"The Assassination Of Abraham Lincoln"
Was Abraham Lincoln murdered by the mere whim of a warped and twisted megalomaniac? Or was his assassination the result of a carefully laid plot by "their Catholic Majesties," Emperor Franz Joseph, King Leopold I, Emperor Maximilian and Pope Pius IX to establish the Empire of Mexico, and on the broken and war-wearied ruins of both South and North to bring about a condition in which the entire American nation could be absorbed into a monolithic "Catholic Empire of America"?
This is a question that has been raised innumerable times in the century since that fateful night in April, 1865, when John Wilkes Booth dramatically ended the life of the great Lincoln. First to suggest that this was something more than the vengeful spite of a frustrated fanatic was "Father Chiniquy" a former Catholic priest who had renounced his allegiance to Rome, and is most widely known for his book, "Fifty Years in the Church of Rome." He pointed out that the Pope was the only ruling monarch in Europe who granted full recognition to the Southern Confederacy, that the plot for Lincoln's assassination was planned in the home of Mrs. Surratt, a Roman Catholic; John Wilkes Booth was a Roman Catholic, and died clutching a medal of the Virgin Mary to his breast; Garrett, in whose barn Booth took refuge, was a Catholic; Dr. Mudd, who set Booth's leg, was a Catholic; Mr. Lloyd, who kept the carbine that Booth wanted for protection was a Catholic; and, most significant of all, John Surratt, when the plot was disclosed, fled this country and took refuge in the Vatican at Rome, where he was given sanctuary and concealed.
Many historians and experts in Catholic history and planning (notably Paul Blanshard) have cast doubt on Chiniquy's reliability. They believe that much of his conversation with Lincoln existed only in Chiniquy's imagination, and that the evidence for Catholic responsibility in the assassination is flimsy and conjectural.
But now comes the redoubtable Emmett McLoughlin with a new book, "An Inquiry Into The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln," which is certainly deserving of the most careful study and investigation by historians. Published this year, this book is the result of an eight year study of the history of Lincoln's murder. The trial extended through the major archives and libraries of the United States, Mexico, and Peru. Through both Church and Government documents the book collects the threads of an assassination plot, and shows the extraordinary efforts of the Catholic Church to discourage investigation and to cover the facts after Lincoln was killed.
Who Is Emmett McLoughlin?
Probably most of our readers are familiar with the name Emmett McLoughlin. He lived 41 years of his life as a Roman Catholic; 12 of those years as a Seminarian and 14 more as a parish priest on the South Side of Phoenix, Arizona. Here he gained wide recognition as the founder and chief promoter of the great Phoenix Memorial Hospital. He was given unstinted praise both by Catholics and non-Catholics for his great humanitarian work among the poor of Phoenix. But he came into increasing conflict with the rulers of his own church, and finally, on December 1, 1948, resigned from the Roman Catholic priesthood. For this, of course, he was unmercifully castigated and persecuted by the hierarchy, even being brutally beaten, and narrowly escaping death himself at the hands of assassins.
Since his defection from the Roman Church, McLoughlin has felt a profound responsibility to inform, in charity and in love, all Americans of the true nature of Roman Catholicism, its similarity in history, methods, and objectives to Communism and its intimate destructiveness of individuals, both priests and laymen. His forty-one years in the Catholic Church and his fifteen years of intense study since leaving the priesthood have eminently fitted him for this dedication.
McLoughlin has helped approximately 100 priests who have desired to leave the priesthood and take up a normal life. Through his writings and lectures he has encouraged and helped thousands of wavering Catholics to join the 16,000,000 ex-Catholics of America. He has written four great books on the subject (and has four more in contemplation), the most widely known of them being "People's Padre," a story of his own life and of his break with Rome. Other books from his pen are "American Culture and Catholic Schools," "Crime and Immorality In The Catholic Church," and now his latest, "An Inquiry Into The Assassination of Abraham Lincoln." (All of these books are available through the Gospel Guardian, and each of them is priced at $4.95, except "People's Padre" which is $3.95.)
McLoughlin cannot be lightly dismissed. He deals with factual material, and cites the documents and references on which his judgments are based. You may not come to the same conclusions he reaches from this evidence; but his facts DEMAND some sort of explanation. If this man's conclusions are in error, then it would seem the Roman hierarchy would be intensely interested in showing the error, and pointing out the true explanation. But what has been their attitude? Other than the efforts at personal intimidation and persecution, they have apparently decided the best course is to ignore everything that has been said and to pretend that McLoughlin does not exist!
— F. Y. T.