to their works, do ye not." 

He says in another place, "To regard as good whatever superi-
ors command, is the 'blind obedience? so much praised by the 
saints, and is the duty of every religious." 

In the face of such an immoral doctrine, of what use is con-
science to a nun ? Like an appendix, she can, and does, get along 



8 8 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

very well without it. In fact she is better off without it, for she 
could not use it anyhow. 

St. Mary Magdalen de Pazzi sums up the vow of Obedience 
very nicely in the True Spouse of Christ (p. 122): "Perfect obedi-
ence requires a soul without a will, without intellect." 

In plain English a nun or a sister is a mere robot who is owned 
and operated by the priest, bishop, and superior, who represent 
God, and are answerable to Him alone, or to His other self, the 
pope, in far away Rome. From the decisions of this unholy trinity 
the Forgotten Women have no appeal. Moral, or immoral, the 
orders of this religious triumvirate must be obeyed. 

We now see why the church of Rome is ready to fight to the 
last ditch any attempt to open convents to the civil authorities. 
Such a move would interfere with the "smooth operation" of the 
institution. How "smooth" only those who, like myself, have been 
victims of it, are in a position to tell. 

Poor nuns! I pity you far more than the wives of the gods in 
the temples of India, who are the object of constant solicitude by 
hordes of missionaries. Their unfortunate lot is open for all the 
world to see. Over the lives of the phantom Brides of Christ, the 
church of the popes has carefully drawn a screen of fake sanctity 
and phoney mystery, lest an aroused public demand a square deal 
for the Forgotten Women, in the harems of the pope. 

si» sj» ifs 

"Are there cases wherein children should not obey their parents?" 
"Yes; 1. When their parents make them do something directly opposed 
to the commandments of God, or of the church; 2. When they unreason-
ably oppose their children's vocation; for, with reference to the choice of 
a state of life, children are independent of their parents." 

—Catholic Manual of Christian Doctrine 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 8 9 

CHAPTER VI 

ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT? 

"The vows of a nun are a fetter of brass. Around the nun is an invisible 
wall so high she cannot scale it, so strong she cannot pierce it. If she aban-
dons the convent she abandons the only friends she knows. The years she 
has spent in the convent, far from fitting her to cope with reality, have 
made her a creature without a will of her own." —Daniel March 

ARE GIRLS FREE to leave the convent? To this question the Catholic church answers an emphatic yes. This, of 
course, is to be expected. One could not reasonably expect 

the church to answer truthfully a question which so vitally con-
cerns her interests and welfare. The question is, however, too im-
portant to be thus lightly dismissed. We shall see what the church 
permits her spokesman to say on the subject. 

Father Doyle is a good witness because he is a Roman Catholic 
priest, and his book Vocations, not only bears the official stamp 
of church approval, but, due to its cheapness, it has attained a 
wide circulation among the poorer, uneducated classes, from 
which the greater number of priests and sisters are recruited. 

When, as occasionally happens, a member of some prominent 
family "has been led captive to the feet of the Divine Hunter" the 
newspapers ring with the story of it. When, however, one of the 
inhabitants of shady lane, or one of the rag-tag and bob-tail en-
ters, nothing is said. When a particularly malodorous soul enters 
a convent, she is quietly sent to a distant place where the fame of 
her exploits will not follow her, for we must not forget "that a 
sinful life in the past in no impediment to a vocation." 



9 0 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

The church admits that a vocation to the life of a nun should 
be tested, but insists that the testing be done on the inside, after 
the girl has entered, and not on the outside before she takes the 
final step. This "leap before you look" policy is obviously unfair 
and dishonest. 

" 'Is the world the place for testing a vocation?' asks St. Vincent de 
Paul. 'Let the soul hasten as fast as possible to a secure asylum.' 

"The church, realizing well the necessity of such a trial, prescribes at 
least a year of probation in every novitiate before admitting candidates 
to the profession. There, safe from the contagious atmosphere of a cor-
rupt world, with abundant time for prayer and thought, with liberty to 
remain or leave at will, each one can test the sincerity of the desire he 
felt to abandon all things and follow Christ, before binding himself 
irrevocably by his or her vows." 

This generous offer of a trial sample of convent life, while ap-
pearing in the guise of a fair offer, is in reality a sugared pill, a 
subtle taunt to the youth in search of a thrill. It is a powerful ap-
peal to the dare-devil spirit of bravado common to youth. It 
smacks of gambling. Life itself is only a gamble, why not take a 
fling at convent life ? If you do not like it you can leave it, but by 
all means go in. 

The system has been long ago made famous by the song, 
" "Won't you walk into my parlor,' said the spider to the fly." The 
church, a religious Black Widow, is willing to promise anything 
to her victim, till she gets possession. 

We have examined the methods used to get the girl into the 
convent, from bribery to force. Let us take a look at the girl who 
wants to leave a convent, and see if the promise to be free to leave 
any time she feels like it is true. 

A novitiate is a training school for nuns and sisters. Every Or-
der has one of its own. No matter where a girl enters a convent 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 9 1 

she must go to the novitiate to make the vows, unless the pope 
grants some special permit to the contrary. 

A novitiate is commonly spoken of as "the mother house," be-
cause it is usually the residence of the Mother General, or highest 
superior of that particular Order. Most convents permit a girl to 
remain a few months in the local convent where she entered be-
fore sending her to the Mother House to begin training. This is 
done to wean her gradually from her parents, lest a too violent 
separation from them cause resentment on the part of the parents. 

It is thought best not to kill the girl at once, but let her die to 
the world a little at a time. In the place where she has close rela-
tives, the officers of the institution have to be careful how they 
treat her, lest she manage to inform her family that she is dis-
illusioned, and desires to return to her home. Later, when she can-
not personally communicate with them, except by mail, there is 
no danger of anything detrimental to the convent getting out. 

A postulant, or beginner, is a sort of decoy to entice others to 
take a chance. The presence of a girl or two is a good talking 
point for the local priests. 

On the trip to the novitiate the girl is accompanied by a trusty, 
or "discreet." The girl is not trusted to make the trip alone. The 
trusty handles all money, tickets, etc. She must also see that the 
neophyte does not talk to strangers while en route between pens. 
Many a steamship acquaintance has ripened into a romance which 
has robbed mother church of a worker. 

When the shipment arrives at its destination, they are met by 
the closed convent car and conducted to the novitiate, as cats 
are conducted to the mill pond. As girls are usually permitted to 
travel in their own clothes, the first step on arriving in the no-



9 2 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

vitiate is that of divesting them of their own garments and re-
placing them with the robe worn by the postulants. 

The girl's trunk and her belongings, including photos, even 
of her parents who are so soon to be ranked as enemies, are 
locked in the store room to which the Mistress of Novices has the 
key. Photos are abhorred by every Mistress, for they not only make 
"dying to the world" harder by prolonging the agony, but may 
put that happy event off indefinitely. Even the memory of parents 
must be obliterated, if the girl is to become a "True Spouse of 
Christ," a Janissary. Her hair is left to her, but it must be kept out 
of sight till it is shorn when she takes the vows. 

The final step in the program is the removal of all identifica-
tion marks. This is done at one stroke by changing the girl's name 
and giving her a fictitious one, usually the name of some imagin-
ary saint. 

I was given the name of Sister Mary Ethelreda, which was shor-
tened to Sister Mary Ethel. 

If the girl could see herself now she would not know herself, 
but fortunately she is spared this humiliation, for there are no 
mirrors in the convent. After being solemnly warned that she must 
not reveal her real name or the whereabouts of her parents to her 
"sisters," she is led to the community room and presented to them. 
The wisdom of this last precaution will readily be appreciated if 
we stop to realize that a disgruntled sister who knew the where-
abouts of the families of others who were unhappy, might cause 
a world of embarrassment to the convent by carrying uncensored 
messages to the families concerned. 

Father Doyle says a girl in the novitiate is free to stay or leave 
at will, but the same girl is not even free to write her parents at 
will. She is to all intents and purposes a prisoner, whose mail is 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 9 3 

censored. The moment a girl enters the massive portals of any 
novitiate she ceases to exist as an individual. She is one more sheep 
in the flock. This is fine for the institution, but how about the 
effect on the girl ? 

"A number is never tough," a great penologist in America re-
cently said of a notorious prisoner. The same is true of an alias 
wearer. The man or woman who for any reason finds it necessary 
to use an assumed name, loses self-respect, and with it courage 
and initiative. Such individuals lose out in their own esteem. Over 
such a character one might as well write "here lies." The inmate 
of a pentitentiary living under a number, and the inmate of a con-
vent living under an assumed name, are in the same boat. The 
transformation is complete. The girl's clothes, money, name, all 
are gone. She has burned her bridges, or rather the bridges have 
been skilfully burned from under her. Soon a yawning gulf will 
separate her from all she once loved and held dear in the world 
of reality. 

She is alone. There are no friends in the convent. This is only 
one of the things she was told before she entered. She will dis-
cover many more as she goes on. In friendship there is union, and 
in union there is strength, hence there is no friendship allowed 
in the convent—in any convent. Friendship is the one thing the 
church dreads among sisters and nuns. A sisterhood united in the 
bonds of genuine affection would be more dangerous than all the 
anti-Catholics in the world. They must be kept strangers, suspici-
ous of one another, lest, if trouble arise, their unity be the cause 
of bringing about needed reform. 

Under these circumstances, the girl soon falls back on herself, 
for she learns that she dare not trust anyone in the novitiate, where 
the spy system is in full force. Enemies are all around her, but no-
where a friend. 



94 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

The first week she is allowed to sleep till time for mass. Noth-
ing much is required of her. She has been taken in tow by an 
old novice who breaks her in. This novice shows her how to put 
on the robes, etc. About the second week, before the sharp corners 
of reality begin to show through, she is "permitted to write to 
her parents." 

Naturally the unsuspecting girl gives her impressions of the 
novitiate. She invariably seals the letter and lays it on the desk of 
the Mistress of Novices, for she has no stamp, and if she had the 
stamp, she is not free to go outside the gate to mail her letter to 
her own parents. Such is the freedom in the convent, where we 
are assured the girl is at absolute liberty to stay or leave at will. 

If her letter does not meet with the full approval of the Mis-
tress, the culprit will make the transition from the romance of 
convent life to the reality at one step. Her letter will be handed 
back to her with the curt order to delete all underlined parts and 
re-submit it for approval. So sharp a curtailment of personal lib-
erty often opens the eyes of many a would-be Spouse of Christ. 
She now begins to know what Father Doyle meant by "being led 
captive to the feet of the Divine Hunter." As the cold reality 
creeps in on her she realizes that she is in a trap. 

I marvel when I recall the day, years ago, when a new girl stood 
up and informed our Mistress of Novices, Mother Xavier, that she 
would not take out one word that she had written her parents, 
and that in addition she intended to return to her home on the 
next boat. After all, she was only doing what she had been assured 
she could do any time she felt like it. 

I can still see the stunned look on the face of the Mistress of 
Novices. The Mother Superior had the girl's money, her trunk 
was locked up and the Mistress had the key. The girl was not free 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 9 5 

in a supposedly free convent to go into her own trunk, and the 
rags she was wearing were not hers, but the property of the com-
munity. We saw her no more. 

By what authority does the church of Rome tamper with the 
mail ? No authority, save that of the pope, who claims to be a law 
unto himself. 

St. Alphonsus Liguori says in his True Spouse of Christ-. "Be 
careful not to make known to externs the internal concerns of the 
convent, and particularly what might tend to the discredit of the su-
perior or the sisters." Rome, as usual, is only concerned with con-
cealing the defects of the system, and not in honestly correcting 
the abuses. The whole cry is do not let the public know what goes 
on in the convents and all will be well. 

The following list of persons to whom a girl in a convent may 
write is taken from Canonical Legislation Concerning Religious. 

"All religious, whether men or women, can freely send letters, 
exempt from all control, (1) to the Holy See [the pope himself]; 
(3) to his legate in the country; (8) to their cardinal protector; (4) 
to their own higher superiors; (5) to the local Ordinary [bishop] 
to whom they are subject, and, in the case of nuns, subject to the 
jurisdiction of Regulars, to the higher superiors of the Order; (6) 
to the superior of their own house [convent] when absent. 

From all these persons, the religious, men or women, have the 
right to receive letters which nobody has the right to open." 

Parents are absent from the list of those to whom religious may 
write without having the letters opened and read. 

The law which governs the coming and going of inmates of 
convents, is known as "The Law of Papal Enclosure." 

Canon 602 says: 
"The enclosure of the monastery of nuns should be protected on 

every side in such a manner as to prevent, as far as possible, those 
within from being seen by, or seeing persons without." 



9 6 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

Canon 607 says: 
"The superioress, and the local Ordinary, shall attentively see 

that the religious, except in case of necessity, do not go out singly 
from the house." 

This canon, or law, explains why sisters are never seen alone 
in public. Always there are at least two. 

In "constraining and beguiling" girls to go into the convent 
the slogan is, "Be a 'sport and take a chance. If you don't like it 
you can leave it." 

Now, the tables are turned, and holy and wise mother church 
is not taking any chance on losing a good slave. 

Whenever a case of necessity arises and it is necessary to send 
someone out to shop, beg, or transact some other business, the 
"Law of Papal Enclosure" is freely interpreted and the superior 
selects two suitable sisters. She makes her choice among those who 
have been the longest in the convent, as being most likely to be 
dead. She sometimes selects a younger sister to accompany an 
older one for the purpose of observing, so that she, when her 
turn comes, may be made a "Discreet" or trusty. It is understood, 
of course, that the older sister is to keep close track of the younger 
and not let her get out of sight, or permit her to speak to anyone. 

When a choice has been made, the portress is informed. The 
reason is obvious. The portress will open the gate for the sisters 
she knows are going out with the permission of the superior. 
None others need apply. It has been tried many times. 

Outside of the superior, the most important functionary in the 
convent is the portress. Liguori says to her in his True Spouse: 

"Be not idle at the turn [gate], employ the little moments of time you 
have in working or reading; or at least in recollection with God, looking 
occasionally at some sacred image. When you open the door, cast down 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 9 7 

your eyes, if you wish not to expose yourself to a thousand defects, and a 
thousand temptations. 

Do not, I say, remain idle; do not neglect the duty of opening the 
door, and giving, without delay, the message to the nuns. You must, 
however, take care not to bring them inconvenient messages, nor call them, 
without first speaking to the superior, to any person who might wish to 
speak to them. Be careful to lock the 'inner' as well as the 'outer' doors 
at the prescribed hours." 

To make assurance doubly sure the rule of Grand Silence was 
invented. 

In convents where the sisters or nuns sleep in individual cells, 
the superior or a trusty makes the rounds to see that all are where 
they should be, instead of holding bootleg conversation with other 
sisters, or, worse still, with outsiders. 

In convents where the sisters sleep in dormitories, "Grand Si-
lence" is very helpful. It begins every night, usually at nine o'clock, 
when the bell tolls lights out. It lasts till seven o'clock the follow-
ing morning. During this time no sister is permitted to utter a 
word unless in case of grave necessity, such as fire, severe illness, 
or other emergency. In such cases the sister who desires to leave 
the dormitory must notify the trusty who occupies the cell nearest 
the door, and get permission from her. 

If a girl is not free to write to her parents without having her 
mail censored; 

If she is not free to use her own name; 
If she is not free to speak to her so-called sisters except at 

stated times, and then under close supervision; 
If she is not free to leave the dormitory without the permission 

of the trusty on duty; 
If she is not free to make any friends in the convent; 



9 8 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

Is she free to leave the convent? 

Leaving a convent is like leaving a penitentiary. 

The first step on the road to freedom is a discharge. A sister is 
not free to walk out. The sister, even though she is only a postu-
lant, or beginner, who dares to leave the convent without first 
obtaining a discharge, is as much a fugitive in the eyes of the 
church of Rome as a prisoner who flees the penitentiary is in the 
eyes of the civil law. 

It is precisely to avoid the temptation to take French leave that 
the convent adopted the custom of taking a girl's clothes away 
from her and putting them where she could not get to them, and 
forcing her to wear a strange regalia known as the "holy habit." 

In penitentiaries the striped jacket and trousers take the place 
of the "holy habit." The extreme singularity of the garb worn by 
nuns and sisters is in itself a formidable barrier to a sister's walk-
ing away without drawing attention. A girl who would show up 
among her former friends in the garb of a sister or nun would be 
branded as a renegade, and only those who have lived among 
Catholics know the opprobium attached to that name. 

A nun or sister, or postulant, who leaves a convent without ob-
taining permission to do so, is automatically excommunicated. 

Between the canon law of the church and the glib promises 
dished out to a gullible candidate there is a world of difference. 
Someone is lying. In the convent freedom is an unknown quantity. 
So alone is the girl in the novitiate that she is not free to speak 
even to the old sisters who have been through the mill, and, for 
one reason or another, have been sent back to the novitiate to await 
the last lights out. The old sisters occupy a separate wing of the 
building and eat at different tables. Communication between them 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 9 9 

and the younger sisters is absolutely prohibited. The church fears 
that many of these poor old creatures would tell the Postulants to 
turn back while they still have will power left, before they sink in 
the morass , of despair, and begin to float listlessly down the river 
of "I don't care." The old nuns' secrets go to the grave with them. 
Dead nuns tell no tales; nor live ones either, in the novitiate, for 
they are not free to speak to each other. 

Canon 564 says: 

"The novitiate shall be, as far as possible, separated from that 
part of the house Inhabited by the professed religious, so that, 
without a special cause, and the permission of the Superior, or the 
master or mistress of novices, the novices may not communicate with 
the professed religious, nor these latter with the novices." 

And again: 

"Do not permit the novices to be familiar with the religious, or 
with the postulants, mnch less with each other; be careful, then, 
not to allow them to wander about the monastery without a com-
panion. Do not permit any particular friendship either among the 
sisters or with externs, and should you be unable to prevent them, 
you should have recourse to the prelate." 

Deprived of every human right, the unfortunate girl finds her-
self up against a conspiracy of silence. The word "sister" is, in 
the convent, a hollow mockery. Instead of being sisters they are 
strangers, even enemies. Where is the priest who so eloquently 
talked her into the convent? Will he help get her out? Of course 
not. He is paid to get recruits for the church. His duty ends there. 

Blocked at every turn there is nothing for the novice to do but 
work up enough spirit to approach the Mistress of Novices and 
tell her that she wishes to return to the world, the flesh and the 
devil. 



1 0 0 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

The church says a girl should rush into a convent the moment 
she imagines she has a vocation, for "the lights and inspirations 
from God are transient, not permanent." Does she tell the same 
thing to the girl when the light goes out in the convent, and the 
girl sobers up to the fact that she had no calling except what the 
priest persuaded her to do? Does she urge haste in leaving as she 
did in entering ? 

Certainly not. The notion to go in could only come from one 
source—God. The notion to leave could only come from one 
source—the devil. Therefore it should not be acted on without 
mature reflection and due consideration. 

The frequency with which nuns and sisters apply for the right 
to leave the convent inspired St. Alphonsus Liguori to devote a 
chapter to that problem in the True Spouse of Christ. 

To the nun who applies to the priest, the following colloquy 
is addressed: 

"But perhaps you tell me that you will never have peace because you 
find that you have entered religion to please your parents, and against 
your own will. 

I answer thus; if, at the time of your profession, you had not a vocation, 
I would not have advised you to make-the vows of religion; but I entreat 
you to suspend your resolution of going back to the world, and casting 
yourself into the many dangers of perdition which are found in the world. 

I now see you placed in the house of God, and made, either voluntarily, 
or unwillingly, the Spouse of Christ. For my part I cannot pity you more 
than I could pity a person who had been transported, even against his will, 
from a place infested with pestilence and surrounded with enemies, to a 
healthful country, to be placed there for life, secure against every foe. 
I add; grant that what you say is true, now that you are professed in a con-
vent, and it is impossible for you to leave it, tell me what you wish to do 
about it? 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 1 0 1 

If you entered against your inclinations, you must now remain with 
cheerfulness. 

If you abandon yourself to melancholy, you will lead a life of misery, 
and will expose yourself to great danger of suffering a hell here, and a 
hell hereafter. You must, then, make a virtue of necessity, and if the devil 
has brought you into religion for your destruction, let it be your care to 
avail yourself of your holy state to gain salvation and to become a saint. 
Give yourself to God from the heart, and I assure you that by so doing, 
you will become more content than all the princesses and queens of the 
world." 

Quoting from the same standard textbook on the life of a nun, 
we read: 

"Being asked his opinion regarding a person who had become a nun 
against her will, St. Francis de Sales answered: 'It is true that this child, 
if she had not been obliged by her parents, would not have left the world, 
but this is of little importance, provided that she knows that the force 
employed by her parents is more useful to her than the permission to fol-
low her own will. For now she can say, 'If I had not lost such liberty, I 
would have lost true liberty.' 

The saint meant to say, that if she had not been compelled by her par-
ents to become a nun, her liberty, which would have induced her to remain 
in the world, would have robbed her of the true liberty of the children of 
God, which consists in freedom from the chains and dangers of the world. 

You may say in reply, 'but, how can I be content, if I have not been 
called to religion?' 

But what does it matter, that you have not had a vocation from the 
beginning ? 

Although you have not become a nun in obedience to a divine call, it 
is certain that God has permitted your profession for your welfare; and 
if He did not call you then, He certainly calls you now to be His without 
reserve. 



1 0 2 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

St. Paul, the first hermit, went into the desert, not to remain in it, but 
to fly from the persecution which was then carried on against the church; 
but he was afterwards called by God to remain in the desert; he'remained, 
and became a saint." 

Thus is Father Doyle, and any other priest who says that a girl 
is free to leave a convent any time she gets ready, given the lie 
direct by the most eminent doctors and canonized theologians of 
the church of Rome. 

Liguori goes on to tell us that: 

"When St. Teresa first entered into a monastery, she entered not with-
out reluctance; she said that in leaving her father's house the pain she felt 
was so great, that she thought it equal to the pain she should suffer at 
death. In her life it is related that she took the habit, as it were by force. 
But after all she became a saint, and the reformer of the Carmelite Order. 

Blessed Hyacintha Marescotti, a religious of the convent of St. Clair 
in Viterbo, also was induced to take the sacred veil against her inclina-
tions, and for ten years led a very imperfect life. Being one day illuminated 
by a divine light, she gave herself entirely to God, and persevered till 
death, for a space of twenty-four years, in a life of holiness, so that she 
was deserved to be venerated on the altar. 

Likewise Sister Mary Bonaventure, a nun in the convent of Torre Dei 
Specchi, entered against her will, but after a life of tepidity and dissipa-
tion, she went during the first spiritual exercise and threw herself at the 
feet of Father Lancizio of the Society of Jesus [Jesuits] and said to him, 
'Father, I have learned what God wants of me; I wish to become a saint, 
and I wish to become one immediately.' By virtue of the divine aid she 
executed her purpose. She went to her cell, and there, at the foot of the 
crucifix, wrote the following protestation: 'I, Mary Bonaventura, this day, 
in the beginning of the spiritual exercises, offer myself entirely to Thee, 
Oh my Jesus!' 

It is in this manner that you must act; thus your misfortune, as you 
call it, will be a source of great happiness to you. Begin to make a little 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 1 0 3 

more mental prayer; make a spiritual lecture every day; visit the blessed 
sacrament, and an image of Mary. When reproved be humble, when de-
spised be silent; cut off all correspondence; mortify your appetite, curiosity, 
and selfwill." 

Slowly, but surely, the convent system, like a venomous snake, 
is uncoiling itself. Its fangs are now quite visible. How well the 
great theologian and saint reveals the real reason back of the 
strict censorship of the mail coming in and leaving the convent. 
The unhappy nun must be prevented, at all costs, from letting her 
people know of her unhappy condition. She may live a life of 
"dissipation" in the convent, but she must not leave. Hence, the 
saint says that as soon as life becomes unbearable she is to "cut 
off all correspondence." He should have said that from the mo-
ment she makes it known that she is sick of the life and wants to 
quit, all correspondence will be cut off for her by the superior. 

Why does the church of the popes object to convent inspection ? 
Because we have it on the highest and most unimpeachable Cath-
olic testimony that not only are Catholic girls lured into convents 
under false pretense, but are sometimes actually forced in by their 
parents, and this with the full knowledge and consent of the 
church. 

A criminal in solitary confinement in a penitentiary is not more 
to be pitied than a girl who works up enough grit to say she wants 
her freedom in accordance with the promise she was made when 
she entered. She is immediately isolated lest she spread the conta-
gion of her discontent. She is purposely made the aggressor in the 
struggle for the return of her money and her clothes. When, if 
ever, she gets her freedom, the church, as we have seen, keeps the 
interest on her money, and denies her the right to sue in the civil 
courts for any recompense for the services rendered by her to the 
community. 



1 0 4 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

The church takes all and gives nothing. She will not take a 
chance, even on the Spouses of Christ, but makes them pay as they 
go, whether entering or leaving. 

What has been said refers to the girl who tries to leave a con-
vent before she has taken the veil and made the three vows of 
Poverty, Chastity and Obedience. 

