The following letter will be read with interest by those who desire to be accurately acquainted with the present legislation of the Church in regard to secret societies. The bulls of Clement XII., Benedict XIV., Pius VII., and Leo XII., against freemasons, carbonari, and other similar associations, are well known. However, controversies have arisen as to the persons who incur the censures enacted in those bulls. Some have asserted that members of a secret society contract no censure unless the object or tendency of the society be both to undermine the authority of civil government, and to destroy religion, and that at the same time the members of the society be bound by oath to secrecy.
The decision of the Holy Office, confirmed by his present Holiness, puts an end to all doubts on the question, and it is now decided that all members of secret societies that are directed either against the state, or against religion, whether bound by oath or not, incur the penalties enacted against freemasons, etc., in the Papal constitutions:
ILLME. ET REVME. DNE.
Plura ad Sanctam Sedem delata sunt circa societatem quae appellatur Fratrum Feniorum, nec non circa aliam a Sancto Patritio nuncupatam, eaque supremæ Congregationi Universalis Inquisitionis submissa fuere, ut quid de illis sentiendum esset declararetur.
Porro Sanctissimus Dominus Noster Pius IX. audito Eminentissimorum Inquisitorum suffragio, Amplitudini tuae notificandum mandavit Decretum Feriae IV., 5. Augusti, 1846, quod sic se habet: "Societates occultae de quibus in Pontificiis Constitutionibus sermo est, eae omnes intelliguntur quae adversus Ecclesiam vel gubernium sibi aliquid proponunt, exigant vel non exigant juramentum de secreto servando". Voluit praeterea Sanctitas sua ut Tibi subjungeretur recurrendum esse ad Sanctam Sedem, et quidem omnibus adamussim expositis, si quae forte difficultates in applicatione praedicti Decreti quod alterutram e memoratis societatibus inveniantur.
Precor Deum ut Te diu sospitem et incolumem servet. Romae ex Aedibus Sacrae Congregationis de Propaganda Fide die 7 Junii, 1864.
Amplitudinis Tuae
Ad officia paratissimus,
Al. C. Barnabo, Praef.
H. Capalti, Secretarius.
R. P. D. Paulo Cullen,
Archiepiscopo Dubliniensi.