Section — Vermeersch, On Forbidden Books
II. On Books Which Favor Masonic Sects
It is necessary that they treat of these
82. 1. Which treat: therefore so that sects of this sort are truly the subject matter (although perhaps not the only subject matter) of the book. It is not sufficient that speech be made incidentally about them. Cf. above, n. 74, 2.
That they preach them as useful
2. And contend that they are useful ... Therefore it is necessary that at the same time they be preached as harmless, or affirmed not without force (as if by demonstrating): for to contend is to affirm vehemently, keenly.
What a sect is. A society of the same kind as Masonic societies
3. Of Masonic sects or other societies of the same kind. Sect designates a society of persons who profess the same doctrine. But which sects are to be called of the same kind as Masonic ones, it is worthwhile to weigh accurately. Such certainly are not merely religious sects, such as those of the Old Catholics. Cf. Avanz.-Penn., t. I, p. 618.
The generic notes are:
But the required notes must be drawn both from common acceptance and from the documents of the Holy See. In this matter the chief place is occupied by the Encyclical Humanum genus, given April 20, 1884. From these it is necessary:
A secret sect
a) That the sect be in some way secret or hidden. For that Masonic sects pertain to the genus of clandestine societies, and constitute the most noted species of this genus, is proved both by common acceptance and by the perpetual usage of documents of the Holy See;1 and it is still recently acknowledged in the provincial Ruthenian Synod, chapter 6, article 21.2 Nor does it stand in the way that in the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis3 societies of this kind seem to be called "societies which plot against the Church or legitimate powers, whether openly or clandestinely." For, from Leo XIII himself, in the Encyclical Humanum genus,4 today the sects of the Masons "openly and manifestly strive for the ruin of the holy Church," and nevertheless below there is added: "when the matter has been wholly considered, they retain the character and custom of clandestine societies." This is then most beautifully demonstrated. For who the members are, who the leaders are, can still be plainly hidden. And an open or clandestine plotting can perhaps be referred to the end which some sects profess, while others rather hide it. For in reality the Sacred Congregation had to respond, August 21, 1850,5 that it mattered little that they professed themselves to oppose nothing to religion or to the civil republic.
Yet the oath of secrecy, or a rite of initiation, is not required.6
A strict bond
b) That the members be united by a strict bond. This note also perpetually recurs in the pontifical Documents.7 From Clement XII, "they are associated ... by a strict and inaccessible bond"; and Leo XIII, in the cited Encyclical, objects against them that they bind "men to themselves, as slaves, by a most tenacious bond, and with the cause not sufficiently declared."
An end directly contrary to the Church or to the legitimate political order
c) That from their end,8 which they intend openly or secretly, the sects themselves, not only some of the members or leaders, be proved to set before themselves, against the Church and the civil powers, the overthrow of the peace and felicity of the Church, disturbances, and seditions.9 For they are sects "which set before themselves something against the Church or government";10 "which plot against the Church or legitimate powers";11 which wish "to overturn utterly that whole discipline of religion and of the republic which Christian institutions have brought forth, and to construct a new one according to their own bent, with foundations and laws drawn from the midst of Naturalism."12
Therefore there can be several sects prohibited under grave guilt which nevertheless are not of this kind. Cf. the response of the Holy Office, May 17, 1886, whence it is clear that societies which have been instituted for promoting cremations of corpses are not necessarily counted among the Masonic.
Various examples
Moreover, sects of this sort are: the society of the Fenians from the declaration of the Holy Office, January 12, 1870;13 "Carbonaria";14 Mazzinian, "Nihilist," "Anarchist" societies which strive after revolutions (révolutionnaires); but not a society of robbers, since it is not directed against civil powers.
1 Thus Clement XII describes them, Constitution In eminenti, 1738: "men of any religion and sect, content with a certain affected appearance of natural honesty, are associated with one another by a bond as strict as it is inaccessible, according to laws and statutes established for themselves, and at the same time act secretly ..." "The other [cause why they are condemned] is the strict and inaccessible bond of secrecy, by which those things which are done in conventicles of this sort are hidden." Benedict XIV, Constitution Providas, March 18, 1751; Pius VII, Constitution Ecclesiam a Iesu Christo, September 15, 1821, call them "hidden assemblies and clandestine sects." The same appellation "clandestine sects" occurs everywhere in the Constitution Quo graviora, issued by Leo XII against Masonic sects on March 13, 1825. The Holy Office, wishing on August 5, 1846 to define which sects were condemned in the pontifical Constitutions, at the beginning addresses them with the words "hidden societies." And in the Encyclical Quanta cura, December 8, 1864, they are also called "clandestine sects." Certainly, in 1884, the Holy Office (Coll. Prop. Fid., n. 1865), in the appended Instruction, declared that an oath of secrecy is not required, but in the article itself it treats of denouncing hidden leaders: which already implies some manner of secrecy.