What happens when a sister or nun who has taken the black 
veil tries to leave? Let His Holiness the Pope, Bishop of Rome, 
Vicar of Jesus Christ, answer this question in Canonical Legisla-
tion Concerning Religious. 

Canon 601 says: 
"No nun, after profession, may, under whatever pretext, leave the 

monastery, even for a short time, without a special indult [permit] 
of the Holy See, [the pope] except in a case of imminent danger of 
death, or other very serious evil. 

(2 ) This danger, if time permits, must he recognized as such by 
the local Ordinary [bishop] in writing." 

We thought the girl could leave the convent any time she want-
ed. So did the girl. 

Before a professed sister, or nun, that is, one who has taken 
the three vows and the black veil which go with them, and which 
is an index of her marriage to Jesus Christ, can leave a convent, 
she must first obtain an "indult of secularization," a permit from 
the pope to return to secular life. 

True to his Jesuit training in sophistry, Father Doyle makes no 
mention of this in his popular book. He merely says that the girl 
can leave or stay at will, before she binds herself irrevocably by 
her vows. 

So shallow a deception can readily be seen through. If a nun 
is free to leave the convent any time she wants, why should she 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 1 0 5 

have to get the permission of anyone, even the pope? Simply be-
cause the pope stands in the same relationship to her as the war-
den in the penitentiary does to a prisoner. Both are free to leave— 
when the warden says so. 

The sister who attempts to leave the convent by the regulation 
route of asking permission of the local superior, who in turn sees 
the confessor about it, who sees the bishop about it, who com-
municates with the pope about it, begins a torture worse than that 
of the Inquisition and hell together. The superior sees to it that 
the "unfaithful spouse of Christ" is properly isolated. Like a crim-
inal in solitary confinement, no one dares to speak to her. Food is 
carried to her by an unfriendly "discreet," or trusty. Abandoned 
by all, the sister is an object of pity, if there be any in the convent 
who know how to pity. She has betrayed her heavenly spouse; 
she has nailed Him to the cross again. 

Driven to despair, the poor sister may retract her statement and 
settle down for the rest of her life, usually in some other convent 
where the scandal of her attempt to leave will not be known, 
though, of course, the superior of the convent where she happens 
to be sent to, is secretly told of the affair and warned to watch her 
lest she take French leave. The last state of that nun is worse than 
the first, for she now is an object of suspicion, something to be 
watched. Never will she be selected to go out and do any shop-
ping. 

If, as often happens, a sister sees a good chance to make a geta-
way, and takes it, the church catches up with her. This is just an-
other of the things the priest failed to tell her before she entered. 
The church has good reason for condemning those "pious and 
learned persons" who insist on telling a girl the whole truth be-
fore she enters a convent. The church accuses them of "spoiling 



1 0 6 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

God's work." The fact of the matter is they are spoiling, not God's 
work, but the church's little game. 

How does the church catch up with the nun or sister who simply 
believes she has a right to leave the convent and does it without 
asking anybody's permission? Canon 644 tells us: 

"An apostate from religion Is one who, having made profession 
of perpetual vows, whether solemn or simple, unlawfully leaves the 
religious house with the intention of not returning, or who, with 
the intention of withdrawing himself from religious obedience, 
though he has lawfully left the house, does not return to it. 

(2 ) The perverse intention, referred to in the above, is legally 
presumed when the religious within a month has neither returned, 
nor manifested to his superior his intention of returning. 

(3) A fugitive is one, who, without the permission of his superior, 
deserts the religious house with the intention of not returning to 
the institute." 

Therefore, the nun or sister who walks out of a convent, though 
she has been led to believe she was free to do so, far from being 
a free woman, is an apostate, a fugitive, and subject to penalty 
under canon law. 

Canon 645 says: 

"Neither apostates nor fugitives are freed from the obligation of 
the rule and the vows, and must without delay, return to the In-
stitute. 

(2 ) The superior must seek them out with solicitude, and receive 
them if they return animated by a sincere repentance; but as to 
apostate, or fugitive nuns, the local ordinary [bishop] shall pru-
dently see to their return, and the regular superior also, in the case 
of an exempt monastery." 

Canon 646 says: 

"The following religious are ipso facto regarded as lawfully 
dismissed: 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 1 0 7 

(1) Religions who have publicly apostatized from the Catholic 
faith. 

(2) Religious who have run away with a person of the opposite 
sex. 

(8) Religious who attempt to contract marriage, even the so-
called civil marriage." 

Canon 669 says: 

"The religious who has made profession of perpetual vows, and 
who has been dismissed from the institute, remains bound by her 
or his religious vows, except the constitutions, or apostolic indults 
determine otherwise." 

Canon 2358 says: 
"Without prejudice to the prescriptions of canon 646, the religious 

who has apostatized from his or her institute, incurs by the law it-
self, excommunication, reserved to his own higher superior, in the 
case of a lay non-exempt institute, to the bishop of the place where 
he resides; he is excluded from all ecclesiastical acts, deprived of 
all the privileges of his or her institute, and, if he or she return to 
It, must remain for ever without active or passive voice, and besides, 
he or she must be punished by the superior with other penalties 
according to the gravity of the fault, conformably to the constitu-
tions." 

Far from being obsolete, the laws of the church quoted above 
are in full force everywhere there is a convent today, including 
the United States, where the Canonical Legislation Concerning Re-
ligious, is sold by Catholic publishers. 

In a book called Religious Profession by Father Papi, another 
Jesuit priest, professor of Canon Law at Woodstock College, pub-
lished by P. J. Kennedy & Sons, New York, which carries the ap-
probation of not only Cardinal Farley of New York, but also of 
the Apostolic Delegate, John Bonzano, Archbishop of Metilene, 
we read: 



1 0 8 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

"The written form of profession should be signed by the one who 
makes the profession, and at least by him before whom the profession 
was made. Moreover, in the case of profession of solemn vows, the 
superior who received it should communicate the fact to the pastor 
of the place where the professed religious was baptized, in accordance 
with canon 470." 

"Moreover," Father Papi adds, "when there is a question of 
the solemn profession, the superior must notify the pastor of the 
place where the religious was baptized. 

To understand the object of this measure, we must understand 
that the solemn vow of chastity contained in the solemn profes-
sion has the effect of making the professed religious incapable of 
entering a marriage contract. 

Moreover, if he or she should attempt to enter it, his contract, 
or marriage, would be null and void. By keeping a record of the 
solemn profession in the baptismal register, the danger is lessen-
ed that at any time a religious may succeed in attempting a sacri-
ligious union. 

