Freemasonry Condemned.

FREEMASONRY CONDEMNED .

A SCATHING EXPOSURE OF ENGLISH LODGES . THE recent fiendish Anarchist outrages on the Continent recall the warnings which the Holy See has uttered from time to time with regard to a sect whose principal objects are to promote religious indifference , to destroy the Church , to oppress the Holy See , and to un-Christianise thelaws of Europe . This

is the verdict pronounced against Freemasonry by Leo'X'lIL , in his famous Encyclical " Humanum Genus , " and who can doubt that , severe and crushing through it is , it is absolutely true ? ' It would be strange if a Pontiff like Leo XIII ., who enjoys the esteem and veneration of the whole world for uprightness of character and clearness of intellect , had- either mistaken the

character of the sect which he condemns , or had on purpose denounced it unjustly . No wonder that many , an attempt has been made to dissociate English Freemasonry from that which goes by the name of Continental Freemasonry , and a radical difference is said to exist between these two Masonic bodies .

When in 1884 the Encyclical " Humanum Genus" was issued , Lord Carnarvon declared that it fell into two great mistakes ; it confounded all Masonic bodies throughout the world in one common condemnation , and it confounded all those bodies with infidels , or ( as it termed them ) " naturalists in religion , " and

with Anarchists and Eevolutiomsts . Against this he laid a solemn protest . In England , the Masonic body was religious and it was patriotic . Four years ago , the English Freemasons had solemnly dissociated themselves from the French Lodges , when the latter repudiated belief in God and in the immortality of the soul . Only a few weeks back , the cornerstone of a tower

of Peterborough Cathedral had been laid with Masonic pomp in the presence of the Anglican Archbishop . He concluded by saying " that he was convinced that social order and religion had no stronger friends , no truer pillar to rest upon than the Masonic bodies of England . " It was pointed out at the time that Lord Carnarvon had misinterpreted the meaning of the Encyclical .

The chief passage in the Papal document itself whiclr helps to decide to what degree English Freemasonry is included in the general condemnation is the following : —" . What we have said and are about to say , must be understood of the sect of the Freemasons taken generically , and in so far as it comprises the

associations kindred to it and confederated with it , but not of the individual members of them . There may be persons amongst these , and not a few , who although not free from the guilt of having entangled themselves in such associations , yet are neither themselves partners in their criminal acts , nor aware of

the ultimate object which they are endeavouring to attain . In the same way some of the affiliated societies , perhaps , by no means approve of the extreme conclusions , which they would , if consistent , embrace as necessarily following from the common principles , did not their foulness strike them with horror . Some

of these , again , are led by circumstances of times and places either to aim at smaller things than the others usually attempt . They are not , however , for this reason , to be reckoned as alien to the Masonic federation ; for the Masonic federation is to be judged not so much by the things which it has done or brought to completion , as by the sum of its pronounced opinions . "

As English Freemasons acknowledge themselves to be part of the great Masonic body , as they , on the whole , accept and are guided by the principles of Continental Freemasonry , they are included in the general condemnation . They might protest and say that they had no desire to take part in such wickedness as foreign

Lodges might aim at . But what the Pope says is , not that all associates of the sect are knowingly banded together for evil objects , but that the principles of Freemasonry are such as lead directly to licence and irreligion and that the sect is so organised that the majority of its associates , even without knowing it

promote the nefarious and horrible purposes that the leaders and primemovers keep steadily in view . The English Lodges on the whole are the allies and accomplices of general Freemasonry all over the world and the alliance was virtually acknowledged by Lord Carnarvon when he said that the English Freemasons had

solemnly dissociated themselves from the French Lodges , implying that they had not separated themselves from the other Lodges of the Continent . If the English Freemasons had acted logically they would have severed their connection with the whole Masonic body , for : the Lodges of Italy and Germany , etc ., still acknowledge the French Lodges , in spite of their repudiation of the

belief in one God and the immortality of the soul . They silentl y approved of infidelity and became participators in the crime . And it is with these Lodges that the English Lodges are still associated . The fact that one branch of Freemasonry has rejected the belief in God and the immortality of , the soul without being cut off from the general body of Freemasonry is sufficient to condemn the whole sect . A very fair notion again of the true nature of the sect , in

Freemasonry Condemned.

English-speaking countries ; may be gained from the words of the oaths imposed upon its members . * . •* * * * * * * Such oaths and mystic ceremonies , indeed , as a writer in the "Dublin Eeview" argues , imply that they are irreligious and profane , or cover a secret of transcendent importance . Such a

secret , we may add , can hardly be an honest one . But to quote verbatim from the " Eeview " : — " We take the portrait of English Masonry as traced by its own friends in such a journal as the ' Freemason , ' and this is what we find . We have a society which professes to exclude all religious professions , except only a

general and vague acceptance of an Architect of the Universe . It does not , in words , insist that its members shall abjure their religious profession ; but its organs and Officers speak with slight reverence of' creeds' and' sects . ' It is a society , therefore , which officially rejects Christianity , because that society which officially

ignores Christianity officially rejects it . None of its officers even mention Je 3 US Christ , or holy baptism , much less do they ever recognise sacraments , priesthood , or Church . Moreover , it is a

society which pretends to the possession of Truth . It claims to have existed long before Solomon and long before Moses , and to have handed down through all the intervening ages a certain doctrine of Truth" , which it reserves for its initiated members .

This Truth , which is nowhere very clearly described , can be nothing but a certain view about the Supreme Being . Now , whatever this view may be , it is either affected by Christian revelation or it is not . If the Masonic * Truth ' about the Deity is to he taken as merely a part of that grand and developed

teaching which the Old Testament , and more empthatically , the New Testament , and the teaching Church , has given the Christian as his right and his inheritance , all we can say is that the Masonic ritual and practice have no trace of anything of the sort ;

but if the real view of the society is , as we strongly believe , that its own tradition is all that need be known or held , then Masonry is simple Deism , and no Christian can belong to it and remain a Christian .

We are , therefore , justified in denying that English Free , masonry is free from a lurid and dismal aspect , even though its ceremonies be conducted under exalted patronage . — " Catholic Herald . "

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