“Charles Chiniquy – American & Canadian Hero”

Handout #3 // February 4, 2006

Here are some facts about Charles Chiniquy that generally are not included in many American history textbooks or encyclopedias:

· Charles Chiniquy (1809-1899) was a Roman Catholic priest for 25 years. He was also a personal friend of Abraham Lincoln.

· Chiniquy was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1833 in the Cathedral of Quebec.

· Chiniquy, while a Roman Catholic priest in Canada, spoke out strongly against alcohol abuse. He became known as the “Apostle of Temperance”. He received a “Gold Medal” from the city of Montreal, an “Address” and 500 Pounds from the Canadian Parliament, and a “Blessing” from the pope for his dedicated efforts in the temperance movement.

· Chiniquy was chosen to bring thousands of Roman Catholics from Canada to form a “Catholic colony” in the Mississippi Valley in the USA.

· Charles Chiniquy studied his Bible. As he did, he noticed more and more discrepancies between what the Bible taught and what his Church taught through their “traditions”. He began to speak out against the doctrinal errors within his own Church, and some of the Church abuses he saw, such as those occurring in the Confessional. For his efforts on the behalf of Truth, his own Church turned on him, and Chiniquy was framed by the Jesuits.

· A lawyer named Abraham Lincoln came to Chiniquy’s rescue. The lady who had been told by a Catholic prelate to bear false witness against Chiniquy recanted her testimony, and Chiniquy was acquitted. The Jesuits never forgave either Chiniquy or Lincoln.

· Chiniquy wrote two excellent books: 50 Years in the Church of Rome and The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional. In the former he records the conversations he had with President Lincoln, and provides the evidence of Jesuit and Roman Catholic prelates’ involvement in the assassination of President Lincoln. (U.S. Army Brigadier General Thomas M. Harris, who sat on the 12-man Military Commission that tried eight of the conspirators in the Lincoln assassination, also wrote a book on the assassination of Lincoln that is in total agreement with Chiniquy’s accusations and conclusions.)

Concerning the Confessional, Chiniquy said: “Auricular confession is a public act of idolatry. It is asking from a man [i.e., the Roman Catholic priest] what God alone, through His Son Jesus, can grant: forgiveness of sins.”
Charles Chiniquy tried to warn President Lincoln that the Jesuits would try to assassinate him. Lincoln replied to Chiniquy: “You are not the first to warn me against the dangers of assassination. My ambassadors in Italy, France, and England, as well as Professor [Samuel] Morse [Ed. Note: inventor of the telegraph], have many times warned me against the plots of the murderers which they have detected in those different countries.”
Despite the warnings from Chiniquy and others, President Lincoln was shot in the head on April 14, 1865 as he sat in a box at Ford’s Theater – he died the next day. Roman Catholic priests helped one of the conspirators, John Harrison Surratt, to escape first to Canada, then to England, and later on to Rome (where he joined the pope’s bodyguard).

Chiniquy’s two books, 50 Years in the Church of Rome and The Priest, the Woman, and the Confessional, are available, respectively, for $15.75 postpaid and $10.20 postpaid. To order them by credit card from Chick Publications, please call 1-909-987-0771