Grand Master's message

Title

Creator

Ofilada, Macario M.

Language

English

Year

1960

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

tytattd Tfa&Mye HOLD THAT WALL BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE CHURCH To my Brethren, GREETINGS: Soon I shall go. I shall not pass this way again. Heed, then, this my last message to you: HOLD THAT WALL BETWEEN THE STATE AND THE CHURCH! See that the State do not meddle or interfere with the business of the Church, which is religious. But by the same token, see, too, that the Church keep off from the affairs of the State, which are secular. There are multiple compelling reasons for my choice of this my last testament to you. First, because one Church is trying to breach the Wall and invade the domain of the State in violation of the Constitution. Second, because the re-union would mean the dissolution of our liberties; third, because they were Masons who figured prominently among those who purchased our liberties with their own lives; and fourth, because that Wall should not and shall not be violated now without a fight as long as a Lodge of Masons can work in this country. Even a scalded animal can remember its painful lesson, and acts accordingly for its own preservation. We cannot do any less— we must not forget ours. We cannot turn back the clock now and allow the evils of the Inquisition to spread its stifling mantle over this country. There is going to be no more Inquisition with its presents of anguish and widows and orphans if we do not permit any move toward the re-union of the State and the Church. The enemies of the Church — within the Church — will keep on trying to breach that Wall. Of late they made open avowal of that intent in a public speech given by their robed mouthpiece whom they did not repudate. They flouted this intent by their open endorsement of candidates for public office — their strategy being to infiltrate the 121 government and control its machinery, eventually to amend the Con* stitution and demolish that Wall, and ultimately not only to effectuate the liaison between the State and the Church, but also to sub* ordinate the State to the Church. God forbid that such should come to pass. It behooves us all Masons to prevent it, and save our own lives and our own liberties and those of our posterity. I warn you, Brethren, that the enemies of the Church within the Church will attempt to destroy anyone guarding that Wall. They are most resourceful in both cunning and lucre. They will stop at nothing. They are past masters of intrigue and power politics, and they have no dearth of decoys among the flower of our youth who do not know any better. They will quibble, use that they would pass as logic and legal hermeneutics to trap the naive and the credulous. But the fact remains that not only the Constitution, the Courts, and lay thinkers of world renown recognize the fact and the wisdom of the separation of Church and State: The Vatican is committed to it, and so are its Prelates of note who are conscientious of their responsibilities. And this is as it should be, for Christ Himself so decreed when He stated that His Kingdom is not of this world. But the enemies of the Church within the Church and their stooges would repudiate even Christ. They pay Him lip service, and do Him disservice. If by their rabid zeal they themselves would harm the very Church they are supposed to protect, what would they not do to them who stand in their way? And so, my Brethren, this, then, is my testament to you: — Hold and preserve that Great Wall between the Church and the State, for it is that Wall that preserves our liberties and protects us and our wives and our children and our posterity from the hopeless existence in another long night in the jungle. Grand Master 122 THE CABLE TOW April I960

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