Prayers Are Directed To Her That She Will Raise The Sick,
Etc., And Promises Are Made Her If She Will Do This.
One morning I
had business with a storekeeper, and went to his office.
"Is the
carai in?" I asked. "No," I was answered, "he has gone to Caacupe to
pay a promise." That promise was to burn so many candles before the
Virgin, and further adorn her bejewelled robes. She had, as he
believed, healed him of a sickness.
The village of Caacupe is about forty miles from Asuncion. "The
Bishop of Paraguay formally inaugurated the worship of the Virgin of
Caacupe, sending forth an episcopal letter accrediting the practice,
and promising indulgences to the pilgrims who should visit the
shrine. Thus the worship became legal and orthodox. Multitudes of
people visit her, carrying offerings of valuable jewels. There are
several well-authenticated cases of persons, whose offerings were
of inferior quality, being overtaken with some terrible calamity."
[Footnote: Washburn's "History of Paraguay."]
Funds must be secured somehow, for the present Bishop's sons, to whom
I was introduced as among the aristocrats of the capital, certainly
need a large income from the lavish manner I noticed them "treat" all
and sundry in the hotel. "It is admitted by all, that in South
America the church is decadent and corrupt. The immorality of the
priests is taken for granted. Priests' sons and daughters, of course
not born in wedlock, abound everywhere, and no stigma attaches to
them or to their fathers and mothers." [Footnote: "The Continent of
Opportunity." Dr. Clark.] Hon. S. H. Blake, in the Neglected
Continent, writes: "I was especially struck by the statement of a
Roman Catholic - a Consular agent with a large amount of information
as to the land and its inhabitants. He stopped me in speaking of the
priests by saying, 'I know all that. You cannot exaggerate their
immorality. Everybody knows it - but the Latin race is a degenerate
race. Nothing can be done with it. The Roman Church has had four
centuries of trial and has made a failure of it.'"
When a person is dying, the Pai is hurriedly sent for. To this call
he will readily respond. A procession will be formed, and, preceded
by a boy ringing a bell, the Host, or, to use an everyday
expression, God, will be carried from the church down the street to
the sick one. All passers-by must kneel as this goes along, and the
police will arrest you if you do not at least take off your hat.
"Liberty of conscience is a most diabolical thing, to be stamped out
at any cost," is the maxim of Rome, and the Guarani has learned his
lesson well. "In Inquisition Square men were burned for daring to
think, therefore men stopped thinking when death was the penalty."
Wakes for the dead are always held, and in the case of a child the
little one lies in state adorned with gilded wings and tinselled
finery.
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