The
Village Priest Wanted Me To Take His Photo, But He Was So Drunk I Had
To Help Him Put On His Official Robes.
He was taken standing in the
doorway of the church beside an image of the Virgin."
"There wan a feast in honor of the image of the Holy Spirit in the
church. This is a figure of a man with a beard; beside it sits a
figure of Christ, and between them a dove. Great crowds of people
attend these feasts to buy, sell and drink. On a common in the town a
large altar was erected, and another image of the Holy Spirit placed,
and before it danced Indians fantastically dressed to represent
monkeys, tigers, lions and deer. Saturday, Sunday and Monday were
days of debauchery. Men, women and children were intoxicated; the
jails were full, and extravagances of all kinds were practised by
masked Indians. The vessels in the church are of gold and silver, and
the images each have a man to care for them. The patron saint is a
large image of the Virgin, dressed in clothing that cost $2,500."
Since returning to more civilized lands, I have been asked: But do
they really worship the Virgin, or God, through her? I answer that in
enlightened countries where Roman Catholicism prevails, the latter
may be true, but that in South America, discovered and governed by
Romanists from the earliest times, millions of people worship the
Virgin without any reference to God.
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