going on. The Republic must rid itself of the religious congregations, sweeping them off by a vigorous stroke. The system of half measures is everywhere dangerous; the adversary must be crushed with a single blow.” 2
The Catholic Encyclopedia continues its account of French Masonry’s struggle against religion :
In truth all the “anti-clerical” Masonic reforms carried out in France since 1877, such as the secularization of education, measures against private Christian schools and charitable establishments, the suppression of the religious orders and the spoliation of the Church, professedly culminate in an anti-Christian and irreligious reorganization of human society, not only in France but throughout the world. Thus French Freemasonry, as the standard-bearer of all Freemasonry, pretends to inaugurate the golden era of the Masonic universal republic, comprising in Masonic brotherhood all men and all nations. “The triumph of the Galilean,” said the president of the Grand Orient, Senator Delpech, on 20 September, 1902 , “has lasted twenty centuries. But now he dies in his turn…. The Romish Church, founded on the Galilean myth, began to decay rapidly from the very day on which the Masonic Association was established” 3
By the “Galilean” the Masons mean Jesus, because according to the Gospel, Jesus was born in the Palestinian town of Galilee. Therefore, the Masons’ hatred for the Church is an expression of their hatred for Jesus and all monotheistic religions. With the materialist, Darwinist and humanist culture they established in the nineteenth century, they believed that they had destroyed religion and restored Europe to its pre-Christian paganism.
When these words were