Catholics and Freemasonry

New Zealand Tablet, 22 July 1909, Page 1129

Catholics and Freemasonry

In the first volume of his Records and Beviiniscences (third cd., p. 301), the great Catholic editor of Punch, Sir Francis C. Burnand, writes: ' Logically, no Christian can be a Freemason, unless he be the sort of hedging Christian who, imitating the liberal-minded emperor, Alexander Severus, included a statue of our Lord among those of all the gods with whose names and attributes he was acquainted. As my eminent friend, Sir Crichton-Browne, put the query very neatly to a well-known Mason holding high office in the fraternity: "If Masonry has a secret the knowledge of which would benefit all mankind, then to: Masonry to keep such knowledge to itself is immoral. If, on the other hand, the ' secret' is not for the benefit of mankind, in professing to be so Masonry is again guilty of an immoral act. If you Masons say that it is only io benefit certain persons who are* prepared to receive sucn knowledge, then there is an end of the universality of the Brotherhood of Freemasonry." There was no answer to this; and, so far as I can see, there is none.'