Pope Leo XIII (b. 2 March 1810 – d. 20 July 1903), born Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele Luigi Pecci, began his pontificate on 20 February 1878. His papacy is the fourth longest in the history of the Church. He is known for having composed the Prayer to Archangel St Michael and for combating modern errors.
Opinyuns has been covering papal documents that deal with modern errors and related issues in chronological order starting with “In eminenti”, the papal bull by Pope Clement XII issued on 28 April 1738 that condemned freemasonry.
Of all that Pope Leo XIII wrote, one of his most famous—and probably one of the most famous papal documents in the modern era—is the encyclical “Humanum Genus” on freemasonry, published on 20 April 1884.
The document is not short at approximately 8,200 words in 38 paragraphs.
Leo XIII starts with describing the conflict in simple terms: there are two “kingdoms”, those who are for God and those who are for satan. Or, to use St Augustine’s words, two “cities”.
At every period of time each has been in conflict with the other, with a variety and multiplicity of weapons and of warfare, although not always with equal ardor and assault. At this period, however, the partisans of evil seems to be combining together, and to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by that strongly organized and widespread association called the Freemasons. No longer making any secret of their purposes, they are now boldly rising up against God Himself. They are planning the destruction of holy Church publicly and openly, and this with the set purpose of utterly despoiling the nations of Christendom…
He then reminds the audience that his predecessors and himself have exposed and warned about this “dark conspiracy” as well as forbidding anyone from joining freemasonic sects. This drew criticisms and counter-criticisms across Europe.
The effects of the popes’ efforts varied. Either way, the freemasonry’s continued spread only proves their point.
…the sect of Freemasons grew with a rapidity beyond conception in the course of a century and a half, until it came to be able, by means of fraud or of audacity, to gain such entrance into every rank of the State as to seem to be almost its ruling power. This swift and formidable advance has brought upon the Church, upon the power of princes, upon the public wellbeing, precisely that grievous harm which Our predecessors had long before foreseen.
The intent of this encyclical is to
…treat of the masonic society itself, of its whole teaching, of its aims, and of its manner of thinking and acting, in order to bring more and more into the light its power for evil…
The first eight paragraphs are in effect the introduction. After that, it is difficult to select passages as Leo XIII’s writing is dense and his words are carefully chosen without implying that it is difficult to read. In this sense, it is recommended to read the entire encyclical.
Although there are various freemasonic organizations with their different ceremonies and they operate in the open, including having “their own newspaper organs”, there are facets that remain secret even to members depending on their rank.
There are many things like mysteries which it is the fixed rule to hide with extreme care, not only from strangers, but from very many members, also; such as their secret and final designs, the names of the chief leaders, and certain secret and inner meetings, as well as their decisions, and the ways and means of carrying them out.
Their activities are veiled by seemingly noble pursuits. However, oaths are still mandatory for initiates and the penalty for breaking said oaths may include death.
As a convenient manner of concealment, they assume the character of literary men and scholars associated for purposes of learning. They speak of their zeal for a more cultured refinement, and of their love for the poor; and they declare their one wish to be the amelioration of the condition of the masses, and to share with the largest possible number all the benefits of civil life. … Moreover, to be enrolled, it is necessary that the candidates promise and undertake to be thenceforward strictly obedient to their leaders and masters with the utmost submission and fidelity, and to be in readiness to do their bidding upon the slightest expression of their will; or, if disobedient, to submit to the direst penalties and death itself. … and with so much audacity and dexterity that the assassin very often escapes the detection and penalty of his crime.
One’s actions, by their very nature, betray one’s aims for it is difficult to entirely hide them. Therefore, it is still possible to detect the aims of freemasonry.
For, no matter how great may be men’s cleverness in concealing and their experience in lying, it is impossible to prevent the effects of any cause from showing, in some way, the intrinsic nature of the cause whence they come. “A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor a bad tree produce good fruit.” [Matthew 7:18]
Leo XIII then makes an important qualification, that not every freemason or person associated with them, although not free from guilt, is in on the “ultimate object” of the conspiracy. Nonetheless, the big picture must be considered.
They are not, however, for this reason, to be reckoned as alien to the masonic federation; for the masonic federation is to be judged not so much by the things which it has done, or brought to completion, as by the sum of its pronounced opinions.
The aim of freemasonry is the “utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced”. Below is the philosophy they adopt:
Now, the fundamental doctrine of the naturalists, which they sufficiently make known by their very name, is that human nature and human reason ought in all things to be mistress and guide. Laying this down, they care little for duties to God, or pervert them by erroneous and vague opinions. For they deny that anything has been taught by God; they allow no dogma of religion or truth which cannot be understood by the human intelligence, nor any teacher who ought to be believed by reason of his authority.
