had my faith shaken in the priesthood to a great extent by a
scandalous happening near the College of Vechta, which concerned and
strictly involved one of the great dignitaries of Catholicism in my
college town, but I fought this feeling of dislike down and forced
myself to believe that what a priest or bishop did was all right in
the sight of God, but at the same time I had a feeling of distrust,
as I could not reconcile myself to believe that God would look with
compassion upon the acts of a dignitary more readily than he would
upon the transgressions of his blind and duped followers, but
nevertheless I went ahead and prepared myself for the priesthood,
which I followed for thirty years.

Right directly opposite the college which I was attending resided the
Very Rev. Harold. This reverend gentleman was a high dignitary in the
Catholic Church.

We young priests had often heard it whispered about that Priest
Harold had in his house at different times a number of concubines,
which are nothing more nor less than lude women. We often saw ladies
around the mansion, dressed in the very height of fashion, and their
actions led us to believe that they were there at the solicitation of
Rev. Harold, as they were seen there at all times of the day and
night, and this certainly made a very strange impression upon us
young students, as there were so many different faces; one day we
would see two or three young girls, and the next day the same number
would be about the mansion, but different faces. All of we young
students endeavored not to believe the rumor, as we were Catholics
in every sense of the word, and we did not want to believe that
anything so degrading would be tolerated in the very mansion of one
of the officials who were teaching us.