Mahinda WeerasingheƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 

The Revelations of Sister Mary Candy should not shock anyone! She claims to have witnessed an attempt by a priest and nun to euthanize a newborn baby, which she says she subsequently rescued and delivered to an orphanage.ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Just as Maria Monk, Mary Candy escaped from the clutches of the Catholic Church to inform the world as to the insidious sexual activities of the Catholic Church.

The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk, as Exhibited in a Narrative of Her Sufferings During a Residence of Five Years as a Novice and Two Years as a Black Nun, in the Hotel Dieu Nunnery in MontrealƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ was first published in January 1836. The book was written by a former nun who had escaped from the Hotel Dieu nunnery in Montreal. It promised to expose the iniquity of the Catholic convent system.

The Catholic Church made several attempt to execute Maria Monk but luckily for the free world, failed. For they welded power kill and cover up by 1836.

Indeed ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”The Awful Disclosures of Maria MonkƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, was a racier read then ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”¹…”Memoirs of CasanovaƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢ or even spicier than the work ofƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Giovanni Boccaccio‘sƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ The Decameron,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ (writtenƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ 1344-1350) under the years of Black Death. Decameron was in fact a work of fiction, but based on the Catholic priest sex antiques at the time.

Now we get to hear about the awful disclosers of Sister Mary Candy, and she is bound make a packet by her disclosers, if she can survive any attempts on her life.

The Awful Disclosures of Maria Monk was reprinted, under varying titles by various publishing houses, at least half a dozen times just in 1836, and continued to be reprinted well into the twentieth century. A second work,ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Further Disclosures of Maria Monk, sold well also, and was reprinted several times, along with various other works refuting or supporting her claims. Quite an industry was born out of Maria Monk’s story.

But Maria Monk’s story was a pathetic one. Though raised a Protestant, young Maria became interested in religious life through her experience as a student in a convent school. Upon completing her studies, she chose to become a nun, and elected to become a novice at the nearby Hotel Dieu. Once Maria had been admitted, the Superior wasted no time in dispelling her misapprehensions about the nature of convent life. Maria Monk describes the convent as little more than a harem for the use of the local priesthood. She characterizes the scene in the following terms:

ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-The Superior now informed me that having taken the black veil, it only remained that I should swear the three oaths customary on becoming a nun; and that some explanation would be necessary from her. I was now, she told me, to have access to every part of the edifice, even the cellar, where two of the sisters were imprisoned for causes that she did not mention. I must be informed that one of my great duties was to obey the priests in all things; and this I soon learnt, to my utter astonishment and horror, was to live in the practice of criminal intercourse with them. I expressed some of the feelings which this announcement excited in me, which came upon me like a flash of lightning; but the only effect, was to set her arguing with me, in favour of the crime, representing it as a virtue acceptable to God, and honorable to me. The priests, she said, were not situated like other men, being forbidden to marry; while they lived secluded, laborious, and self-denying lives for our salvation. They might be considered our saviorsƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ¢-¾‚¢, as without their service we could not obtain pardon of sin, and must go to hell. Now it was our solemn duty, on withdrawing from the world, to consecrate our lives to religion, to practice every species of self-denial. We could not be too humble, nor mortify our feelings too far; this was to be done by opposing them and acting contrary to them; and what she proposed was, therefore, pleasing in the sight of God. I now felt how foolish I had been to place myself in the power of such persons as were around me.ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

As the story progresses, we find the building is riddled with secret entrances, underground tunnels, prisons, and even a mass grave for the babies born of their liaisons. Although Maria’s feminine delicacy prevents her from being too specific about the abuses she suffers, the reader eventually discovers poor Maria pregnant and seeking her escape in order to save the life of her child. She finds her opportunity and manages to make her way to New York where she tells her story to a minister in a charity hospital after barely surviving the delivery of her baby daughter. The minister convinces Maria that the world must know the truth, and theƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ Awful DisclosuresƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ are unveiled.

I propose one should get acquainted with such works in order to dispel the ignorance of this dreadful institution.

Mahinda Weerasinghe

13.04.2012.

Also read by the author:-

THANK YOU HOLY GHOST FOR READING THIS ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚¦

http://www.lankaweb.com/news/items07/040407-7.html