THE POPE EXPELLED FROM THE FREEMASONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume IX, Issue 250, 21 October 1874, Page 2

THE POPE EXPELLED FROM THE FREEMASONS.

To the Editor of the 'Evening Mail.' Sir — The above was the heading of an extract from .the Belfast Week y News, Ist. August,, as it /appeared in your columns of; y-sterday; as an answer to it you will oblige me ir you will be kind enough to publish the following, taken from the Nev Zealand 2Ta6/«f,Sept.-19 :-^ — = — — „-.—,_- , 'The "Otago Guardian,' the Pope, and the Freemasons.— The Otago Guardian is logically atolid. '■ All onr efforts to improve our contemporary in dialf ctics have been in vain. On previous occasions— re Hifaluitng! — we endeavored, for the honor of our common profession, and as "other means had f ailed^o IsbanYe |nr/estee__.ed -contempt airy in^B&shmg ltke'logical^writing. But to no purpose, we Jear." The" fb'lbwing paragraph from the Guardian of Thursday last, will prove how fruitless has been onr zeal for tho Otago Guardian's improvement:— "The last mail brought intelligence of the action ' taken by the Italian Freemasons in reference ' to the expulsion of the Pope (rom the order. Onr contemporary, the Tablet, very angrily denied the accuracy of the stat'inent, and a«serted that hia Holiness had never belonged to 'the accursed order*? - -Bukour contemporary is not Mfejflible.7] W^havj. obtained further particulars! from which we lca,sn that Paulo Mastai J_erp#tti^_iow l > k.Nonb i--\*'as-initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry in 1814, and was for some years a very active and enthusiastic brother of the order. The decree of the expulsion, which has been duly - issued from the Grand Lodge of Ittly, sete ' forth thfse and other particular., and is signed by no less a personage than Bis Majesty Victor Emmanuel, the enlightened and p triotic Grand Master.-" Unfortunately for, our contemporary ..the Pope's name i. ;not Paolo Mast|i -•'Fftr^ttl, but John Maria vDlastai *FerrettL^ Thisfaot disposes of the calumny as reparda His Holiness. But for the benefit of the Guardian, we wish to point out its erroneous mode of argumentation. It does not follow tbat because a man is born in a stable that he is a horae, neither does it follow, even were it true, that be- ! eau © . man bearing the Pope's name wasioitiat.ed with the accursed order ot Freemasons at I Palermo, that the Pope is the man. Surely it is not impossible tbat there may be, in Italy, with its 25,000,000 of Italians, more i than one bearing the Pope's namef; Tn this" | » fe riro t ffcfcssfise. (in i Iforft^o^i^hstweygMvelsdtodjsfiecidens ! syllogisms froth the Otago 1 Guardian. To-day ' ! we give another and a crowning one. Here i it is: — and ye gods! A man called Paolo Ma.tai Ferretti was initiated into the mysteries of Freemasonry at Palermo in 1814. But Pio Nono's name is John Maria Masfai Ferretti. Therefore John Maria Mastai Ferrettfc the present; Pope, is Ferretti, -jjprd was initiate*- into the Wateries * of Preemftonry at Palermo in 1814*! 1 j Well dine, Otago Guardian f Sfeade of Aristotle ! It would not surprise us if you 'arose from your loog resting place to caII the editor of the Guardian to an account for his crimes against reason, facts, and comrnoa senße."-~I am, &c, Hear Both Sides. is elson, Oct. 21, 1874.