Charles Chiniquy

Photograph of Charles Chiniquy

Charles Paschal Telesphore Chiniquy (30 July 1809 – 16 January 1899) was a Canadian socio-political activist and former Catholic priest who left the Catholic Church and converted to Protestant Christianity, becoming a Presbyterian Evangelical minister.[1] He rode the lecture circuit in the United States denouncing the Catholic Church.[1][2][3] His themes were that Catholicism was Pagan, that Catholics worshipped the Virgin Mary, and that its theology was anti-Christian.[4]

Chiniquy founded the St. Anne Colony, a village located in Kankakee County, Illinois in 1851.[5] Fifty Years in the Church of Rome, an extensive autobiographical account of his life and thoughts as a priest in the Catholic Church, was written by Chiniquy and published in 1886.[4] He warned of plots by the Vatican to take control of the United States by importing Catholic immigrants from Ireland, Germany, and France, and suggested that the Vatican was behind the assassination of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln.[6]

  1. ^ a b Ferland, Catherine (1 February 2020). "Charles Chiniquy, apôtre spectaculaire de l'abstinence à l'alcool". Aujourd'hui l'histoire (in French). Montreal: Ici Radio-Canada Première. Archived from the original on 17 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  2. ^ Laverdure, Paul (June 1988). "Creating an Anti-Catholic Crusader: Charles Chiniquy". Journal of Religious History. 15 (1). Wiley-Blackwell on behalf of the Religious History Association: 94–108. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9809.1988.tb00519.x. eISSN 1467-9809. ISSN 0022-4227.
  3. ^ "Newly acquired artifacts recall a revered and reviled priest". www.historymuseum.ca. Gatineau: Canadian Museum of History. 13 June 2016. Archived from the original on 23 October 2022. Retrieved 27 October 2022.
  4. ^ a b Chiniquy, Charles (2018) [1886]. Fifty Years in the Church of Rome (1st (Reprint) ed.). New York, Chicago, and Toronto: Fleming H. Revell. ISBN 978-3-73404-393-2.
  5. ^ Roby, Yves (2000). "Chiniquy, Charles". In English, John (ed.). Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. Vol. 12. Ottawa: National Archives of Canada and National Library of Canada. ISSN 1709-6812. OCLC 463897210. Archived from the original on 1 October 2012. Retrieved 27 April 2013.
  6. ^ George, Joseph. “The Lincoln Writings of Charles P. T. Chiniquy,” Journal of the Illinois State Historical Society, vol. 69, no. 1, 1976, pp. 17–25. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40191689.