Is The Pope A Freemason?

have said , " I shall ever be a warm defender of this sublime Order , whose mission it is to moralize the universe , and to relieve and protect suffering humanity . " The Editor of the Monde Maconnique ,

sent with his paper a letter to the grand Master , calling his attention to the article , and asking him to forward to the Monde Maconnique a certified copy of the facts and proceedings of the Lodge initiating M . Ferretti . To this letter the Grand Master

replied November 23 rd , 1868 . In that reply he stated that "from time to time he had heard a report that the Pops was made a Freemason in the United States , but that he had always regarded it as an idle story . "

Since , however , so respectable a Masonic authority had published what purported to be the letter of the Ereeemasons of Messina , and vouched to be authentic , in which such statements were publicly made , an examination

would be instituted by the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , Bro . John Thompson . That investigation was made when these facts appeared . There was a Lodge , " Le Temple des Vertus Thelogales , " No . 103 , held in the City of Havannah , under a warrant

from the Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of Pennsylvania , of 17 th December , 1804 From a list of its members , it appears that on January 15 th , 1815 , Juan Aug . Ferretti was made a Mason , and

that on March 21 st , 1817 , he withdrew from membership . It appears also that there was aLodge , "Las Deliciasdela Havannah , " No . 157 , held also in Havannah , under the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania , and on

March 27 th , 1818 , J . A . Ferretti joined that Lodge . On November 17 th , 1819 , Martin ferretti was made a Mason in No . 157 . These names are , it appears , copied from the Grand Secretary ' s Begister in the Grand Lodge at Philadelphia . Thus the questions arise , do these

Is The Pope A Freemason?

names refer to the Pope and his brother 1 AVas Juan Aug . the name of the Pope ' s brother ? Is Martin a mistake for Mastai ? We should endeavour to ascertain these factsas otherwise some 'facetious

, Roman will be sure to say that it is all " my eye and Betty Martin . " The " Luce del Terreno " of Palermo has recently repeated this story , and our contemporary , the Freemason , has ,

we believe , referred the matter to our accomplished correspondent , Clifford McCalla , Esq ., EditorofthePMacfc ^ Ma Keystone , and asked him to investigate the whole matter . Until we receive his replywe shall leave the question

, where it is . We have stated simply the facts of the case , as we think the whole subject demands a full and impartial inquiry , and demands a decisive settlement .

An After Dinner Conversation.

AN AFTER DINNER CONVERSATION .

My old friend Jorum and I have long been the fastest of friends , We knew each other at school in ancient clays on St , Catherine ' s Hill ; we knew each other at college ; we lived in the same set ; we played in the same

eleven ; we rowed in the same boat ; and this pleasant friendship of boyhood and youth has been cemented in maturer years , since it does so happen that we have been neighbours in the same county ; habitual associates amid

the genial hours and sterner duties of life . I am still an elderly bachelor , surrounded by my books , and many cherished " Lares and Penates " in an unpretending but not uncomfortable

dwelling . Whereas Jorum , the king of good fellows , the cheeriest of companions , and the warmest of friends , ever " on