A catechism instruction.

In a catechism for children of the diocese of Langres, on the occasion of the pastoral letter referred to above, an instruction on Spiritism was given, as a subject to be treated by the pupils.

Here is the textual narration of one of them:

“Spiritism is the work of the devil, who invented it. To give oneself over to it is to put oneself in direct relation with the demon. A diabolical superstition! Often God permits these things in order to revive the faith of the faithful. The demon makes himself good, makes himself holy; he cites words of the sacred Scriptures.” This means of reanimating the faith seems to us very poorly chosen.

“Tertullian, who lived in the second century, relates that they made goats and tables speak; it is the essence of idolatry. These satanic operations were rare in certain Christian countries, but today they are very common. This power of the demon showed itself in all its vigor with the advent of Protestantism.” Here are children quite convinced of the great power of the demon. Would it not be to be feared that this might make them doubt a little the power of God, when one sees the first so often get the better of the second?

“Spiritism was born in America, in the bosom of a Protestant family called Fox. At first the demon manifested itself by raps that woke people with a start; finally, vexed by the raps, they searched for what it could be. One day Mr. Fox’s daughter began to say: Rap here, rap there; and they rapped where she wished.” Always the incitement against the Protestants! Thus, here are young men brought up by religion in hatred against a part of their fellow citizens, often against members of their own family! Fortunately the spirit of tolerance that reigns in our epoch counterbalances it, without which we would see the renewal of the bloody scenes of past centuries. “This heresy was soon popularized and already counts five hundred thousand followers. The invisible Spirits permit themselves to do all sorts of things. At the simple request of an individual, tables overloaded with hundreds of books were moved; hands without bodies were seen. This is what took place in America, and it came to France by way of Spain. Initially the Spirit was forced by God and the angels to say that it was the devil, so as not to catch honest people in its snares.” We believe ourselves quite well informed of the march of Spiritism, and we have never heard it said that it reached France by way of Spain. Would this be a point to rectify in the history of Spiritism?

By the admission of the adversaries of Spiritism, one sees with what rapidity the new idea gains ground; an idea which, scarcely having emerged, conquers five hundred thousand partisans is not without value and proves the path it will make later on; ten years later one of them raises the figure to twenty million, in France alone, and predicts that soon the heresy will have won over the other twenty million. (See the Spiritist Review of June 1863.) But then, if the whole world is heretical, what will remain for orthodoxy? Would it not be the case to apply the maxim: When everyone is wrong, everyone is right? What would the instructor have answered, if an insufferable child of his young audience had put the question to him: “How is it possible that the first preaching of Saint Peter converted only three thousand Jews, while Spiritism, which is the work of satan, immediately made five hundred thousand adepts? Is satan more powerful than God?” – Perhaps he would have answered: “It is because they were Protestants.”

“Satan says that he is a good Spirit; but he is a liar. One day they wanted the table to speak; it would not answer; they judged that the presence of ecclesiastics prevented it. At last, two raps came to warn that the Spirit was there. They asked it: – Is Jesus Christ the son of God? – No. – Do you recognize the holy eucharist? – Yes. – Did the death of Jesus Christ increase your sufferings? – Yes.” So there are priests who attend these diabolical meetings. The insufferable child might have asked why, when they come, they do not make the devil flee.

“Here is a diabolical scene.” Thus said Mr. Allan Kardec: “The trickery of the mystifying Spirits surpasses anything one can imagine. There were two Spirits, one representing the good one, the other the bad one; at the end of a few months one said: – I am weary of repeating to you mellifluous words in which I do not believe. – Then you are the Spirit of evil? – Yes. – Do you not suffer in speaking of God, of the Virgin, and of the saints? – Yes. – Do you want good or evil? – Evil. – Are you not the Spirit who was speaking a moment ago? – No. – Where are you? – In hell. – Do you suffer? – Yes. – Always? – Yes. — Are you subject to Jesus Christ? – No, to Lucifer. – Is he eternal? – No. – Do you like what I have in my hand? (they were medals of the holy Virgin). – No; I thought I would inspire confidence in you; hell reclaims me; farewell!” The account is very dramatic, no doubt, but it would be very clever of anyone who could prove that we have anything to do with it. It is sad to see to what expedients they are obliged to resort in order to give credence. They forget that these children grow up and will reflect. The faith that rests on such proofs has reason to fear conspiracies. “We have just seen the Spirit of evil forced to confess that he was the one. Here is another sentence that the medium’s pencil wrote: “If you will give yourself over to me, soul, Spirit, and body, I will satisfy your desires; if you will be with me, write your name beneath mine”; and it wrote: Giefle or Satan. The medium trembled and did not write; he was right. All the sessions end with these words: “Will you adhere?” The demon wanted them to make a pact with him. Give me your soul! he said one day to someone. – Who are you? they answered. – I am the demon. – What do you want? – To possess you. There is no purgatory; the villains, the wicked, all this is in heaven.” What will these boys say when they witness some evocations and, instead of an infernal pact, hear the Spirits say: “Love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself; practice the charity taught by Christ; be good toward all, even toward your enemies; pray to God and follow His commandments in order to be happy in this world and in the other?” “All these prodigies, all these extraordinary things come from the Spirits of darkness. Mr. Home, a fervent Spiritist, tells us that at times the ground vibrates beneath his feet, the rooms shudder, people get goosebumps; an invisible hand touches our knees and shoulders; a table leaps. They ask: Are you there? – Yes. – Give proof of it. And the table rises twice!” Once again, all this is very dramatic; but, among the young listeners, surely more than one wished to see it and will not lose the first opportunity. There will also be found impressionable young girls, of delicate constitution, who, at the slightest tingle, will think they feel the hand of the devil and will fall ill. “All these things are ridiculous. The holy Church, mother of us all, makes us see that this is nothing but a lie.”

