This informative book, written by a Catholic priest, does an excellent job of assembling and explaining the main tenets of Freemasonry in a short space. Much supporting material has been moved to appendixes to increase readability. Though mostly accurate, the book over-states the effectiveness of the Catholic Church and papacy in opposing Freemasonry. The Appendixes include a few interesting exchanges between Masonic leaders, who claim leading Jesuits were involved in establishing Freemasonry, and the author, a Jesuit priest Show All     Download:     PDF       EPUB

Freemasonry and the Anti-Christian Movement

"Tear away the mask from Freemasonry, and let it be seen as it realty is."—Leo XIII, Humanum Genus, 1SS4.

"Let us remember that Christianity and Freemasonry are, by their nature, irreconcilable"—Id, Dec. 8 , 1892.

"It is not alone the Masonic body in Europe that is referred to, but also the Masonic associations in America and in whatsoever part of the world they may be."—Pius IX, Etsi Malta, 1873,

Contents

Chapter I—Historical Sketch

Beginnings of Freemasonry—The Rosicmcians—Speculative Freemasonry—Masonic Constitutions—The Two Basic Principles of Freemasonry—Freemasonry in Ireland—Freemasonry and the British Party in Ireland—Spread of Freemasonry—The Illuminists—Masonic Activities for Past Two Centuries—Masonic Crime and Terrorism—The Affair des Fiches—Freemasonry and Civil Governments—Relative Strength of Freemasonry: in the World; in Ireland—Statistics.

Chapter II—False Ideas about Freemasonry

Assertions of Masonic Apologists—Partial Explanation of the False Ideas about Freemasonry'—Masonic Benevolence—Freemasons' Belief in God—So-called Schism in Freemasonry—Freemasonry and Christianity—Its Oneness and Solidarity—Irish Freemasonry Identified with the Openly Anti-Christian Freemasonry of U.S.A.—Freemasonry' and Politics.—Extracts concerning: (1) Lodges Recognized by British Freemasonry; (2) Oneness of Latin and Anglo-Irish Freemasonry; (3) Freemasonry and British Royalty; (4) Opposition of Non-Catholics to Freemasonry; (5) Freemasonry and the State.

Chapter III—What is Freemasonry?

The Modern Revolution—Its Anti-Christian Character —Its Anti-Social Principles—Its Unity and Varying Manifestations—Freemasonry its Soul—Nature of Freemasonry—Masonic Definitions of it—Its Moral and Social System—Freemasonry the Counter-Church —And the Religion of Liberalism—A Religion or a Substitute for Religion—Character of the Masonic Cult; and of Masonic Symbolism—The Masonic Secret—Masonic Oaths—Freemasonry and Satanism—The Paliadist Rite—Freemasonry and Anti-Christ.

Chapter IV—The Jewish Element in Freemasonry

The "Friends ol Israel*—Implications in the Church's Condemnation of the Association—How far Modern Judaism is Identified with Freemasonry—The Talmud —The Cabala—Occultism and Hermeticism—Judaism and the Origin of Freemasonry—Identity of Masonic and Cabalistic Theology—Further Points of Contact between Freemasonry and Judaism—Growth of Jewish Influence in Freemasonry—Special Jewish Rites in Freemasonry—Identity of Jewish and Masonic Anti-Christian Policy—Jews and Freemasons alike Prominent in High Finance; in the Revolutionary Movements; and in Modem European Politics—Jews in the Inner Circles of Freemasonry—Masonic Ideals and Judaism—Simultaneous Growth of Jewish and of Masonic Power in Modem Times—Modem Judaeo-Masonic Activities.

Chapter V—Masonic Documents

Deschamps on the Study of Freemasonry— Sources of Information on Freemasonry—Barruel and Robison—Documents of the Illuminati; of the Carbonari—D ocuraents Illustrating: the Anti-Christian Character of Freemasonry; its Policy and Methods; its Religion; its Universal Oneness; its influence in High Finance—Masonic Documents of Disputed Authenticity—M Protocols of the Sages of Zion"—Their Content—Extracts from them—Their Value.

Chapter VI—Papal Condemnations

General tenor of Papal Condemnations—Clement XII Pius VII—Leo XII—Pius VIII and Gregory XVI-Pius IX—Leo XIII—Benedict XV—Reasons of Papal Condemnations—Their Universality—Their Authority.

Chapter VII—Masonic Organization

The Three Fundamental Grades—The Higher Grades —Masonic Rites—Unity of Supreme Control—Principal Rites—How far each of them is Practised in Ireland—Irish Lodges:Chapters and Preceptories—Impious Character of the Higher Rites; the Knights Kadosh—System of Government—Imperfect Freemasonry and the Quasi-Masonic Organizations—White Masonry: the YMCA; Rotary International, etc.—Bird's Eye View of the Masonic Organization.

Chapter VIII—Masonic Policy, Methods and Means

Basis of Church's Policy, and of Opposing Policy of Freemasonry—R ationalism and Henneticism associated 'with Masonic Policy—Its Immediate Objective—Its Effects on Social Life—Methods of Masonic Action—The Duplicate Personality—Formation of Members—Masonic Action upon Christian Society—Masonic Action through Financial Control; through Press and Cinema—Freemasonry and the Revolutionary Movement—Its Revolutionary Methods —Central Control—The League of Nations—Anti-Masonic Leagues—Means of Combating Freemasonry.

Appendix I: Protests and Replies

Freemasonry; Is it an Anti-Christian Movement? (First letter of Col. Claude Cane)—Masonic Oaths of Secrecy—Scottish Freemasonry—Authors Reply to Col. Cane—Another Masonic Protest—Futility of Col. Cane's Defence—Masonic Oaths again—Entente between British and Latin Freemasonry—Amsterdam Masonic Congress (September, 1929),—Col. Cane's Reply—Questions not Answered—Association of Irish with Portuguese Freemasonry—Col. Cane's Attack on Society of Jesus—Jesuit Issue Irrelevant—Especially as Freemasonry in Ireland is a Danger to the State—An Historical Blunder—Shirking the Issue—Author's Second Reply to Col. Cane—Freemasonry and Christianity; a Protestant Testimony.

Appendix II: Masonic Solidarity

Amsterdam Masonic Congress, 1929—German Freemasonry, a Link in the "World Chain"—Hungarian Masonry and its Friends in U.S.A. etc.—Greek Link in the "World Chain"—Masonic Solidarity in Press Control—Connecting Links.

Appendix III: Imperfect Freemasonry

Freemasonry in Austria—"External Work" of Freemasonry—Profane Associations—Freemasonry for Women.

Appendix IV: White Masonry

Amsterdam Congress and Masonic Interpenetration—German Freemasonry and Social Propaganda—Knights of Columbus and Freemasonry—Other Examples of White Masonry.

Appendix V: Peace of Versailles and League of Nations

Peace of Versailles and Freemasonry—A Masonic Supergovernment—Jews and the League of Nations—Aims of the League of Nations.

Appendix VI: Protestantism and Freemasonry

Masonic Testimonies—Freemasonry and the Methodists.

Preface to Second Edition

The fact that the first edition of the present work has been exhausted within three months is an encouraging indication that a considerable number of our people are alive to the importance of the subject.

The text of the present edition is practically the same as in the preceding one. Some notes and references, previously overlooked, have been added here and there. The principal additions, however, are contained in the documents printed in the Appendices, which it is hoped will be found useful in supplementing the treatment of several matters, touched on only very briefly in the text, It has also been thought worth while to print almost in full, with brief annotations (Appendix I) the press correspondence to which the publication of the first edition gave rise.

Some friendly critics have complained that the book docs not contain an adequate account of the present day Masonic activities in Ireland. The criticism though in part justified may, we submit, be misleading. Chapter VII, in which Masonic organization is briefly explained, has been written with special reference to Freemasonry in Ireland. Almost every item of Masonic policy, as sketched in Chapter VIII, and described in the several passages quoted from Pope Leo XIII, will be found exemplified in the attitude, aims and outlook of the Masonic Order in Ireland.

Again, the strength of Freemasonry in Ireland and its alarming growth in recent years are pointed out in detail in Chapter I (pp, 23-27), and Chapter VII (pp. 137-152 ) In proportion to the population Ireland has one and a half the number of Freemasons that England has ten times as many as France, twenty times as many as Portugal, twenty-five times as many as Belgium, etc. and in this enumeration the members of the Orange Society, which for practical purposes is almost identified with Freemasonry, are not enumerated. While Freemasonry has been suppressed within the last ten years in Italy, Spain and Hungary, it continues to grow apace in our Catholic country. Even its largely increased numbers are far from being an adequate index of its effective strength; for, as shown in Chapter I, the influence and power of the Freemasons in Irish public life are out of all proportion to their numbers; and besides, they can always rely for support on the larger and more powerful Masonic body in Great Britain, with whom they act in unison.

The writer wishes to thank the several kind friends to whose assistance he owes very much in collecting and putting in shape the matter contained in the Appendices, and correcting certain inaccuracies which had crept into the text.

E. C.
Professor of Church History and Social Science,
Milltown Park,Dublin.

Feast of the Holy Name. January 5, 1930.

