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Show A JESUIT FATHER ON SPIRITUAL- ISM. Tho Roman-Catholic Church bo- H llcves in the facts of Spiritualism, but H condemns its claims and practices as H contrary to tho commands of the bible, H and likely to Involve those who prac- H tlse it in delusion and error. So writes H Father G. G. Franco, S. J., In tho Ro- ,H man Clvllta Cattollca, a papal organ. H Tho spirits who pretend to bo tho H souls of historic or other persons H come back from tho dead may bo mere H Impostors. At any rate, their actions H and language are often scarcoly In tH harmony with tho character and gen- H Ins of tho great and good. Doubtless, H H howover, spiritualistic phenomena are H real and not Imaginary; they can B- easily be distinguished from more ma- H terlal phenomena, maintains Father Franco. He supports his contention by stating that no one but a fool can 1 withstand the testimony of such men 1 as William Crookes and Lombroso, which testimony fully establishes the H reality of what is called materlaliza-H materlaliza-H tlon. Spiritualism is in fact one of m tho recorded facts of history. It is found in the Old and New Ttestamont H and among tho early Christians and Neonlatonlsts of Alexandria. Any at- B tempt to confute the genuineness and H authenticity of all this testimony In H favor of Spiritualism Is simply ab- B surd. Half a century ago, Indeed, In H credulity might have been excusable; H at tho present moment It Is unpardon- B nble. To quote: H "In our time (190G) no one denies tho real existence of spiritualistic oc-H oc-H curronces, excepting certain men i whoso feet aro on earth, but whose wits go wool-gathering in the moon. H Among theso latter I am .surprised to H find several university professors In Italy, men In other respects admlrab-H admlrab-H ly speclallBts. It is well to remind theso gentlemen, and others who havo not studied Spiritualism, that spirit-H spirit-H ualistlc phenomena aro not the produc-H produc-H tions of puro and lofty metaphysics, or H astronomy, but nro objective acts, H that fall under tho cognizanco of tho H senses, and can easily bo observed by all men. When such phenomena havo l been witnessed to by very many men H . of-lcarnlng and good faith, It is useless, oven foolish nnd ridiculous, to reject such well-proved facts. These facts aro nccopted as certain by all reason-B reason-B able men. Tho phenomena of Splrit-H Splrit-H uallsm, It may bo added, from tho mo-H mo-H mont when they were first observed H up to our own time, havo become more H and more palpablo and objective, and H thoreforo havo furnished opportunity , for better and more unmistakable. H authentication by tho senses." i He proceeds to traco tho different H stages of spiritualism development as 1 follows: "Theso phonomena, first of all, con- sisted merely of tho movement, or H displacement, of material objects, nnd H of mysterious sounds. Subsequently H their agent or cause manifested Intel-H Intel-H ligonce, and later began to speak and H write. Eventually appeared parts of H fnntoms, heads, faces, nnd especially H a great number of hands of all kinds, H sometimes almost audacious In their H notions. At last tho occult agents brought their operations to perfection In the so-called matorallzatlons, in H which they put on tho exact appcar-H appcar-H ance of living persons and behaved to-H to-H ward thoso present just as a living H and acting person would naturally be- havo." It mny bo asked, ho proceeds, whoth- or it would not bo wiser to regard all such appearances as mero hallucina- tlon. To do so, ho replies, would not bo wise, but foolish, and adds: "It might bo wise if wo could attrib- uto theso apearances to tho hallucina- tlon of a single person only, as when many peoplo fix their eyes on tho I faco of a plcturo and ono thinks that H ho saw tho eyes move. In tho latter case tho rest might well suspect the ,, hallucination of tho ono. But tho uni- form hallucination of a multitude is H impossible, and if all tho peoplo were to exclaim nt once, 'See, tho figuro moves its oyosl' tho' impression could ' not he considered tho hallucination of ono man, tho fact would bo cer- tain, and no prudent man would ques- L' tlon It. Now apply this prlnclplo to tho manifestations that occur at spir-.w spir-.w ituallstc seances. How can wo doubt j their reality, when wo witness them in , all such seances, and our Impressions aro confirmed by what an inflnlto num-Hf num-Hf oor of other persons havo soon and I heard there? How can we doubt their spiritualistic character that Is, a HJ character transcending human act!- I vities when wo recognize that such phenomena nro plainly contrary to (ho t , , . laws of nnturo as wo know them? Wo know that tho whole human race, Including savants and philosophers, have always regarded such things as suporhuman and supernatural, and have styled them magical. Under the name of magic are comprized the doing do-ing and appearances which tho forces of nature were not sufilclent to produce, pro-duce, and always and everywhere It has been admitted that such works were wrought by tho assistance and the influence of an agent superior to nature. Mnglc was universal In the world, and still prevails in pagan countries." Tho writer then relates the cases of materialization described by William-Crookes. William-Crookes. He also refers to the signed testimony of Cesaro Lombroso, and adds that "Lombroso, like other materialists, ma-terialists, tried to interpret in a non-splrituallstlc non-splrituallstlc sense the spiritualistic phonomena which he dared not to deny de-ny to be real." While this writer is a firm believer in Spiritualism, including materialization, materializa-tion, when ho comes to answer the question whether Spiritualism can he brought within the range of reason and Christianity, ho shakes his head. It Is Inscrutable, ho declares. Lomborso tried to Interpret it by an Imaginary and artificial materialistic theory. The anlmists, on the contrary, find that "the active causes of tho phenomena are In tho souls or minds of the mediums and tho bystanders, nnd their latent powers, etc. " He accepts neither of these theories. With re-ard re-ard to Spiritualism and Chrlstlanlt he naturally enough points to the attitude at-titude taken by tho Church of Rome In this matter, and records tho answer an-swer which a certain director of souIe made to tho member of his flock who asked whether she might attend seances se-ances wherein her llttlo son came back from tho dead and sat upon her knee. Tho director said: "In showing you tho true answer to this question I can not do better than refer you to ono of the last decisions made by tho Congregation of the Inquisition, In-quisition, and approved by Leo XIII. In 1898 a devout Christian questioned tho Holy Seo as to whether it was allowable al-lowable for him, provided ho refused all communication with an evil spirit and put himself under the protection of St. Michael, head of tho celestial army, to communicate with tho spirit of a certain person, a spirit whose nnswers had always been In conformity conform-ity with Catholic doctrine. Tho Sacred Sac-red Roman Congregation replied, 'A matters stand, it is not allowable.' And tho volco of tho Vicar of Jesus Christ confirmed tho sentenco of tho Inquisition." Inquisi-tion." Father Franco gives tho following reasons why the Roman Church has thus decreed. Spirits are indeed called up, but who enn say whether they are not evil nnd deluding spirits? In his own words: "Wero wo certain that tho spirits who profess to be this or that person were good, serious, and beneficent spirits, such as saintly souls must necessarily be, wero thoy permitted to perform tho groat miracle of return from tho other world, and manifest themselves to us, and work wonders at tho seances, contrary to nature and therefore Inexplicable, the case might bo different. But tho opposite is tho case. Worse than this, the spirit which presents Itself at seances often shows plainly that he can be no other than tho being branded a hundred times by Jesus Christ in the gospel ns 'tho unclean spirit.' "Translation "Trans-lation made for Tho Literary Digest |