Freemasonry

Conspiratorial Mentality?
Sir,—A Catholic contemporary of yours reports that Mexico's central council of Catholic Action has urged President Peron of Argentina to free himself of Masonic elements backing his regime. Frequently in the Catholic Press I have read reports and articles suggestng or implying that Freemasonry is the " Secret Power " behind every antiCatholic manifestation from Communism in China to Agnosticism in the B.B.C....
I should like to ask the following questions as a Catholic and in all sincerity.
(1) Why does the normal common-sense and rational attitude of so many authoritative Catholics break down when the subject of Freemasonry comes up for discussion? Why do Catholic papers advertise the publications of a fascist hotly? pc not otherwise saintly clergymen feel ill at ease in the same bed as the architects of Dachau and lielscn on this issue?
(2) Are not all " Conspiracy theories " so much nonsense. the result of ignorance and lazy thinking; the attempt to find the inevitable scapegoat and ignore the real causes of social disturbances?
(3) Is not the inevitable megalte mania of absolute rulers coupled with the influence of anti-clerical propaganda since the French revolution; of anti-Catholic propaganda since the Reformation; and of atheistic and Marxist propaganda since the Industrial revolution, of itself sufficient to account for such phenomena as the present troubles in the Argentine? Do we really need to give it an adolescent melodramatic tinge by bringing in " Freemasonry " and other " Hidden influences " (whatever that term may mean!)?
(4) Are not the Masons to-day, whatever they might have been in the past. simply groups of ordinary non-Catholic people who come together socially; help each other; do a deal of charitable work; arc generally non-political or. like their Catholic counterparts, belong to the centre and mildly right-wing political parties; have certain semisecret, pseudo-religious initiation rites in which, obviously. Catholics cannot join, but are otherwise about as sinister and conspiratorial as the Free Church General Council?
(5) Is it not time we stopped all this nonsense about " Sinister influences" and grew up? Is it not the right Catholic attitude that people who oppose the Church or are indifferent to it are " wrong" rather than " sinister " ?
" Puzzled"