The morning star and Catholic messenger., 1874-07-19
|ernlng Star and Catholic Messenger.
CATHOLIC AND SECRET SOCIETIES.
THOSE WHICH THE CHURCH CONDEMNS
,atholics Should Avoid All Societies Not Approved
! OF By Ecclesiastical Authority.
FOUR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS.
Iyw oRLEANs, SUNDAY, JULY 10. 1874.

The tendency of our age is towards Union.
Anti Catholics of all shade and types have man
afested zeal and perseverance in organizing
IA Associations iuimical to the church, which are
snot only calculated to excite the apprehensions
of the least thoughtful of our people, but which
aIso prove the absolute necessity ofs9nion
among ourselves. We need but glance at the
history of the Masons, Carbonari, Communists
and Socialists of Europe to see the baneful
affects of their sinister and untiring lahors.
such being the indisputable fact, it behooves
all Catholics to band together in defence OF
their pri nciples and rights. But care should
he taken that the Associations we form or with
which we connect ourselves, are not only not
3 under the ban of the church, but that they
+ have the absolute and hearty approval OF our
Spirituar Fathers. AS bearing directly upon
& this point, we give prominence to the following
documents which have recently come under
I our observation. The first is from the Catholic
Rerie,c, of Brooklyn, on
CONDEMNED SOCIETIES:
The secret societies condemned oy the
Church are those only which adopt ana enter
into close, hidden secret organlz.ntaon - ~ u
the more securely plot against GOD or me PEG
5n1e. that is, against the well-being. of leglti-
OF CIV, 15th Of
Aneust, Is45), referred to by The Prefect of the
ssered Congregation of the Faith usth. Of
July, 1861 ditines that the secret so sEoiea,ss tass
which have for objects anything hostile 10 tne
Church or State, whether they exact or not s an
oath of secrecy from the memoers.-otss me
Decreta Council, Baltimore, 1856, paragraphs
The societies thus far authoritatively desg
mated as condemned are Let. dhe phedt Free wv w
81 1871; Plus VII, 1911; Leo XII, 1916; Pin! @
q TX, 1866 and on several occasions: I'd, LnS
Carbonari of Italy and France by Plus w
81 and Leo XII, as above the Fenians in !relant
as appears on good authority-187o. Fenian
g condemned at least in the British Dominions. Be
q sides the aforesaid the Sacred Con ngregatlol
l2I of August, 1850 declares that the Odt
Fellows and the Sons of Temperance are in
cluded in the Pontifcial Bulls (see Coneii
M Baltimore, as above, paragraph 5l4). VIZ
3 respect, then, to the societies thus nance
there can be no controversy among Catholic
IL in the countries, at least, where they are COZ
N demned by name.
u Since doubts frequently arise whether or no
certain societies, instituted among laborn
classes, and having the appearance OF secre
organizations, como under the ban of tn
Church, to decide on the point with q clos
approximation to certainty, we must hav
before our eyes /" the chief reasons why score
societies are condemned as given and define
by Benedict XIV, in his Apostolic constitutio
"Proridasn 1851 (for which see Busenbaun
Vol. II. appendix; also Concil, Baltimor
paragraph 5io).
Among the chle1 re8SonS, "HlUes UHo SnSA1
are:
First, In societies of this nature, men
every sect and religion are associated togeth'
on equal common footing (inricem coneociGnt~r
81 from which circumstance grievous detrimel
& can accrue to the purity of Catholic religion.
N. B-Societies of this nature, formed,
they claim to be, on basis of commC
religion" or q system common to all-whiC
is mere natural philsntrophy-and for this Ell
expressly, excluding all dogmatic religit
from their assemblies, practically ignore 8
difference in religion, and thus endorse indi
fercntism-than which nothing surely can
) more hostile to Faith--hence to the Cathol
b Church.
Second, Their strict and impervious secre'
excluding all revelation of what occurs in the
meetings, and
Third, The oath binding members to su
secrecy, that under plea of such oath, they
not 60 disclose tell even when interrogae
by legitimate authority, anything doneln tht
meetings against religion, the common weAl'
the laws.
n B.-Those two conditions render So
societies eminently dangerous to civil soctet
For, as the we'll being Of civil society rests
the proper administration of Justice, WHIT
such administration Is rendered impossi'
society is imperilled. Now, Justice cannot
administered without full knowledge of
cause in question, and where such secrecy ae