If all this is ridiculous and false, why then give it so much importance? Why terrify children with pictures without any reality? If there is a lie, is it not precisely in these pictures?

“In the evocation of the dead, for example, one must not believe that it is our relatives who speak to us; it is Satan who speaks and passes himself off as a dead person. Certainly we are in communication through the communion of the saints. In the lives of the saints we have examples of apparitions of the dead; but it is a miracle of divine wisdom, and these miracles are rare. Here is what they tell us: Sometimes the demons pass themselves off as the dead and, also, as saints.” Sometimes is not always; therefore, it may happen that the Spirit who communicates is not a demon.

“They can do many other things. One day, a medium who did not know how to draw reproduced, with his hand guided by a Spirit, the images of Jesus Christ and of the holy Virgin which, presented to some of our best artists, were judged worthy of being exhibited.”

Hearing this, a pupil might well think: And what if a Spirit could guide my hand to do my homework and win a prize? Let us try!

“Saul consulted the witch of Endor and God permitted that Samuel appear to him to say: Why do you disturb my repose? Tomorrow you will be with me in the tomb. Our drawing-room Sauls would do well to think of this story. Saint Philip Neri tells us: If the holy Virgin should appear to you, or even Our Lord Jesus Christ, spit in his face, for it would be only a trick of the demon to lead you into error.” What then is to be made of the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette to two poor children? According to this catechism instruction, they should have spat in her face.

“Our holy father the Pope Pius IX expressly forbade giving oneself over to these things. The Bishop of Langres, and many others as well, did the same. There is danger of death: two old men committed suicide because the Spirits had told them that after death they would enjoy infinite bliss; danger to reason: several mediums went mad, and in a madhouse there were counted more than forty individuals whom Spiritism had driven mad.” We are not yet acquainted with the papal bull that expressly forbids occupying oneself with these things; were it to exist, the Bishop of Langres and the others would not have failed to mention it. The story of the two old men, to which allusion is made, is inaccurate; it was proven, by official documents, registered in the tribunal and, notably, by letters written by them before death, that they committed suicide as a consequence of losses of money and the fear of falling into poverty. (See the Spiritist Review of April 1863.) That of the forty individuals confined in a madhouse is no more truthful. It would be very embarrassing to justify such a story by the names of these alleged madmen, whom a first newspaper fixed at four, a second at forty, a third at four hundred, and finally a fifth said that they were working on the enlargement of the asylum. [See: Pastoral letter of the Bishop of Algiers against Spiritism.] A catechism instructor ought to gather his historical data from sources other than the gossip of newspapers. The children to whom these things are seriously stated accept them with confidence; but the greater the confidence, the stronger the contrary reaction when, later on, they learn the truth. This is said in a general sense and not exclusively for Spiritism.

If we analyze this work for boys, let it be well understood that it is not his opinion we are refuting, but that of which the narration is a summary. If one were to investigate carefully all the instructions of this nature, we would be less astonished at the fruits reaped later on. To instruct childhood requires great tact and much experience, because it is unimaginable the reach that a single imprudent word may have, which, like the tare, germinates in those young imaginations as in virgin soil. It seems that the adversaries of Spiritism do not find that the idea is sufficiently widespread; one would say that, in spite of themselves, they are driven to invent means to spread it still more. After the sermons, whose result is known, one could not find a more efficacious one than to make it the theme of the instructions and duties of the catechism. The sermons act upon the generation that is departing; the instructions predispose the generation that is arriving. Thus, we would labor in error if we regarded them with displeasure.