Foreign Freemasonry.

FOREIGN FREEMASONRY .

Its Position Vis-a-Vis of Christianity , and of Catholicism . By D . Moncrieff O'Connor , in the " Tablet . " ( Continued from page 174 . ) WE suppose no thinker , be his personal present religious opinions what they may , will deny that the most potent force in and out of Christianity is or has been Catholicism . If , therefore , we do Masonry no

wrong in being driven to accept it as antagonistic to Christianity , ifc should show a powerful , a lasting opposition to Catholicism . If this be not the case its antagonism to Christianity is either not real or ill conducted . But the vitality of its immense organisation precludes the latter idea . Is then its antagonism to Catholicism real ?

Proudhon ' s dictum that the theology of the Lodges is the very " antithesis of theology " marks the different spheres in which Catholicism and Masonry move . In fundamentals they are spheres of mutual repulsion ; for whom intersection means annihilation of first principles , between whom there can be no overlapping , no fusion . Do Masons realise this as keenly as we do ?

In fche " Masonic Encyclopaedia " of Chemin-Dupontes we learn that in the semi-mystical but always refined language of Masonry ; the expressions " Imposture , " "Superstition , " "Ignorance , " " Obscurantism , " "Reign of Error , " " Corruptive and wicked Institute , " " The Angel of Evil and of Darkness , " are synonyms of Catholicism . This being so categorically laid down

we cannot fail in appreciation when , in the same work , he declares Masons assemble in the Lodges to learn to fight with ardour and success the two capital enemies of fche human race , ignorance and superstition . In this he is at one with " The Masonic World , " which insists on its being " the essential business of the Lodges , as of Masonry itself , to fight against evil , prejudice , error , superstition ; a struggle against religious fanaticism . " ' From the official Bulletin of the Italian Grand Orient a we find that on

the inauguration afc Lucca , of the Lodge Burlamacohi , Nori Fortuni delivered this battle cry : A noble mission lies with Masons , to root out old prejudices , to fight obscurantism , to unveil to a credulous and deceived people the perfidious

intrigues of Jesuits and Paulists ; to tear it from the hands of the retrogrades , and lead it into the paths of Progress . ... In vain the sons of Darkness seek to hold it down ; the struggle between them and the Apostles of Light will not be of long lasting .

So that when Raphael Galh , following him , called in his brothers " to fight united , and compact , the eternal enemies of civilisation and progress , " his hearers found no mysticism in his words .

That this is no mere ebullition of vulgar passion , will be proved by reference to a well-known Belgian Masonic authority . In the 24 th Chapter of his popular " History of Freemasonry , " detailing fche means Masons are fco use in realising their ideals , Goffin says :

The third means recommended is example . It is slow but absolutely sure . Let us explain . Would you have light shine forth ? Well then , the enemy of light must be crushed . Would you have ignorance , superstition , prejudice , disappear from the world ? First cast them from yourselves . Preach by example . We have an enemy , the Priesthood . Destroy it , and

the world will instantly be radiated with the splendour of universal fraternity . There is no question political , social , or economical , into which Priesthood or Religion does not enter . Either in and out of the Lodges fight the Priesthood and Religion , or adopt a double face : a Mason when in fche Lodge , a Catholic when out .

At the initiation of a military Officer into the Lodge Concord at Florence these words , it was officially declared , were used : Not long ago our Italy was a corpse , the prey of foreign vampires who apportioned it . To-day , that our word be absolutely completed , there but remains the crown , which the cunning of the priests have stolen by help of

false decretals . ... To triumph over this enemy we have it in us to level its last rampart . Hence issue the muddy waters of bondage which have deluged the world . To Masonry belongs the cleansing of the new Augean stables We declare a lasting war , a war of extermination to the prejudices which enervate the mind , corrupt the souls , and brutaliso

the creature , in deforming fche divine type , which the Creator imprinted when making him to His image . A sneer recalling , and illustrated by , tho Mason Voltaire ' s bitter gibe : " Despuis que Dieu a fate l'homme A , Son image , l'homme le lui a bien rendu . " " Ever since God made man in His own image man has done him infinite honour ! "

In a circular letter to the Italian Lodges issued by Trapolli , * we read : The Grand Orient of Italy in the domain of thought and in philosophy is neither Materialist , Deist , nor even Pantheist . It is Rationalist . In the

domain of sentiment , of Religion , it professes tolerance The G . O . of Italy accepts with visor up for itself and for the generations to come a war to the death which the tolerance of civil and priestly tyrannies have , from all times , declared against the progress of humanity

Stallo , of Geneva , calls upon Masonry : Never to tire , as the work of extermination is not yefc complete . Have we not still to fight the Paulists , the Jesuits , with their means of formidable

influence ? Is not Catholicism yet the State Religion of a large part of Europe ? Is not the conscience of the people yet under the heel of the priests ? Is not the confessional , which through its absolution consecrates sin , ever vigorous and lasting ? In a permanent instruction / ' adopted as a code and guide by the more advanced Italian Masons , we find the following :

1 For 1864 , p . 487 . For 1867 , p . 32 . 2 Of 1864 , No . 15 , pp . 234 , et seq . 3 25 th March 1869 . ' De la F . M . dans ses bien faisants rapports avec l'humanite . Geneva , 1869 , p . 46 . * Dated , 1819 .