The reason is obvious. Before the celebration of a marriage, the 
contracting parties must procure their baptismal certificate from 
the baptismal register of the place where they were baptized. 
Should a religious of solemn vows therefore attempt a marriage, 
it would be found out that he or she had an essential impediment, 
arising from his or her solemn profession. 

The nature of this so-called "essential impediment," is explained 
by Liguori in his True Spouse of Christ. He says: "A religious on 
the day of her profession is espoused to Jesus Christ; for in the 
ceremony of profession, the bishop says to the novice about to be 
professed, "I espouse thee to Jesus Christ; may He preserve thee 
inviolate. Receive, then, as His spouse, the ring of faith, that, if 
thou serve Him with fidelity, He may give thee an eternal crown.'" 



ARE GIRLS FREE TO LEAVE THE CONVENT ? 1 0 9 

If, at the end of the period of "temporary vows," or trial mar-
riage to Christ, the sister and the institution are satisfied, the "mar-
riage to Christ is made permanent." This is known as making 
"perpetual vows," and is a marriage in the eyes of the church. 
Therefore, since the church pretends not to grant divorce, the sis-
ter who tries to marry after she has made perpetual vows is a 
bigamist, for she is the wife of Jesus Christ. 

Some orders of nuns wear a wedding ring. All nuns and sisters 
change their names, but as "Mrs. Jesus Christ," would sound ridic-
ulous, each wife is given a fictitious name. 

Father Doyle in Vocations, tells us: "To hesitate or doubt when 
the vows have been taken, would be treason. 'He who puts his 
hand to the plow and then looks back, is not worthy of Me.' " 

Could a good Catholic be anything but an enemy of one who 
could turn her back on Jesus Christ? The Catholic woman who 
feels that she has just cause to leave her mortal husband is easily 
forgiven, but the nun who leaves her husband, Jesus Christ, never! 
Marriage to Christ is like marriage among the Hindoos. The Hin-
doo woman belongs to her husband for time and eternity. She 
cannot marry again. She is an outcast. 

It is a crime against God and man to allow the church of the 
popes to entice girls ignorant of the binding nature of the vows 
they make to thus throw their lives away without benefit of dis-
interested legal counsel. By the time the young girl finds out that 
she has sold her birthright for a mess of theological pottage, she 
has put her signature to documents that are legally binding. 

Why do not more nuns demand their freedom? Because the 
years spent in a convent, like those spent in a penitentiary, foster 
"prison stupor." The church knows well that the "training" 
given in the convent unfits the victim for the everyday struggle. In 



1 1 0 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

his book, He Who Eats Out of a Tin Plate, the German novelist 
Hans Falada gives a true picture of what prison life does to a 
human. 

I shrink at the memory of the awful struggle back to normalcy 
which I, in common with every other ex-nun, went through. With 
no business training, no knowledge of homemaking, no sense of 
values without which any life is a failure; with no decision; a 
prey to a thousand terrors, afraid of herself and everyone else; 
timid, cringing, physically emancipated, still mentally chained, 
the unfortunate ex-nun in too many cases "returns to her cell vol-
untarily," as the hero in Hans Falada's novel returns to his nice 
prison cell, because "here were no decisions to be made." Rome 
clips the wings of her victims so that they cannot fly, and then 
tells the believing world that they stay because they like it. 

* * * * 

"To whom does the power of dispensing from vows belong?" 
"It belongs to the pope, to bishops and their delegates; but not to 

vicars-general, nor penitentiaries, nor curates, nor confessors, considered 
simply as such." —Catholic Manual of Christian Doctrine 



A N E W CODE FOR NUNS 1 1 1 

CHAPTER VII 

HISTORY OF CONVENTS: A NEW CODE FOR NUNS 

IT IS to the Orient that we must look for the origin of the convent system. 
The custom of consecrating women to the service of the 

gods antedates Christianity by many centuries. Practically every 
temple in India has women consecrated to the service of the god. 
These Hindoo "virgins" have much in common with their sisters 
of the Roman church. This was strikingly brought home to me 
when I was a sister in St. Joseph's convent, in the Golden City of 
Mandalay, Burma. 

Through a chink in the blinders which the church had put on 
me, I soon discovered that the scabby followers of Siva, Vishnu 
and Brahma, on the banks of the sacred Ganges, had a priority 
claim on holy water, holy smoke, holy ashes, holy sheep, holy 
cattle, ticks and all; charms, bones, bells and pictures, blessed by 
arrogant priests in both cases, in whom the space usually reserved 
for morality was unoccupied. Here, too, long before there was a 
pope in Rome, Purgatory was paying big dividends. 

Nowhere, however, is the essential pagan origin of the "Faith 
of Our Fathers" more in evidence than in the convent system. 
The nuns and sisters of the Catholic church are an up-to-date 
brand of the dancing girls of the pagan temples of India. 

Among the oldest systems of "god wives," of which anything 
authentic is known, is the "Vestal Virgins of the Moon." These 
nuns are found in many parts of India, and are a hangover from 
the Buddhist regime of centuries ago. According to an old legend, 



1 1 2 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

it was King Nebuchadnezzar, who ruled ancient Babylon some 
five or six hundred years before Christ, who organized the first 
convent of the "Vestal Virgins of the Moon." 

Thanks to modern psychology, we now know the reason for the 
strange cult. Tradition tells us that old King Neb had a physical 
defect which brought about a terrible inferiority complex. He was 
forced, to avoid disclosing his weakness, to turn his back on the 
fair maidens who would gladly have become his wives. Where-
upon, we are told, he turned his thoughts upwards, and fell madly 
in love with the moon. When King Neb died he is supposed to 
have gone to the lady of his insane love, the moon. He became 
the Man in the Moon to the "Vestal Virgins of the Moon." 

These nuns, or priestesses, are, like their Roman counterpart, 
forbidden to marry anyone but the "Man in the Moon, King Neb-
uchadnezzer." 

Once a year these Moon priestesses go on a spree, in their con-
vent, of course. During this annual frolic, men are permitted to 
enter the convent. The lovely "Virgins" go through the audience 
and pick out the man whom they think is King Neb. He pays her 
a ruby and is king, not for a day, but for a night. 

Catholic "Wives of God," or, in the sweet camouflage of the-
ology, "Spouses of Christ," do not spend their time dancing grace-
fully before the image of their god in the tabernacle. We must 
not forget that the church of Rome is a Big Business church, and 
any amusement the god gets he gets after business hours. 

