HARD UP FOR A MASON.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume II, Issue 74, 26 September 1874, Page 5

HARD UP FOR A MASON.

For some reason, which is not very evident, certain people in Otago have evinced a great anxiety of late to make the world believe that our Most Holy Father Pius IX. is, or was, a Freemason. The whole affair is absurd. For more than one hundred and fifty years the Church has excommunicated all members and aiders and abetters of that accursed society ; and this excommunication has been renewed by Pius IX. himself, who has besides, on various occasions, denounced this and other secret societies in the strongest terms. What object, then, these people can have in so persistently stating this calumny, we cannot see, unless, indeed, it be for the purpose of deceiving some unwary Catholic into disobedience to his religion. In our last issue, we laughed at the reasoning of the ' Guardian ' on this subject. This week, avo have to deal with an extraordinary letter from Dr. Bakewell, to that paper, in which he repeats the statement of our contemporary. Dr. B-akewell says :—": — " In corroboration of your statement that His Holiness Pope Pius the Ninth is, or was, a Freemason, I may state that, when in Trinidad, I made the acquaintance of an Englishman who had been a Freemason in an Italian lodge. He told me he had visited the lodge in which the Pope was initiated, passed and raised, and had himself seen the signature of the Pope, and the record of the ceremonies in the archives of the lodge.'* Aud so, the Doctor thinks the matter proved. Well done, Dr. Bakewell ! Who proved the authenticity of the signature ? who proved that the present Pope was the very identical individual ? We are left in the dxrk as to all this, and the Doctor thinks his cock aud-bull story has clearly proved the Pope to be a Freemason in spite of the laws of the Church, and His own express sentence of excommunication. Wonders will never cease ! But the Doctor is not satisfied with his logical argument as to the Pope's Freemasonry — he must go a step further, and eulogise the i>rinciples of tlio sect. The Doctor says, that the principles of Freemasonry are those of the purest morality and the most exalted charity, and that there is nothing in them opposed to Christianity." Take care, Doctor, you are on slippery ground. We do not know, to be sure, what Dr. Bakewell's standard of morality and' charity is, and carnot, therefore, say whether lie may not be logically consistent in eulogising the principles of Freemasonry as to these ; but when he says there is nothing in them opposed to Christianity, we are sorry to be compelled to differ with him. We do know for certain that the principles of Freemasonry are in direct antagonism to Christianity ; that, in fact, the real ratio existendi of Freemasonry is the destruction of Christianity and Christian society. In Mgr. de Segur's work on. Freemasonry, chap. 28, as practised on the Continent of Europe, the following will be found : — " The moment is the initiation of the Mistress

JMason into the secret grade of Perfect Mistress. Before all else, they reqVre from them the terrible oath which chains them to the sect for their whole lives. ' I swear,' she says. ' I pronise to keep faithfully in my heart the secrets of male find female Masonry. I oblige myself to this under pain of being cut to pieces by the sword of the Exterminating Ang^l.' The G«% M/ # immediately proclaims bet 1 'erfect Mistress, and addresses those words to her : — ' My dear, now that you have been initiated into the symbolic arcanum of Masonry ; now that the light of truth has shone upon your eyes, superstitions (that is to say, the faith in and the fear of God), which you perhaps had still preserved in the corner of your brain, are dissipated, an arduous ha sublime task is henceforth imposed upon you. This is it : listen. The first of your obligations will he to embitter the people against priests and Icings. In the cafe, theatre, soirees, ever labor for this sacred and holy intention. There remains but one secret for me to reveal to you, and we shall speak of it in a low voice." And he annouuees that the final completion of the secret mission of Masonry "is the annihilation of all religious and morarchcal authority." Our readers will now be able to judge as to the truth of Dr. Bakewkll's statement that there is nothing in Freemasonry opposed, to Christianity.