FREEMASONRY.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIX, Issue 6, 7 November 1890, Page 15

FREEMASONRY.

» (From the Irish Catholic?)

A bemabkAble letter on the present attitude of Continental Masonry towards the Papacy and religion has been addressed by the Bishop of Grenoble to M. Paul Rosen, author of the recently published work, •■ L'Ennemie Socia'e." The Bishop give* in his letter many extracts from M. Rosen's book, which ca^ much light on the intentions of the members of the Freemasons' L )dg s, and on their eft 5 >ris to destroy not only the temporal power of th ■ Pope, but to bring social and moral ruin on Europe by abolishing Ca'holicity ani Christianity in any form, and substituting in their stead infidelity and freat >ou£h . Of the great streneth of the Masonic orginisation few have any adequate idea. One hundred and thirty-six thousand Lodges can boast of the enormous number of nearly twenty- nnj millions of members— 2s,B7s,ooo males aad 2 850,000 f 'mains— " while, by means of their annual income of three milliards of raacs, they aim utterly at destroyirg Christianity and re- stabiishing Paganism in France, Belgium, Italy, and elsewhere." Under such circumstance?, tbere is little need to wonder that the Church has always viewed Masonry with aversion. Its strength we have seen ; let us now examine its avowed objects. The facts visible in the caße of France, with its Government always seeking how it cm crush tru- religion or aid infidelity, are incontestible. "We have," say the Freemasons themselves, " two huudred deputies in the Chamber, and our iuflaence is considerable, for if we are to-day the strong st allies of the Kepublic, we are also a secret body at aimng our ends by secrecy." "In fact," says the Bishop of Grenoble, " it is Freemasonry that rales both France and Italy." M. Francolin, a member of the executive council of the Masonic body, on 27th December, 1884, spoke to the following eff >ct .—". — " It is well at times to remind ou<" brothers whom our confidence has placei in high Governmental offices that it is their strict duty to protect, their brethren who fight for or suffjr tor the triumph of our priuciples, and to make it apparent that wherever our adversaries touch a single member of th^ Masonic body, immediately the enure association will undertake to defend him. ai d will return the attack wuh interest." M Desmons, again, on 19. h September, 1887, sid :—: — "We who are members of tbe council of 'he order and naatnbjrs uf Parliament should be ceaseless in our effj-is to secure that cvi ry mason who has been persecuted, followed, or attacker l , on account of his opinions — political, republican, and mas >nic — hall obtain a just and fair revenge." Thjse extracts from spe c >es delivered by prominent Freemasons show us cie-irly the mamier in which Frenchmea are at present goveraed, and how, flyiag rrom whit the? styled tne "rule of the priest," they hive adop ed its antithes 8, waich is the government of Freemasonry, hostile to all ravealei religion. Towards (he close cf his letter, the Bishop of Gr< noble refers to the sorrow which must have been caused to the Holy Father by reading the work of M. P*ul Rosen ; for, not content with outrageous assaults upon the Papacy, thejFVeemasous, as that writer shows, have given loud expression to their feelings of hatred against Pope Leo himself. A grand master of a lodge at Berlio, by name Lemtnie, has said : " Let us enlist under the sublime banner ot freetbought against the Vatican, the eternal enemy of Italy." The Popes have over and over agiin condemned Masonry, and it is to be regretted that their words were not better obeyed. Let us hope tbat in the near future greater tSort may be nude to overcome and crush this abominable secrei society. The aims and ends of Freemasonry are clearly and briefly expressed by tu.e Hisbop of Grenoble. "It is," he says, " anti-Social in Frar cc, anti-National in Belgium, and anti-Pap. l in Italy." M. Paul Koneu's work is instructive as casting light on the rela' ions of Church and State in many Contiaental countries, and interring as furnishing us wih information about a society which few would have thougot had male so much progress as it has done in undermining the social btate. We can only join wi h the Bishop of Grenoble in wishing success to M. Rosen's book, that it may thereby aid the triumph of love over hate, of truth over error.