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so to relieve the 
monotony of convent life, sisters are given plenty of diversion 
over washtubs, in schools, emptying bedpans in hospitals, and 
pounding the sidewalks, panhandling, not for themselves, but for 



A N E W CODE FOR NUNS 1 1 3 

the church. The pope, cardinals, bishops, and priests, are the stock-
holders in the company selling real estate in the New Jerusalem, 
the money being paid now. 

In most cloistered Orders the nuns rise at midnight and seren-
ade their "Husband" with soft canticles, much as the "wives of 
the god" in Hindoo temples pour "ghee" or holy butter on their 
god's head. 

On page 72 of the Last Home of Mystery, the author, Alexander 
Powell, writes: 

"Priestesses, or wives of the god, as they are called, are attached to the 
temple of both Siva and Vishnu, ostensibly to gratify the sexual desires 
of the deity. They are quite a different class from the temple dancing 
girls, though equally depraved, being generally the unfortunate victims of 
the immorality of the priests. The latter, by way of keeping up a reputa-
tion for sanctity, and in order to conciliate the families whose daughters 
they have seduced, put the whole blame on Siva or Vishnu, and the poor 
gods, as is only fair, do the right thing by taking the poor girls in marriage. 

The women who are thus consecrated to Vishnu are known as 'garuda-
basavis,' wives of the 'Garuda' or eagle, which is the vehicle of Vishnu, 
and have the image of this bird tattoed on their breasts. 

The priestesses of Siva are called 'lingam-basavis,' or women of the 
'lingam,' and bear this obscene symbal tattoed on the inner side of their 
thighs. It seems scarcely necessary to add that the wives of the god are 
the concubines of the priests." 

When a Hindoo priest seduces a girl he puts her into a temple 
as the wife of the god. 

When a Catholic priest seduces a girl he puts her into a con-
vent and marries her off as a wife of god, a "spouse of Christ." 
In neither case does the priest cease his depredations. There is 
always room for one more victim. The doctor hides his mistakes 
with a spade and shovel; the priest with a simple black veil. 



1 1 4 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

Do I mean that all nuns and sisters are in convents because 
they were seduced by priests? Certainly not. When, however, a 
priest does seduce a girl, he is at liberty to put his victim into a 
convent. A priest cannot under any circumstances marry a girl, 
but he can do better than marry her himself—he can give her to 
Jesus Christ as a spouse, for a "sinful life in the past is no impedi-
ment to a vocation." 

The ceremony of the "Triple Cord," or profession, is a mar-
riage ceremony and gives the recipient the status of a married 
woman, and, as the priest alienated her affections before she was 
a wife of God, there is no comeback. The case is closed as far as 
the priest is concerned, and "God's secondary agent" is free to 
lead some other soul captive. 

During the ceremony of profession, the officiating bishop says 
to the novice: 

"I espouse thee to Jesus Christ; may He preserve thee inviolate." 

What if the novice has been a victim of priestly lust? What is 
the confessional for, if not to repair any damage done to souls? 
And it is indispensable in cases where a priest must get rid of a 
too-trusting girl. 

We have seen that "Magdalen, steeped to the lips in iniquity, 
became a spouse of the Lamb." Apparently the "Lamb" has no 
objection to salvaging whatever is left of the priest's victim. 

Holy mother church wastes nothing. She has devised a neat 
method of bringing these slightly used models up-to-date. The 
ceremony of profession is known to Catholic and Hindoo alike by 
the name of "The Triple Cord." 

In his chapter on "The Triple Cord—the Vows," Father Doyle 
says, 'Seeing how pleasing is this lifelong sacrifice to God, the 



A N E W CODE FOR NUNS 1 1 5 

fathers of the church, St. Jerome, St. Bernard, the Angelic Doctor, 
and others, have always called religious profession a "Second Bap-
tism" by which the guilt and punishment due for past sins are en-
tirely forgiven." Thus the sinning soul is born all over again by 
the magic formula of the ceremony of the "Triple Cord." 

No matter to what depths she may have sunk, she is now a 
"virgin." What with a new name and a new birth, one would 
scarcely recognize the old model. The only fly in the ointment is 
human nature. This the priest is powerless to alter, as is proven by 
the startling number of these remodeled souls that revert to type 
as soon as the novelty wears off. 

Among the Hindoos and Catholics, those who have been 
through the ceremony of the 'Triple Cord" are known as "Twice 
Born Souls." These twice borners go through life grovelling at 
the feet of a highly sensitive deity, who thrives on palaver, and 
damns those who do not cater to his every whim, in the hope that 
if they annihilate every vestige of self respect they ever had, his 
nibs may assign them a corner in his harem in the sky. 

With regard to the ceremony of the "Triple Cord," among the 
Hindoos, Powell, in his Last Home of Mystery, says, "The Brah-
mans have ever represented the sacerdotal class in India, and, like 
the priestly clan the world over, they have directed the political 
destiny of the country, and still exercise the most potent influence 
of any caste in India." 

The great difference between their caste and all others is that 
it is not hereditary, for a Brahman only becomes a Brahman after 
the ceremony of the "Triple Cord." Until this essential ceremony 
has been performed he ranks as only one of the lower castes, and 
hence is called "Twice Born." 



1 1 6 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

The church of Rome says: "The ceremony of profession, or 
the ceremony of the Triple Cord, is a second baptism." Those who 
go through it are Twice Born. 

Among Catholics, as among the Hindoos, the simplest and sur-
est way to step from the lowest caste, the laity, to the highest 
caste, the priesthood, is by the ceremony of the Triple Cord, reli-
gious profession. Nor is the elevation confined to the person who 
goes through the "essential ceremony," but extends to the family 
of the "Twice Born." 

Amongst the Tibetan Buddhists, where the same doctrine of 
Twice Born is still strongly held, the father of the child selected 
as the Delai Lama, or Living God, who is, like the pope, spiritual 
and temporal head of the Buddhist sect, becomes automatically 
a "King," which is the highest office to which a layman can aspire. 

The church of Rome carries out this form of spiritual bribery 
to the letter. The family which contributes a son or a daughter to 
the ceremony of the Triple Cord, or religious profession, either 
as sister, nun, monk, or priest, are automatically raised to the high-
est place to which the laity can aspire. This is a powerful incen-
tive to parents with social ambition. It puts a premium on every 
girl the parents can put in a convent. The more sons and daughters 
in "religion" the more prominent the family. Not all Catholics 
have the wealth necessary to buy a papal title, but all, or nearly 
all, have sons and daughters with which to purchase social pres-
tige. Planting a girl in a convent is the surest way for a Catholic 
nonentity to start a family tree. The church will obligingly lop 
off the shady branches for a consideration, or another slave. 

