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: