- rectly describing him as a faithless son of the
church, and meets with the retort, "The attack on the Church I admit. I am not the only preacher in the world who has so attacked it. Christ Himself would attack it if He were to visit this earth again!" The remark is characterized as blasphemy, but, on the Cardinal being appealed to, the good Bonpré states his failure to perceive the alleged blasphemy of "our unhappy and repentant brother."
"In his address to his congregation to-day he denounced
social hypocrisy, and also pointed out certain
failings in the Church which may possibly need
consideration and reform; but against the Gospel
of Christ or against the Founder of our Faith I heard
no word that could be judged ill-fitting. As for the
conclusion which so very nearly ended in disaster
and crime, there is nothing to be said beyond the
fact that both the persons concerned are profoundly
sorry for their sins. . . . Surely we must believe
the words of our Blessed Lord, 'There is more
joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth, than
over ninety-and-nine just persons which have no
need of repentance.'"
This forgiveness of sin which Christ preached and
which Marie Corelli claims that the Romish Church
does not practice, is the basis of the differences of
Cardinal Bonpré with Moretti, and afterwards with
the Pope. Vergniaud, still unrebuked by Cardinal
Bonpré, declares to Moretti that there is a movement
in the world which all the powers of Rome