2 Cf. Archiv, t. 78, pp. 72, 73.
3 Second series, fourth excommunication.
4 At the beginning.
5 The response is cited by Avanz.-Penn., t. I, Appendix 19, p. 615.
6 Holy Office, 1846 and 1884, Coll. Prop. Fid., cited place.
7 Those Constitutions are reported in Avanz.-Penn., t. I, pp. 596 sqq., or Appendix 19.
8 "They must be judged from the end which they set before themselves, not from elsewhere." D'Annibale, in the Reatine commentary on the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis, n. 82.
9 Leo XII, cited Constitution.
10 Holy Office, August 5, 1846.
11 Constitution Apostolicae Sedis and Instruction of the Holy Office, May 10, 1884.
12 Leo XIII, Constitution Humanum genus.
13 Coll. P. F., n. 1860.
14 From the Constitution of Pius VII; December 28, 1878.
What of socialists?
83. You will ask, what of socialists?
It must be observed that, among those who come under this name, some are absolute Socialists, who profess all those errors which Leo XIII sets forth in the Constitution Quod Apostolici, and are also prepared to promote their cause by force and arms; while others hold a certain mitigated or partial socialism, and assert that they will use only legal means for gradually introducing their principles practically.
Moreover, as regards the manner of joining together, they can remain individuals, as for a long time they were in England;1 or be united in the manner of a political faction; or finally be fused into a very strict sect, and a hidden one.
These things having been set down, those who are united into a sect, hidden in that manner which has been explained, of absolute socialism, certainly must be held as pertaining to a society of the Masonic kind: not so much from their opposition to the Catholic religion, as from their intention "of tearing up the foundations of any civil society whatever."2
Others, on the contrary, especially from the fact that they constitute no hidden sect and are not joined by a strict bond, seem to wander outside that genus.
Wherefore there does not seem to be place for the absolute affirmation which Nouv. Revue Théol.,3 C. Gennari,4 and also Pennacchi5 have given; but one must see what the circumstances of socialism are in each region; and in doubt let us permit the judgment to the Ordinaries of places. Let us rather imitate the prudence of the Holy See, which, concerning many societies into which workers in the United States of America are compelled, and which seem very akin to Masonic societies, so that sometimes they impose civil funerals on their adherents, was unwilling to define that matter. Concerning several, the American Bishops are divided. Cf. the letters of C. Monaco, August 20, 1894,6 and the cited Ruthenian provincial synod.7
What in Belgium?
Concerning the association which socialists constitute in Belgium, we questioned several persons, both theologians and experts in economic science. To a man they responded to us that socialists in Belgium are regarded by them as a political faction (un parti) rather than that they seem to be a sect.
Moreover, especially in this question of a contingent and mutable fact, no firm argument for the contrary thesis can be drawn from some appellation employed twenty years ago in the Encyclical Quod Apostolici. And from the fact that there speech is made of Socialists, Anarchists, and Nihilists as of one sect,8 it is indeed consequent that there are Socialists who differ from Anarchists, etc., only in name; but not that all Socialists are and will perpetually be parts or members of a sect of this sort.
Our opinion, which from day to day seems to us to become more manifest, is now defended by Boudinhon9 and Hollweck,10 but not yet by Wernz,11 nor by Ciolli.12
1 Cf. P. Verhaegen, Les socialistes anglais. Ghent, 1898, Imprimerie Het Volk.
2 Constitution Quod Apostolici, at the beginning.
3 T. 28, pp. 178, 179.
4 Monit., cited place, X, p. 40.
5 A. S. S., cited place, n. 52, from p. 299.
6 N. R. Th., t. 27, p. 603. The cause concerned three societies: Odd Fellows, Sons of Temperance, Knights of Pythias. The Holy Office reprobated them, but abstained from application of the excommunication issued against sects of the Masonic kind.
7 Archiv, cited place, pp. 72, 73.
8 And thus it becomes manifest that regard is had rather to those socialists who in the year 1848 in reality were thinking of violently overturning everything in France.
9 Cited work, p. 113.
10 Die Strafgesetze, § 104, 2.
11 Cited work, n. 111, note 14.
12 Cited work, n. 37. He also includes societies concerning which the Holy Office was unwilling to decree that matter. Cf. above the note concerning the Odd Fellows, etc. Cf. Hollweck, Die Strafgesetze, § 105, 1.