Freemasonry in France.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXX, Issue 35, 28 August 1902, Page 2

Freemasonry in France.

Not for many years has there been given to the world such valuable testimony to the subject of Freemasonry as that furnished by the French Parliamentary Commission recently appointed to investigate and report on the principles and working of the Order. The Commission was appointed as the result of statements made by more than one of even the Liberal member«» in the Chamber of Deputies to the effect that the Religious Associations Law, with its savage attack on the liberty of religious men and women, had had its origin in Freemasonry, and as the result aKo of the presentation to the Chamber of a monster petition, bearing the signature of over 80,000 citizens, denouncing Frtemnsonry and demanding an inquiry into the charges made against it. The Chamber could not safely or with any show of reason ignore the request of such a large and influential body of citizens, and a Commission was accordingly appointed, with power to call witnesses and enforce the production of Masonic documents. The Commission, after a careful and exhaustive investigation, have now presented their Report, and it is, as we have said, a document

of very special value, embodying a s it does practically the highest official and expert testimony that can be procured on this question. r

In this Report, after a careful review and weighing of the evidence before them, the Commissioners assert, writes the London Tablet, that the following facts have been clearly made out : — *

Freemasonry, with its federated associations, constitute* a great secret society pursuing secret ainu. Its real object is to capture the reins of power, and in this way to be in a position to impose upon its follow-oitixens its own philosophical and politioal doctrines, so that, aa one of its oratora decUred in 1890, outside those doctrines no one in Frauoe shall move. In defiance of all law, and by all sorts of illegal means, Masonry exercises an incontestable influence over the State, an influenoe which shows itself in assaults upon the liberties and rights of citizens, in encroachments upon constituted authority, and in an increasing interference in the pubho services. Freemasons are compelled, on their honor and oonscienoe, to enter into engagements which fetter their liberty of consoience and their personal political freedom. Similarly, by means which no right of canvass or > politioal aotion oan justify, pressure is put upon the Government to extend the favor and the complaisanoe likely to secure predominance to Masonry. Deputies who are Masons are placed under obligations and orders which are veritable attacks on the sovereignty of the nation and their own independence as the depositaries of the mandates of the people. Furthermore, in contravention of the equality of all citiz9na where candidature for the public service is concerned, Freemasonry seeks to secure for its own alone the positions at the disposal of the State ; large numbers of functionaries of all graiea are gained over to and brigaded by the lodges by whose influence they are supported against their superiors, carried over the heads of their colleagues by an advancement at once rapid and scandalous, and assured of favors and assistance of all sorts, especially in elections. In like manner Freemasonry had insinuated itself into the ranks of the national teachers, and by means of tbe masters who either owe allegiance to it, or are its willing slaves, seeks to spread its philosophical doctrines. Nor is its influence confined to France. Through its relations with Freemasonry abroad and in the colonies, it exerts from outsid e a power over the foreign policy of France which is altogether inadmissible. At home its members are importuned to benefactions which really constitute properties in mortmain under the cloak of civil sooieties, which quite unfairly manage to escape the payment of the 5 per cent, tax on income and the tax of abonnement, whilst in defiance of the formal provisions of the press laWB it omits with impunity to deposit its publications in the national and departmental collections.

That is the indictment presented against Freemasonry in France by a Commission composed of members of the highest tribunal in the land. A few months ago in the remarkable Encyclical^ which he himself described as his Mast will and testament ' the Holy Father denounced Freemasonry in the following terms. It was, he said, ' a germ of mortal disease ' in society, which ' saps its health, its fruitfulness, its very life. An enduring personification of revolutionary principles, it constitutes a kind of inverted society, whose object is to exeicise a hidden suzerainty over recognised society, and the very reason of whose being is nothing else than to urge war against God and against His Church. Embracing as it does in its vast net almost all the nations, and allying itself with other sects which it sets in motion by means of hidden strings, first attracting and then keeping its hold on its members by means of the advantages which it secures to them, bending governments to its purposes, now by promises, now by threats, this sect has succeeded in permeating all classes of society. It forms a kind of invisible and irresponsible state within the legitimate state.'

The finding of the French Parliamentary Commission is a remarkable substantiation of the Holy Father's indictment and goes to show how entirely mistaken are those who imagine that Freemasonry is • a needless nightmare ' to the Holy See. It is evident, indeed, that so far as Continental Freemasonry is concerned, the Holy Father has understated rather than overstated the evils that follow in its train.