This, of course, directly contradicts the authority and teaching of the Church.
They promote what some call “separation of Church and State” which, by the way, is a conveniently vague term.
By a long and persevering labor, they endeavor to bring about this result—namely, that the teaching office and authority of the Church may become of no account in the civil State; and for this same reason they declare to the people and contend that Church and State ought to be altogether disunited.
In addition to the attacks on the Church “in speech, in writing, and in teaching”, laws are imposed that hinder the Church’s freedom. In other words, it is not merely separation in operation or even in principle but, going further, the Church is to be “subjected to the power and arbitrary will of the administrators of the State, and the religious orders rooted up and scattered”. And this even includes the papacy itself.
…and now the time has come when the partisans of the sects openly declare, what in secret among themselves they have for a long time plotted, that the sacred power of the Pontiffs must be abolished, and that the papacy itself, founded by divine right, must be utterly destroyed.
Another tactic is to promote religious indifference. New members are not required to reject their beliefs whatever their religion.
First, in this way they easily deceive the simple-minded and the heedless, and can induce a far greater number to become members. Again, as all who offer themselves are received whatever may be their form of religion, they thereby teach the great error of this age—that a regard for religion should be held as an indifferent matter, and that all religions are alike.
As a consequence or in parallel, there is also skepticism. Amongst freemasons themselves, believers of God and unbelievers are accepted, so even the idea of God is watered down.
Hence it happens that they no longer consider as certain and permanent those things which are fully understood by the natural light of reason, such as certainly are—the existence of God, the immaterial nature of the human soul, and its immortality. The sect of the Freemasons, by a similar course of error, is exposed to these same dangers; for, although in a general way they may profess the existence of God, they themselves are witnesses that they do not all maintain this truth with the full assent of the mind or with a firm conviction.
Without God, justice and morality are weakened if not rejected. Whatever morality remains is subject to “opinion”.
If these be taken away, as the naturalists and Freemasons desire, there will immediately be no knowledge as to what constitutes justice and injustice, or upon what principle morality is founded. And, in truth, the teaching of morality which alone finds favor with the sect of Freemasons, and in which they contend that youth should be instructed, is that which they call “civil,” and “independent,” and “free,” namely, that which does not contain any religious belief. … For, wherever, by removing Christian education, this teaching has begun more completely to rule, there goodness and integrity of morals have begun quickly to perish, monstrous and shameful opinions have grown up, and the audacity of evil deeds has risen to a high degree.
They also deny original sin which makes us “more disposed to vice than to virtue”. As such, the Church has always taught that we need to practice restraint, “in order that reason may always hold its sway”.
But the naturalists and Freemasons, having no faith in those things which we have learned by the revelation of God, deny that our first parents sinned, and consequently think that free will is not at all weakened and inclined to evil. …
Wherefore we see that men are publicly tempted by the many allurements of pleasure; that there are journals and pamphlets with neither moderation nor shame; that stage plays are remarkable for license; that designs for works of art are shamelessly sought in the laws of a so-called verism; that the contrivances of a soft and delicate life are most carefully devised; and that all the blandishments of pleasure are diligently sought out by which virtue may be lulled to sleep. …
Not surprisingly, the freemasons attack the family: marriage becomes a mere contract which, like any other law, can be changed as a matter of opinion. If marriage is a matter of the State rather than the Church, then so is divorce. This was already the case in some nominally Catholic countries. Divorce was a hot-button issue at the time, not unlike today’s so-called gay marriage and abortion.
[M]arriage belongs to the genus of commercial contracts, which can rightly be revoked by the will of those who made them, and that the civil rulers of the State have power over the matrimonial bond; that in the education of youth nothing is to be taught in the matter of religion as of certain and fixed opinion; and each one must be left at liberty to follow, when he comes of age, whatever he may prefer. To these things the Freemasons fully assent; and not only assent, but have long endeavored to make them into a law and institution. … Thus, the time is quickly coming when marriages will be turned into another kind of contract—that is into changeable and uncertain unions which fancy may join together, and which the same when changed may disunite.
It follows that the education (or brainwashing) of youth is also under the State divorced from the Church:
With the greatest unanimity the sect of the Freemasons also endeavors to take to itself the education of youth. They think that they can easily mold to their opinions that soft and pliant age, and bend it whither they will; and that nothing can be more fitted than this to enable them to bring up the youth of the State after their own plan. Therefore, in the education and instruction of children they allow no share, either of teaching or of discipline, to the ministers of the Church … and that nothing which treats of the most important and most holy duties of men to God shall be introduced into the instructions on morals.