The convent system is un-Christian, inhuman, un-American. It is 
un-Christian, because Christianity teaches that all creatures are the 
children of God. How then can the child become the wife of the 



A N E W CODE FOR NUNS 1 1 7 

father? Is heaven a mere harem with Christ at the head, and 
thousands of His children as His spouses ? 

The church says, "all things are possible to God." It is immoral 
only when a man tries it. 

The convent system is inhuman because it tramples on the rights 
of the individual. It urges heartless parents to force their unfor-
tunate offspring into convents even against their will. It allows its 
priests to lure mere children into its cruel clutches by means of 
verbal promises which she is in no way bound to live up to, and 
then holds them in her toils by means of shame and fear. It is in-
human because it teaches hatred of parents, and contempt for 
motherhood, God's greatest gift to woman. 

It is inhuman because it follows with its withering power even 
those who have been fortunate enough to shake off its shackles, 
and makes them wanderers on the face of the earth, a prey for 
every Catholic. 

The convent system is one hundred per cent un-American be-
cause it denies its members the essential American rights of free 
speech, free and untrammeled intercourse with their fellow citi-
zens, and puts them thereby on a par with criminals in our peni-
tentiaries. 

It arrogates to itself the right to change the names of its mem-
bers without recourse to the civil law. It assumes the right to 
tamper with the mail; to deliver it or not, as it sees fit. 

Above all, it is un-American because it makes its members obe-
dient to a foreign power. This charge, so vehemently denied by 
the spokesmen for the Vatican, especially since the restoration of 
the temporal power of the popes, can be proven beyond any shad-
ow of doubt by referring to canon 499 of Canonical Legislation 
Concerning Religious. This canon reads: 



1 1 8 FORGOTTEN W O M E N 

"All religious are subject to the Roman Pontiff as to their highest 
superior and are bound to obey Mm even by virtue of their vow of 
Obedience." 

The vow of Obedience, it must be remembered, is an uncondi-
tional vow. They must obey regardless of whether the thing order-
ed is right or wrong. 

That such an arrangement is inimical to the best interests of 
the United States goes without saying. Friends of depotism will 
plead that to interfere with Rome's right to maintain a standing 
army of religious slaves in an unwarranted interference with re-
ligious freedom. 

There is freedom and freedom. The American government 
grants freedom of religious worship as long as the sects do not 
abuse their freedom by any doctrine or practice which would en-
danger the welfare of the country. It reserves the right to inter-
fere with any church which violates this principle. 

Self-preservation is the first law of nature, and of nations. I, 
therefore, in the name of humanity, call on the government of 
the United States to exercise her right on behalf of the Forgotten 
Women in the convents of the Roman Catholic church and give 
them a new deal, a deal based, not on the canon law of the church 
of the popes, but on the Constitution of the United States of 
America. 

First, it should abolish by law the practice of accepting little 
children in monastic institutions and holding them till the age of 
sixteen and the binding them by vows at an age when they do not 
know what they are doing. It should be made illegal to accept 
into any convent or monastic institution of any kind any boy or 
girl under eighteen years complete, with or without the consent 
of their parents. 



A N E W CODE FOR NUNS 1 1 9 

Second, no person should be allowed to make vows till twenty-
one years of age. This would end the exploiting of mere children 
in the name of religion. 

Third, every state where monastic institutions exist should have 
on file a sworn statement of the exact number of inmates in the 
house. This list should be kept up to date. 

Fourth, all arrivals and departures of members of these colonies 
should be reported. This would put an end to the custom of keep-
ing human cargo in transit, especially in cases where the sister or 
priest has reason to complain of foul play. 

Fifth, the state should have a certified list of the real names of 
the inmates, together with the names and addresses of their par-
ents, or of their nearest kin. 

Sixth, since the act of entering a monastic institution is, to all 
intents and purposes, a renunciation of the rights of citizenship, 
for no man can serve two masters (the Pope and the State) mem-
bers of monastic communities should be debarred from voting in 
any election, state, county, or national and from teaching in pub-
lic schools. 

Seventh, members of religious Orders entering the country 
should be fingerprinted and required to take out citizenship papers 
within the time specified by law. This would protect labor from 
the menace of flooding the country with cheap foreign labor under 
the cloak of religion. Once in the country, this horde of religious 
is lost track of by the civil authorities. Do they all stay in the con-
vents ? No one knows. 

Eighth, all persons entering a monastic institution should be 
required to make a will and file the same. The renunciation which 
the church of Rome forces all religious to make sixty days before 
profession, should be null and void. 



1 2 0 FORGOTTEN WOMEN 

Ninth, the use of special regalia by religious should be confined 
to the premises. 

Tenth, the boards of public health should have full control of 
monastic institutions, and should make regular visits to them. 

Eleventh, the death certificate of all persons dying in monastic 
institutions should be signed by a non-Catholic doctor as well as 
a Catholic doctor. 

While these recommendations may not be perfect, they would 
point the way to much-needed reform of convents and monasteries 
in this country. It is to be hoped that the fair-minded people in 
the church of Rome will see that our legislators turn their atten-
tion to these Forgotten Women, and draw up a New Code far 
Nuns. 



PASSING OF THE STORM 121 

"THE PASSING OF THE STORM" 

ALFRED CASTNER KING 

"Extol your theories, proffer your advice, 
And chains or banishment may be the price, 

For despot hands, since might's initial sway. 

Have fashioned chains for worthier hands than they; 
And oftentimes beneath the tyrant's heel 

Are crushed the lives which strive for human weal; 
Who dare to hold the gonfalon aloft 

For human rights and progress, yes, how oft 
Since Cain that fratricidal murder wrought, 

Have death and durance been the price of "thought"! 
He who espouses radical reform 

Invites upon his head the gathering storm; 
Each forward step from Custom's hackneyed school, 

Draws forth the floods of scorn and ridicule; 
Witness the dungeon, guillotine and rack; 

Chains for the feet and scourges for the back; 
Bestrewn with insult, diatribe and scuff, 

The pathway of reform was ever rough; 
And when reforms like tidal waves have come, 

The foremost breakers dash to martyrdom.*' 

THE END 



R E C O M M E N D E D B O O K S 

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