Part 5 (1/2)

”But this, in my opinion, can only be achieved through the Religious Orders. For let the Government bear in mind that those who deny this are filibusters, who desire the absolute independence of the country, and who knew well that their greatest obstacle is to be found in those holy men who have the charge of souls in the Philippines.”

GENERAL MORIONES.

”Though I desire to enforce the laws with strictness, yet I am at the same time most anxious to safeguard the moral and material interests of the people over whom I rule. It has ever been my constant study to maintain on the one hand all the royal prerogatives in their entire amplitude and vigor; and on the other to make every concession consistent with these prerogatives, which justice and reason demand, and thus preserve the close relations which should exist between the religious and political powers. I regard this relation and harmony between these two powers as the very foundation of social order--in this country particularly, where religion and patriotism are interwoven in all its past history, and pre-existing inst.i.tutions, and where they must bring about its future peace and prosperity.

”My efforts in this direction have, I rejoice to say, been greatly strengthened by the loyal and unconditional a.s.sistance given to my authority by all the Religious Orders of the country. These bodies, to the glory of Spain be it recorded, are composed of excellent and truly devoted men; men who without one hope of earthly reward, without a hope of ever again treading their native land, sacrifice with generous enthusiasm their lives, social surroundings, personal friends.h.i.+ps, nay, even, in some places, their daily bread, to spread the light of the Gospel, and promote the interests of Spain.

”They spend themselves in their efforts to instil the love of faith and fatherland into the simple minds of the innocent inhabitants of these distant lands, and thus lay the best and surest foundations of a true civilization.

”Aided in this manner it has been comparatively easy for me to effect many of the necessary reforms in different parts of this Province; to establish useful inst.i.tutions, and to aid the Supreme Government by founding many benevolent societies, such as the Monte de Pieta and the Savings Bank, which I hope will put an end to the extortions of greedy speculators. Many villages have submitted to us in the provinces of North Luzon without our having had to employ force to any extent worth speaking of. This happy result has been brought about almost entirely by the good offices of the Religious Orders,--I mean by their preaching, their advice, the holy example of their lives, their tact, self-denial, and sacrifices.

”They are men who deserve our highest esteem, and our lasting grat.i.tude.”...

APPENDIX III.

THE WORK OF FREEMASONRY IN SOUTH AND CENTRAL AMERICA.

A writer in the San Francisco Monitor has made a very intelligible and instructive abstract of an article recently written by Rev. Reuben Parsons, D.D., on ”Freemasonry in Latin America.” This is a subject upon which there is much popular misapprehension, and Dr. Parsons throws a strong light upon it. His language is, all in all, moderate; and his tone, temperate. He makes no vicious attack upon the Order, and all his a.s.sertions are substantiated by quotations from Masonic organs or unprejudiced sources. He exposes the systematic attacks which the lodges have made upon religion; the persecutions to which they have subjected not only the bishops but the laity; the war they have waged against religious education. And he proves all his charges from the mouths of the Masons themselves.

Freemasonry in the United States and Freemasonry in Catholic countries are two distinct inst.i.tutions. Freemasonry among us is a benevolent society with a creed and a ritual. It does not exhibit any symptoms of bigotry. But in France, Spain, and Italy a main purpose seems to be opposition to the Church. In France the Masonic clique which runs the government has kept the Church in bondage; in Italy Masonry was most active in the movement which overthrew the temporal power of the Pope. In Latin America, as Dr. Parsons shows, it has started revolutions, a.s.sa.s.sinated the leaders of the people, exiled the clergy, and persecuted the Church. Fortunately, however, its domination has been short-lived in most of the South American republics, owing to the universal disgust which its violent measures excited. Brazil was the scene of the most important fight that Freemasonry waged against the Church in South America. For many years the society had been establis.h.i.+ng itself in that country, but it was only during the reign of Don Pedro II. (1831-1889) that an open rupture occurred. There were two Grand Lodges in Brazil--one monarchial and the other revolutionary. In 1872 the president of the former had some measures pa.s.sed in Parliament which were highly pleasing to his followers. A banquet was tendered to him, and a feature of the affair was an address by a priest. The priest was suspended by his bishop, and, at once, the Masons were on the warpath. Both lodges sank their differences, and united in their opposition to what they were pleased to call an infringement of their liberty. Their first act of defiance was the announcement of a Ma.s.s to be celebrated for one of their brethren who had died in rebellion against the Church. Next day they turned their attention to the provinces and attempted to have a Ma.s.s of thanksgiving celebrated in commemoration of the foundation of the lodge at Olinda. The bishop immediately warned his priests against this defiance of spiritual authority. The Masons retorted by charging that some priests were members of that sect, and that the parish confraternities were honeycombed with masonry. It was found that some of the confraternities attached to the churches were controlled by the Masons. The bishop forbade the infected societies to hold services in their chapels. Those thus censured, disregarded the prohibition, and even went so far in their defiance as to appear in church in full regalia. When holy communion was refused them ”in their Masonic capacity,” they boldly took possession of the keys of the tabernacle. The priests were thus forced to go to the president of the local Masonic confraternity whenever they were called upon to administer the holy viatic.u.m to the dying, and ask from him the necessary keys.