The attack on the family structure extends to society as well. Although using different words, Leo XIII is essentially stating that from humanism is derived human rights and democracy under the guise of “equality”.
Then come their doctrines of politics, in which the naturalists lay down that all men have the same right, and are in every respect of equal and like condition; that each one is naturally free; that no one has the right to command another; that it is an act of violence to require men to obey any authority other than that which is obtained from themselves. According to this, therefore, all things belong to the free people; power is held by the command or permission of the people, so that, when the popular will changes, rulers may lawfully be deposed and the source of all rights and civil duties is either in the multitude or in the governing authority when this is constituted according to the latest doctrines. It is held also that the State should be without God…
Consistent with marxism, private property is also attacked under the guise of “equality”.
For some time past they have openly endeavored to bring this about with all their strength and resources; and in this they prepare the way for not a few bolder men who are hurrying on even to worse things, in their endeavor to obtain equality and community of all goods by the destruction of every distinction of rank and property.
Of course, “equality” is a conveniently vague term which Leo XIII explains.
In like manner, no one doubts that all men are equal one to another, so far as regards their common origin and nature, or the last end which each one has to attain, or the rights and duties which are thence derived. But, as the abilities of all are not equal, as one differs from another in the powers of mind or body, and as there are very many dissimilarities of manner, disposition, and character, it is most repugnant to reason to endeavor to confine all within the same measure, and to extend complete equality to the institutions of civil life. Just as a perfect condition of the body results from the conjunction and composition of its various members… so, in the commonwealth, there is an almost infinite dissimilarity of men, as parts of the whole.
All the aims and tactics described push revolutionary activities, including those of communists.
For, the fear of God and reverence for divine laws being taken away, the authority of rulers despised, sedition permitted and approved … a change and overthrow of all things will necessarily follow. Yea, this change and overthrow is deliberately planned and put forward by many associations of communists and socialists; and to their undertakings the sect of Freemasons is not hostile, but greatly favors their designs, and holds in common with them their chief opinions.
This cannot be achieved without infiltrating the government, using and dispatching people as they see fit.
Ingratiating themselves with rulers under a pretense of friendship, the Freemasons have endeavored to make them their allies and powerful helpers for the destruction of the Christian name; and that they might more strongly urge them on, they have, with determined calumny, accused the Church of invidiously contending with rulers in matters that affect their authority and sovereign power. Having, by these artifices, insured their own safety and audacity, they have begun to exercise great weight in the government of States: but nevertheless they are prepared to shake the foundations of empires, to harass the rulers of the State, to accuse, and to cast them out, as often as they appear to govern otherwise than they themselves could have wished.
As for the people, they rely on the usual propaganda that the Church and State have made their lives difficult.
In like manner, they have by flattery deluded the people. Proclaiming with a loud voice liberty and public prosperity, and saying that it was owing to the Church and to sovereigns that the multitude were not drawn out of their unjust servitude and poverty, they have imposed upon the people, and, exciting them by a thirst for novelty, they have urged them to assail both the Church and the civil power.
Leo XIII concludes the encyclical with some recommendations. He ratifies all decrees regarding freemasonic sects. The masses must be educated about religion so that “the minds of men will be made sound by instruction, and will be protected against many forms of error and inducements to wickedness”.
He clarifies the true meaning of “liberty”, “fraternity”, “equality” and “charity”.
[By] liberty, We mean, of sons of God, through which we may be free from slavery to Satan or to our passions, both of them most wicked masters; the fraternity whose origin is in God, the common Creator and Father of all; the equality which, founded on justice and charity, does not take away all distinctions among men, but, out of the varieties of life, of duties, and of pursuits, forms that union and that harmony which naturally tend to the benefit and dignity of society.
The pope is not ignorant of the history of freemasonry, that it was originally a guild. Such organizations may be necessary and it is important to help honest workers.
Those who support themselves by the labor of their hands, besides being, by their very condition, most worthy above all others of charity and consolation, are also especially exposed to the allurements of men whose ways lie in fraud and deceit. Therefore, they ought to be helped with the greatest possible kindness, and to be invited to join associations that are good, lest they be drawn away to others that are evil.
Lastly, of course, prayer is necessary, particularly invoking the Virgin Mary “who from the moment of her conception overcame Satan may show her power over these evil sects”, Archangel St Michael, St Joseph and Apostles St Peter and St Paul.
It should be noted that everything predicted by Leo XIII and his predecessors has happened.
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