Preface to First Edition

"The governments of the present day," spoke a great English statesman more than fifty years ago," have to deal not merely with other governments, with emperors, kings and ministers, but also with the secret societies which have everywhere their unscrupulous agents, and can at the last moment upset all the governments' plans." "It is not emperors or kings, nor princes," said Cardinal Manning a year later, "that direct the course of affairs in the East [viz., the Balkans], There is something else over them and behind them; and that thing is more powerful than they." "Including almost every nation", wrote Leo XIII a quarter of a century still later, "in its immense grasp it unites itself with other sects of which it is the real inspiration and the hidden motive power. It first attracts and then retains its associates by the bait of worldly advantage which it secures for them. It bends governments to its will sometimes by promises, sometimes by threats. It has found its way into every class of society, and forms an invisible and irresponsibe power, an independent government, as it were within the body corporate of the lawful state." And these words apply with even greater tone to-day . . .

Within the bosom of almost every State in Europe and America there exist at the present time secret societies firmly established and actively functioning. Like a foreign body embedded within the human organism, which needs must be a constant source of pain disease and unrest, these underground associations are something quite apart from the natural life and activities of the State. They are linked up directly or indirectly by a community of principles, aims and methods, with the great international Masonic Order under whose influence and guidance they operate.

With the aid of US local units and through the instrumentality of international finance, the capitalistic press, and other means still more unscrupulous, Freemasonry and its allied forces can paralyse the activities of the legitimate government and thwart all its efforts for the protection and prosperity of the people. During the past two centuries Freemasonry has been an ever growing power in European and American politics, and has had a constantly increasing share in directing the course of events, till to-day it has almost attained to the position of an usurping super-government "bestriding our narrow world like a colossus."

Freemasonry is the central enemy of the Catholic Church. The partial dechristianisation of France, the unification of the German States under an anti-Catholic hegemony (1871), the temporary destruction of the Papal monarchy, the Portuguese revolution, the constant upheavals and revolutions in Spanish America, the rise of Bolshevism, have all been worked mainly under the guidance and with the aid of secret societies of which Freemasonry is the source and centre. Today we behold the apparently strange phenomenon of the most capitalistic government of the world (that of the United States of America) aiding and abetting in its disruptive and tyrannical measures the anti-Christian government of Mexico, which is avowedly Bolshevist in principle and aim, and openly professed a close alliance with the Soviet Government of Russia. We see, too. the capitalistic press of the world engaged in a conspiracy of silence or misrepresentation regarding the Mexican position. But these phenomena cease to be strange when we recollect that the capitalistic press, the U.S.A. government, the Mexican government and the Russian Soviet government apparently antagonistic to one another in many ways, are all equally Masonic, and more or less under Masonic influence or control.

Hence when, in recent years, a definite move was made in Italy and Spain to revert from Liberalism and re-establish something of a Christian regime, the leaders of the movement in each case made it one of their first cares to suppress or expel the Masonic secret societies. The results are familiar to every student of contemporary history. The forces of international Freemasonry, through the press and the news agencies, have carried on a persistent campaign of misrepresentation against the newly established governments. Obstinate efforts have been made in both countries to overthrow them assassinations or uprisings; even though in the meantime the restored Christian organization, incomplete and confronted with difficulties as it may be, has inaugurated in each country a new era of security, prosperity and social peace.

And it is not merely in the political and military spheres that Freemasonry exerts influence. Its more dangerous, because more subtle and permeating, activities are in the social and intellectual life of the people. During the past two hundred years European society in every country, including our own, has become more and more permeated by Masonic and Liberal principles which operate as dissolvents on the whole Christian system.

The striking contrast between the tenor of the repeated Papal pronouncements on Freemasonry (the strength and uncompromising character of which have never weakened or wavered during the past two hundred years), and the attitude ol so many well-meaning Catholics towards it, seems to be an indication of the extent to which the Masonic and Liberal mentality has interpenetrated our public life. This attitude and the prevailing ignorance among Catholics of the Church's teaching as to the real character of Freemasonry, are an effect of the Masonic policy of silence and subtle misrepresentation which several of the Popes have noted as an outstanding characteristic ol Masonic methods: and which has led a great Catholic publicist to say that modem so-called history is largely a conspiracy against the truth.

Quite lately Mr. Belloc has called attention to the conspiracy of silence in regard to the Jews which is (or was till recent times) so noticeable in English society and English current literature. Up to the post-war period, or at least up to the Russian revolution, there existed an unwritten rule prohibiting all special reference to the Jews as such; while all the time the leading members of the Jewish nation were silently interpenetrating the higher ranks of English and French society and gradually winning control of nearly the whole economic and political life of the two nations.

