The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1886-05-01
ARCHBISHOP TAsCHEREAU,
Full Text of His Recent Mandate Agains
the Knights of Labor.


the Knights of Labor.
MONTREAL, April 30.-Archbishop Tasche-
reau's mandament forbidding Catholics to join
the Knights OF Labor has caused the most in
tense excitement among the working classes. II
will be read in ali the Catholic churches next
Sunday. The following are few extracts:
SIN our mandament, dated June 90 1884, we
warned you, dear brethren, against all dangerous
societies, and particularly against Freemasonry,
so formally condemned by the sovereign pontiffs,
and particularly by his Holiness. Pope Leo
XIII We believe it our duty to remind you.
dear brethren, that the church forbidS any one
to enroll himself in any Masonic society, under
the pain OF accommodation. You know well
that accommodation is the most terrible PEN
atty the church can infict upon guilty person.
Serious riots, attended with disas trous confagra-
tons and great loss Of life, have just occurred in
a number of cities in the United States. and, if
the papers are TO be believed. these misfortunes
are the result of strikes organized by society
whose ramifications extend everywhere and
count as its members men of every kind
Having learned that delegates of society
known as the Knights of Labor had endeavored
to recruit members in some parts of this prov
ince, we believe it our duty. dear brethren, to
place you your guard against it, and please
remark that wedo not speak in our own name,
but in that of the Holy See, whose advice we
have asked In fact, during the month of Octo-
Der, 1883, we sent to Rome authentic copy Of
the rules and constitutions of the above society,
which copy had been handed to us by one of its
members who wished to find out what right or
wrong there was in it. Almost one year later
the congregation of the Holy Office. after having
examined these constitutions with all the neceS-
sary precautions in such case sent us the fol-
lowing answer, which should be for you an abso-
lutte rule of conduct and keep you away from
the society of the Knights of Labor. Following
is the translation:
ION account of the principles organization
and statutes of the knights of Labor Associa-
ton, that association is to be relegate6 among
those which are prohibited by the Holy Sea. in
accordance with the instruction of this supreme
congregation, given on the 10th of May, 1884.
''Under the pretext of protecting poor work
ingmen againt the rich and powerful who would
Cypress them, the heads and instigators of these
societies seek to get rich and raise themselves in
the world at the expense of these unfortunate
and oftentimes too credulous workingmen
They sound very high the honey coated words
of mutual protection and charity SO as to re-
tain their victims i'll continual agitation and to
folnent troubles. disorder and Injustice And
the results for the workingmen are great msfor-
tunes They expose themselves to lose their
faith their good customs and every sentiment of
honesty and justice in associating themselves
with strangers who unfortunately show them
selves very cunning in communicating to them
their own perversity. We have witnessed in
France, England and the United States the sad
results of these conspiracies against public tran
quillity. The poor workingmen were left with
nothing else than deep misery, a total ruin of the
industries which gave them their daily bread,
and after the rigor of human justice has added
to 1t exemplary punisnments.'