Of course such a condition could not long continue. The Masons appealed to the minister of ecclesiastical affairs, who was himself in high standing in the Order. He decided that the bishops should withdraw their interdict against the confraternities. Just at this time, the bishop of Olinda received a papal brief approving of his action. The brief was published by the prelate, who was thereupon arrested and charged with the terrible crime of promulgating an ecclesiastical mandate without permission of the Emperor. In every country where the Church is free, the ecclesiastical authorities enjoy the right of ruling and directing their flock in spiritual matters. It would seem, according to the Masonic idea and the weak-minded Don Pedro, that the bishop should not take any action without consulting the temporal rulers.

The intrepid prelate was sentenced to four years in the penitentiary. When his case was disposed of, the bishop of Para was arrested and received the same sentence, besides being subjected to insults worse than the penitentiary could offer. One of the condemned confraternities celebrated its feast in 1877 with a grand procession, the most prominent feature of which was a series of indecent pictures. The bishop of the diocese where the outrage occurred felt it his duty to speak out against the sacrilegious act. He prohibited the shameless society from using its chapel, but after two years of legal proceedings the case was decided against him. On the night of the decision, the Masons celebrated their victory by hooting the prelate and illuminating their headquarters. These excesses disgusted the Catholics of Brazil, and popular indignation forced the Masons to be more prudent and to confine themselves to secret intrigues. As outlined in the address of their Grand Master, their policy should be to obtain control of the schools, to introduce a bill which would make marriage merely a civil contract, and to secularize the cemeteries. In 1880, however, the sect met with reverses, and the new government was not under Masonic influences. Many of the deluded members abjured their errors, and the Church in Brazil has enjoyed comparative freedom since that time.

Freemasonry makes loud boasts of enlightenment and independence, but it hounded to death the most enlightened and liberty-loving patriot that South America has ever produced--Simon Bolivar, the Liberator. He studied law in Madrid, and on his return home joined the patriots who revolted against Spain. He freed Venezuela from Spanish rule, and was elected first President of the Republic of Colombia. But while he was fighting for the freedom of Peru, the Masonic clique was plotting against religious freedom in Colombia. In 1821 the Colombian Congress, which was controlled by the Masons, pa.s.sed many laws directed against the Church. The Catholic religion was disestablished, right of censors.h.i.+p over books was vested in the Government alone, the right of nominating bishops, which had been exercised by the defunct Spanish power, was claimed, and a new plan of studies was imposed on the ecclesiastical seminaries. Some of these regulations may appear innocent, but the way in which they were carried out evidenced the animus of their authors. The first books pa.s.sed and approved for publication by the government censor were the works of Voltaire and other French atheists, and many immoral pamphlets. One of the text-books prescribed for the universities was an atheistic work by the English materialist Bentham. When an eminent professor protested against this, he was thrown into prison. Such violation of religious liberty could not occur in the United States. And yet these enlightened and tolerant Masons inflicted them on a Catholic nation. Other outrages on liberty followed. Crime stalked abroad in the new republic; unoffending citizens were cast into prison or beheaded on the trumped-up charge of treason. The people soon tired of the new tyranny and clamored for Bolivar to return and liberate them once again.

