AMAZON BOOK BLURB:

Paperback Edition - 2 June 2022: Former priest reveals a tragic danger of the confessional: What happens when women are commanded, under penalty of eternal damnation, to confess to a man their deepest sexual thoughts and sins? Former priest, Charles Chiniquy, continually dealt with this problem. He personally heard the confessions of over 200 priests. All but 21 admitted falling prey to Satan's devices in this area. This book reverently and tastefully exposes why confession of sins to a man cannot be of God. You'll see how this practice destroys both the priest and the person doing the confessing.

ME: Interesting thesis! I had an associate pastor who used the confessional for solicitation and served time. (Not enough, IMO, but one can’t expect the State to enforce the seal of confession.) Probably an unexplored aspect of the abuse scandal. I wonder what diocese Fr. Chiniquy was in when the scandal hit Boston… Let’s scroll down…

AMAZON ABOUT-THE-AUTHOR:

As a child, Chiniquy memorized scriptures at his mother's knee and developed a deep love for God. Becoming a priest, he wanted desperately to place full trust in his church, but was hit by waves of doubt as his church claimed adherence to the Gospel, yet violated it at every turn.

ME: I guess he had to resolve the cognitive dissonance of his trauma by becoming Protestant. Too bad, but many such cases.

AMAZON ABOUT-THE-AUTHOR (CONT.):

His jealous superiors falsely accused him, but Abraham Lincoln, a young lawyer from Illinois, defended him and saved his reputation.

ME: Wait, what?

AMAZON ABOUT-THE-AUTHOR (CONT.):

Chiniquy proved that it was the Jesuits who later killed Lincoln

ME: Wait, WHAT!?

AMAZON ABOUT-THE-AUTHOR (CONT.):

Finally, after twenty-five years as a priest in the Roman Catholic Church, his bishop demanded that he give up his precious Bible, and pledge blind obedience to the church. After a dark night of struggle, he emerged gloriously saved, and led almost the entire Catholic population of St. Anne, Illinois to trust in Christ alone.

ME: God dammit, Leeroy.

EPILOGUE: It turns out Fr. Charles Chiniquy was a 19th-century Fr. Corapi type of guy, and some Protestants decided to republish one of his books with a nice enough cover.