Already nearly sixty years before, the penetrating mind of Bishop Ketleler had observed a similar phenomenon in regard to Freemasonry. German and French publicists, historians and university professors, themselves predominantly Masonic, scarcely ever referred to Freemasonry in their ordinary writings or public lectures; although some of these same men knew well, and actually described in works destined only for Masonic readers the dominating influence of the Masonic movement upon public life. "By a general consent or conspiracy," writes Ketteler, "among European writers Freemasonry alone is regarded as a sacrosanct subject, which no one must touch upon. Everybody fears to speak of it as if it were a kind of evil spirit. This strange position of, affairs is of itself a proof of the immense power which Freemasonry exercises in the world."

Although there is a very considerable mass of continental literature, especially in French, German and Italian, dealing with Freemasonry from the Christian standpoint, there is very little of the kind in English. Indeed, the seventeen-page article in the Catholic Encyclopedia by Herman Gruber, a German Jesuit, is, we believe, the only comprehensive study of Freemasonry in the English language. How small has been the interest taken in the subject among English speaking Catholics is further illustrated by the fact that there is no English version of the Papal condemnations of Freemasonry. The great encyclical of Leo XIII dealing with Freemasonry (Humanum Genus) is omitted in the English Catholic Truth Society collection entitled The Pope and the People; s nor have we seen any English version of Leo's Apostolic letter addressed to the Bishops of the world, March 1902, treating of the modem anti-Christian movement of which, as he says, Freemasonry is the animating principle. Again, not even the Dublin public libraries contain any of the standard Catholic works that treat of the subject.

All this would at first sight seem strange in view of the fact that the English speaking countries are the real stronghold of Freemasonry, while they contain at the same time close upon thirty millions of Catholics. The explanation is that that large Catholic population, the greater part of which is of the Irish race, nowhere (except to a certain extent in Ireland itself) forms a homogeneous Catholic body maintaining its own Catholic social system and traditions. They are scattered over immense areas, intermingled with non-Catholic or non-Christian populations like the Christian communities of the early centuries within the Roman Empire: or if homogeneous, or mostly so as in Ireland, they have had a Liberal social system forced upon them. They are thus largely out of touch with the Catholic culture and tradition; and have to maintain a constant struggle in defence of the bare essentials of their Catholic life. It is clear that in such circumstances a Catholic social literature must be slow of growth.

Apropos of all this the words of that very able exponent of Freemasonry, the Protestant writer, Ed. Eckert, are worthy of consideration: "No statesman can understand the present epoch, nor the motives underlying international events, nor the developments in the political and social life of the nations, nor even the very meaning of certain current phrases and terms, in a word, he sees only the facts but cannot fathom their import, and knows not what attitude to adopt in their regard—unless he has made a profound study of Freemasonry and has made himself master of all that appertains to its character and activities."

It is peculiarly difficult to treat the subject of Freemasonry with justice and accuracy, and to avoid saying too little or too much. The veil of secrecy under which Freemasons usually strive to hide not only their activities and aims, but even their moral and philosophic teaching; the ambiguous character of the formulas they employ; the apparent inconsistency of the policies they adopt or support at different times or in different places; all conspire to make the subject obscure am? elusive. Again, the ingrained belief of many Irish and English Catholics, well informed in many other subjects, that Anglo-American and Irish Freemasonry is something different from Continental Freemasonry, and is comparatively harmless if not praiseworthy; and the fact that this belief is sincerely shared by very many Freemasons themselves, make it still harder to convince the average inquirer of the pernicious character of all Freemasonry, and the perils to religion and society, and above all to our own country, which it contains.

The present essay (for it does not pretend to be more) was originally intended as a Chapter in a treatise on Catholic Social Science, which the writer is preparing. It grew, however, far beyond the proposed dimensions, and in its present form may, it is hoped, be found useful to many readers to whom the larger Catholic works on Freemasonry', upon which it is based, are not accessible. The sketch, which lays no claim to completeness or originality, is intended primarily for the Catholic reader, who accepts the Church's teachings. Care has been taken to avoid statements, not founded upon what the writer believes to be reliable authority.

The writer wishes to acknowledge with gratitude his indebtedness to the Rev. Dr. Fahey, CS.Sd. of Blackrock College, for the generous and effective assistance which he has given him. Dr. Fahey placed at the writers disposal some of his own papers; and was always ready to assist him with the deep and comprehensive knowledge of the subject which he himself possesses. Grateful acknowledgment is also due to the Editor of the Irish Ecclesiastical Record, in which the greater portion of the matter of the present volume has been already published.

E.C.
Milltown Park, Dublin.
Feast of the Sacred Heart, 1929.