Catholics And Freemasonry.

I agree with " G . F . R . " that there are good" men Masons , because Masonry contains social and commercial advantages ; but they are in the " inner circle" of Masonry , or that they realise the gravity of the step they aro taking in becoming Masons , I am not prepared to believe . For example , a manager of an establishment , sworn to help a Mason , has hundreds of employees under his control : how can he give justice to non-Masons who may be among the number ?

"G . F . R . " is not correct when he says that Freemasonry is not condemned because it is a secret society . All societies bound by oath to secrecy , excluding as they do the supervision of civil and ecclesiastical authority , are condemned by the Church on account of the danger ( supposing no other evil ) of unsound doctrine or immoral practices creeping in . Lastly , " G . F . R . " thinks the presence of representatives of all

denominations—Jews , Mahommedans , etc . —in Masonic Lodges is a guarantee of safety . Benedict XIV . thinks otherwise . He says : "The union of men of every or any sect or religious persuasion , and of mon indifferent to all religion—heretics , deists , atheists , etc . —is highly dangerous to the purity of Catholic faith and morals . " Yours , etc ,, C . M . O'B .

SIR , —The reasons why the Church condemns Freemasonry as a system are given in the present Pope ' s Encyclical on the question , and are as follow : 1 . That it is a system of " pure naturalism " in religion . 2 . That it reduces matrimony to a mere natural contract , revocable at will . 3 . That it upholds in education pure secularism ; 4 , and that no moral instruction ought to be given to the young which is to bind man to God by the sanctity of religion .

5 . That it has the right to proclaim that there is no God . 6 . That it treats as idle fables the redemption of the human race and other mysteries of religion . 7 . That it aims at corrupting the masses of the people so as to advance the interests of the sect . 8 . That it labours to overturn that discip line and social order which Christianity has founded , and erect upon their ruins a system after its own principles and foundations of disorder .

The Pope is , of course , dealing with the system of Freemasonry as a whole , and the experience of sincere Christians is that Freemasons are , as a rule , not only anti-Catholic but anti-Christian , both in religion and politics . Lord Carnarvon , in his reply to tho Pope , was forced to admit that this indictment is not without its truth . He said : " I am not here to-night to defend all Masonic bodies in all parts of the world I grieve to think that there are some Masonic bodies that have laid themselves open to many

of the charges which this Encyclical letter contains . . . . Four years ago , I think it was , this Grand Lodge , having taken into consideration in the calmest and most solemn manner the course of action which had been pursued by a large proportion of the French Lodges , wbo erased from their title-deeds and charters the affirmation of the immortality of the soul and the belief in a Supreme Being .... then resolved to break off—painful though it might be —all communion with the French Lodges " ( " Daily Telegraph , " 5 th June

1884 ) . This clears the English Lodges so far , bat only so far , and if English . Masonry were only a philanthropic society would clear it altogether , but it is not . It is a religious " cult" with religious rites and ceremonies that aro not only not Catholic but are not even Christian , and which no Christian man can take part in any more than he can take part in the rites and ceremonies oi any other false religion . In principle the religious " cult" of Freemasonry is pure naturalism .

Again tbe practice of individuals administering oaths is forbidden by tho law of the land as well as by the law of the Church . Every time a Freemason administers an oath he performs an illegal act for which he could be prosecuted . Again the principle of a secret society is against public policy and a danger to society . Thc State as well as the Church has a right to know what all its subjects are doing , and the object of the Freemason oath is to keep this knowledge from the authorities in Church and State and even from ordinary members of the association .

It may be that English Freemasonry is not used for any illegal purpose , but there is always the danger that a secret society , if ic gets into the hands of unprincipled men , may be used for illegal purposes , and there can be no doubt that Freemasonry is and has been used for such purposes . There is always a distinction to be made between legislation based upon the " presumption of fact " and that based on the " presumption of danger . " The former does not bind where the presumed fact does not exist . The latter

binds in every case even where tbe presumed danger is believed not to exist , and for this plain reason . If every man were to disregard a law based upon the " presumption of danger " which the legislator believes to exist because he believes it not to exist in his case the law would become a dead letter . Secret societies are in principle dangerous and as such are forbidden by the law both of Church and State , and that ought to be enough to prevent any good Catholic or good citizen from having anything to do with them .

Yours , etc ., J . D . BBEEN . Grayshott , Haslemere . SIB , —A letter from " G . F . R . " in your issue of 14 th April evidently shows that he is one of those Catholics who find a difficulty in explaining to non-Catholics on moderate and reasonable grounds tbe real objections there exist in the way of preventing " loyal and practical" Catholics being Freemasons even in England .

I have much pleasure in giving a few , which non-Catholics and Freemasons whom I know admit to be conclusive . 1 . Every Catholio is bound to absolute loyalty to the Church in religious matters . Granted this , it follows that it would be a contradiction to put himself by oath under obedience to the unknown leaders of a secret society to carry out orders the nature of which are unknown . Such orders might or might not be against the Church , or he may never be called upon to carry

out such orders ; but that is beside the point . All reasonable men see that an organisation like the Catholic Church , that claims not merely outward loyalty , but also absolute internal submission to its teachings , cannot without stultification allow its subjects to freely become oath-bound members of an independent society that possibly some day might be inimical .

De facto also , I think I am not mistaken that all Freemasons individually and as a body are vehemently opposed to the Church ' s claim to be the sole religious teacher of mankind , and the English Masons would be in no way less energetic than foreign ones in fighting against the-claim of a purely Catholic State to repress any rising heresy . The main reason why English

Masons are not violent against the Church is that in . England the Church , as such , has no political power , and circumstances make it impossible for her to assert her rights , whilst in Italy , France , and Spain if restraints imposed by Masonry were removed , the Church would immediately once more adopt repressive measures as the sole religious teacher having any right to exist ,

Catholics And Freemasonry.

All Masons boast that the putting down of the power of the Church to enforce conformity is their work ( Cf . " Encyclopaedia Britannica , " article " Inquisition , " at end ) . 2 . Another reason is not that Masonry numbers amongst its members "Jews , Mahommedans , and representatives of all denominations , " and considers their various views no bar to their membership , but if I am not mistaken it goes further and " definitely teaches " that , granted that a man believes in God and avoids wrong-doing as defined by it , "it does not matter what religion he belongs to . " No Catholio can belong to a society that holds this as a fundamental principle .

3 . A third reason why the Church forbids Catholics to become members of the Masonic body is that they cannot do so without taking an oath . It is also an illegal oath administered by a body that has no right to impose it . The Church itself can impose oaths ; it also allows the State to exact them , but it can never recognise any right to the secret chiefs of a private organisation , " independent of her authority , " to bind to themselves by oath subjects

of the Church . Were Masonry a guild in dependence on the Church , the Church might well authorise oaths to be admistered by her authority , but Masonry glories in being independent . Some Masons allege that the oath is not really serious , but this only makes things worse , as it surely cannot be right to take an oath in jest . The Church is thus obliged to teach that it is certainly a mortal sin to become a Freemason on the score of the oath alone .

I am quite prepared to find that Catholics who see no harm in Masonry are not prepared to admit the full claims of the Church to their absolute submission to her , but they can hardly in this case have any valid claim to the name of Catholic . It is always something of a mystery to me why so many nominal Catholics assert their claims with such vehemence to the title of being members of a Church whose fundamental principles they as vehemently reject . I cannot see whero the attraction lies . The only possible explanation seems that they have inherited the name as a sort of family

tradition without ever actually realising what the Church is , such is the deplorable nature of much of the religious instruction in our schools . Whatever ideas they have are those of the world around them , and when one day , finding v ? hat a worldly advantage it v ? ould be to be a Mason , they wake up to find the Church is in irreconcileable opposition to the world , it comes upon them quite as a surprise and they ask if there cannot be some way of combining the two . The honest thing for such men would be either to become real Catholics or to frankly give up the name of Catholic . Yours , etc ., W . M . CUNNINGHAM .

The Southern Star Lodge of Instruction , No . 1158 , has been removed from the Sir Sidney Smith , Chester Street , Kennington , to the Ship Tavern , Kennington Road , S . E ., where future meetings will be held every Thursday evening .

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