Bolivar returned and restored order and peace to the distracted country. He was hated by the lodges, and his death was decreed. On Sept. 25, 1828, a band of a.s.sa.s.sins entered his house, but fortunately Bolivar escaped by a secret pa.s.sage. That the crime had been plotted by the Masons is evident from the decree which the President issued soon afterwards: ”Considering that secret societies have the planning of political revolutions for their princ.i.p.al object, and that their baneful character is sufficiently manifested by the mystery with which they surround themselves, I order the suppression of all such societies, and the closing of their lodges.” He re-established religious education in the schools and universities, believing that nothing but religion could counteract the disorders and crimes which disgraced his beloved country. His enemies triumphed at the elections of 1830, and Bolivar decided to resign office. His final address to Congress is memorable. ”And now,” he wrote, ”let my last official act be to recommend Congress to protect continually our holy religion, the fruitful source of the blessing of Heaven; and to entreat Congress to restore its sacred and unprescriptible rights to public instruction, which has been made a cancer for Colombia. Fellow-citizens, I must say, with the blush of shame on my brow, that while we have won our independence, it has been won at the expense of every other blessing. For twenty years I have served you as soldier and as magistrate. During that long period we have freed our country, procured liberty for three republics, repressed many civil wars, and four times I have resigned to the people the supreme power which they confided to me. To-day I fear that I may be an obstacle to your happiness, and therefore I resign for the last time the magistracy with which you have honored me. The most unworthy suspicions have been expressed in my regard, and I have been unable to defend myself. A crown has been offered to me frequently by men who are now ambitious of supreme power, but I always refused that crown with the indignation of a sincere republican.”

The republic which he established was dismembered; his dearest friend was a.s.sa.s.sinated, and his own picture was burned in effigy. He was besought to return and once more guide the destinies of the country, but he replied: ”I cannot a.s.sume an authority with which another is invested.” He died in his forty-eighth year, of a broken heart. Such was the treatment which the Was.h.i.+ngton of South America received from Freemasons.

Contrasting the lives of two presidents of Ecuador--Moreno, the martyr, and Alfaro--in a previous article, we touched on the crimes of Freemasonry in that country. After the a.s.sa.s.sination of Moreno, the lodges decided not to inaugurate a very radical policy. They were afraid of a popular outburst. But in 1877 a drunken soldier, named Vintimilla, was proclaimed dictator, and then the cloven hoof appeared. The usual decree for the secularization of education was promulgated and the Catholic bishops protested. The bishops were banished for their action, and the Archbishop of Quito, Monsignor Chica, died under very suspicious circ.u.mstances. A post-mortem examination revealed twelve grains of strychnine in his stomach, but his poisoners were never brought to justice. This was followed by a decree ordering all the pastors to celebrate requiem ma.s.ses for the souls ”of all the martyrs of holy Liberalism who had fallen since March, 1869.” That was the date of an insurrection against the saintly Moreno. The priests refused to celebrate Ma.s.s for these revolutionists, and the people sided with them. The drunken dictator was defeated. Soon afterwards he was driven from office and Ecuador was comparatively peaceful until Alfaro, a cruel and ignorant soldier, seized the Government. His term has been marked by the murder and exile of priests and bishops.

In Chili, the most Catholic of all South American countries, English and German Masons made many futile attempts to secularize all the inst.i.tutions, and to degrade marriage into a merely civil contract. The Monde Maconnique published the programme which had been prepared by the ”Grand Lodge of Chili”; and another organ of the lodges informs us that ”in Chili it is really the English and German lodges that do the work.” It is gratifying to learn that all their plots came to naught, and that Chili remains a Catholic and contented country.

In Peru the lodges are supported in a manner from the ”missionary funds,” which Protestants of this country contribute for the spread of the Gospel among these ”benighted Papists.” The preachers who are sent out to Catholic countries are too often ignorant bigots. A common mode of procedure on their part is to attack and calumniate Catholics, and they are ready to join with Masonry, or any other anti-Catholic society, in their fight against the Church. So far, however, they have failed to stir up an anti-Catholic movement in Peru.

Little need be added about Mexico, where the people are, for the most part, devoutly Catholic, while the politicians are Masonic. As a consequence the Church has been despoiled of her property and visited with persecution. The trouble with the people of these countries is that they allow themselves to be ruled by politicians. The same may be said of the United States, with a difference, however: there, politicians are allowed to misappropriate funds and to plunder tax-payers; in Mexico and South America the Catholics, somehow or other, permit themselves to be persecuted by the Masonic politicians.

APPENDIX IV.