Foreign Freemasonry.

You would have the last vestiges of the tyrants and oppressors disappear ; throw out your nets as did Simon Barjona : cast them to the depths of the sacristies , the seminaries , the convents . . . . The Sacred Societies will succeed in their aim by the simplest means ; because they are based on the passions of men .... let us make ready our arms in the silence of the Lodges ; lay our batteries ; flatter all passions the most wicked as the most generous . . . , .

An earlier passage reads : Our final aim is that of Voltaire and of fche French Revolution : the annihilation for ever and ever of Catholicism , and even of the Christian idea , which if left standing , amid the ruins of Rome , would keep their memory green .

A thought and a fear so closely reproduced in fche Masonic " Reform i ' of 30 th October 1886 , as to prove these are not isolated authorities , but touching the real spirit of the Order . The " Reforma " writes : The pacific conquest ( of Rome ) has been powerless to effect what the bold Revolution had dreamed of . In 1849 , the profound idea had taken root in the minds of two or three individuals while walking in Rome , that when

a religion has ceased to be anything more than a rite , if you destroy its altar the religion will-fall . An idea this , without doubt , which our posterity will entertain , and which our progenitors have luminously professed . When the Roman conquerors wished to ensure the subjugation of a conquered people , they razed its cities to the ground , and rebuilt them on the same site in their own fashion . We moderns , on the other hand , not only protect the temples and the altars of a vanishing religion which persists in swearing implacable

hatred to us , but built it new ones I Can you not imagine how the problem of the reconstruction of Rome would have been simplified if the idea of two of the Triumvirs of the last Roman Republic , of " blowing up the mosques " before surrendering the city to the advancing " red leg , " had been carried into effect ? And how much would not fche Vatican question , properly socalled , have been facilitated , had not Alberto Mario , on the announcement that one of the four great arches of St . Peter's had been mined , opposed the intended attempt with a shudder at the colossal sacrilege .

The Jew-Mason Pieolo-Tigre in the letter already cited , after warning his reader of the evil of wasting an enthusiasm over minor objects , insists : The conspiracy against the Roman See should never be confounded with other aims . ... We must de-Catholicise the world

The Revolution in the Church is the one lasting revolution Do not plot except against Rome . But in that use every incident , profit by every occasion . Yet beware exaggerated zeal . A sterling hatred , steadily cool , well weighed , profound is worth more than all the fireworks and declamations of the tribune .

And think you they would not turn thafc Rhetoric into action ? Listen to the Masonio " Caffaro , " of Genoa , in its issue of the other day . Discussing the " great and almost inevitable probability of a collision between France and Italy , " it approaches the possibility of a reverse for the Italian arms in these words :

The fate of war has always been , and will always be , an uncertainty ; and he who would refuse to admit the possibility of a reverse on our side would not be very well advised . Now when the news reached Rome of , I will not say the loss of a pitched battle , but of the first check to our force : ' , what would follow ? Plainly this : that of the Vatican there would not be left a stone upon a stone , nor would any official force avail fco guarantee the lives of its inmates .

How salt the savour of Dante's sigh " that Italy was di dolor' ostello " — tho dwelling place of sorrow I How keen a bitterness of truth do her own children bring to Filicaia ' s sonnet : ; Italy , oh Italy , thou who hast for dower , The fatal gift of beauty , and wifch ifc Those countless wrongs upon thy forehead writ ' In characters of woe even to this hour 1 . •'

Hadsfc thou but fewer charms or greater power That those might dread thee more , or less be smit , ' ¦ Who , feigning so much love , can yet permit Destruction on thy beauteous form to shower . But we must do Italy the sad justice of saying it is nofc only there we

can study the spirit with which Masonry confronts Catholicism . Afc an important assembly of the Grand Orient of Belgium , held in view of the progress of Catholicism in that country , the Grand Master , Verhsegen , having apostrophised us as " those insulters of the intelligence , those implacable enemies of humanity , " was followed by Bourlard , who said :

The country is overrun with religious houses ; our right , our duty is fco occupy ourselves with this question of convents : to attack them boldly , to end them , should the people even have to recur to force to purge the country of this leprosy . Tbe priesthood based on ignorance , superstitufciou , and fanaticism haughtily raises its head . We must pass from theory to action . Afc a Masonic banquet afc Antwerp , Van Humbeck , tho then Minister of Public Instruction , was not ashamed of expressing himself thus :

" A carcass lies athwart the world , barring the way of progress . This corpse of the past , to name it frankly without periphrasis , is Catholicism . . . . It is it , my brothers , we have to-day overhauled , and if we have not quite cast it into the ditch we have thrust it some steps nearer . This is a great achievement . We owe it fco our brothers of Antwerp . We thank them warmly—Masonically . ( To bo continued ) .

We have been asked if Provincial Lodges of Instruction are excluded from our diary of weekly meetings ? Certainly nofc . We shall be pleased to give them equal publicity with the London ones , and also publish brief reports of the gatherings .

6 Given by Cretineau Joly : loco . cit . pp . 73 , 79 : bufc as is too usual with him , without stating whence he had it . Cretineau Joly , ubi sup ., p . 107 . « 25 th September 1892 . 9 Compare , le Rosier de Marie , 30 th September 1893 . 10 W . S . Lilly , A Century of Revolution , oh . Hi ., p . 56 ,