The Taxil hoax was an 1890s hoax of exposure by Léo Taxil, intended to mock not only Freemasonry but also the Catholic Church's opposition to it.
Pope Leo XIII was head of the Catholic Church from 20 February 1878 until his death in July 1903. Living until the age of 93, he was the oldest pope holding office, and had the fourth-longest reign of any pope, behind those of St. Peter, Pius IX and John Paul II.
Humanum genus is a papal encyclical promulgated on 20 April 1884 by Pope Leo XIII.
Aeterni Patris was an encyclical issued by Pope Leo XIII in August 1879. It was subtitled "On the Restoration of Christian Philosophy in Catholic Schools in the Spirit of the Angelic Doctor, St. Thomas Aquinas". The aim of the encyclical was to advance the revival of Scholastic philosophy.
Quo graviora was an apostolic constitution promulgated by Pope Leo XII on 13 March 1825, in which he decreed the prohibition of membership in Masonic lodges in perpetuity.
Traditi humilitati is a papal encyclical issued by Pope Pius VIII in 1829. It laid out the program for his pontificate. Although it does not explicitly mention freemasonry, it has been cited by later Church documents on the subject because it condemned those "who think that the portal of eternal salvation opens for all from any religion".
Qui pluribus is an encyclical promulgated by Pope Pius IX on 9 November 1846. It was the first encyclical of his reign and written to urge the prelates to be on guard against the dangers posed by rationalism, pantheism, socialism, communism and other popular philosophies. It was a commentary on the widespread civil unrest spreading across Italy, as nationalists with a variety of beliefs and methods sought the unification of Italy.
Etsi Nos was a papal encyclical promulgated by Pope Leo XIII in 1882 denouncing the way in which post-unification Italy denigrated the role of the Church, which it blamed primarily on Freemasonry:
"It is even reported that this year it is about to receive the deputies and leaders of the sect which is most embittered against Catholicism, who have appointed this city as the place for their solemn meeting. The reasons which have determined their choice of such a meeting place are no secret; they desire by this outrageous provocation to glut the hatred which they nourish against the Church, and to bring their incendiary torches within reach of the Roman Pontificate by attacking it in its very seat."
Pope Leo XIII's papal encyclical on the subject of Freemasonry in Italy, known both by its Italian incipit Dall'alto dell'Apostolico Seggio and its Latin incipit Ab apostolici Solii celsitudine, was a promulgated on 15 October 1890.
Praeclara gratulationis publicae is an apostolic letter of Pope Leo XIII promulgated on 20 June 1894.
Custodi di quella fede was a papal encyclical promulgated by Leo XIII in 1892 addressed to the Italian people.
Inimica vis is a papal encyclical addressed to the Catholic bishops of Italy. It remarked on the multiple condemnations of Freemasonry over the preceding century and a half and concentrated on the local difficulties of the Italian church. It was promulgated by Leo XIII in 1892.
There are many papal pronouncements against Freemasonry; the most prominent include:
Ad Caeli Reginam is an encyclical of Pope Pius XII, given at Rome, from St. Peter's Basilica, on the feast of the Maternity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the eleventh day of October, 1954, towards the end of the Marian year, in the sixteenth year of his Pontificate. The encyclical is an important element of the Mariology of Pope Pius XII. It established the feast Queenship of Mary.
The Mariology of the popes is the theological study of the influence that the popes have had on the development, formulation and transformation of the Roman Catholic Church's doctrines and devotions relating to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
Mariological papal documents have been a major force that has shaped Roman Catholic Mariology over the centuries. Mariology is developed by theologians on the basis not only of Scripture and Tradition but also of the sensus fidei of the faithful as a whole, "from the bishops to the last of the faithful", and papal documents have recorded those developments, defining Marian dogmas, spreading doctrines and encouraging devotions within the Catholic Church.
The War of Anti-Christ with the Church and Christian Civilization is a book written in 1885 by an Irishman, Msgr George F. Dillon, DD. It was republished in a slightly edited form by Fr Denis Fahey in 1950 as Grand Orient Freemasonry Unmasked as the Secret Power Behind Communism. The central theme of the book alleges that atheistic Illuminism, through the infrastructure of Grand Orient freemasonry, driven by the ideology of the philosophes laid the foundations for a large scale, ongoing war against Christendom in general and the Catholic Church in particular. The document claims that it had been manifested primarily through manipulating the outbreak of various radical liberal republican revolutions, particularly those focused on atheism or religious indifferentism in their anti-Catholicism. The book details revolutionary activity in France, Italy, Germany and Ireland.
The question of whether Freemasonry is anticlerical is the subject of debate. The Catholic Church has long been an outspoken critic of Freemasonry, and some scholars have often accused the fraternity of anticlericalism. The Catholic Church forbids its members to join any Masonic society under pain of interdiction. Freemasons usually take a diametrically opposite view, stating that there is nothing in Freemasonry that is in any way contrary to Catholicism or any other religious faith.
Christi Matri is an encyclical by Pope Paul VI issued on 15 September 1966 to encourage the faithful to pray for peace by way of the customary special devotions during the month of October, traditionally dedicated in honor of the Most Blessed Virgin.
Supremi apostolatus officio, commonly referred to as "On Devotion of the Rosary", is the first of a number of encyclicals of Pope Leo XIII on the Rosary. It was issued on 1 September 1883, encouraging the practice.
