Signs of the Times  

          "The money powers prey upon the nation in times and conspire against it in times of adversity.  It is more despotic than a monarchy, more insolent than autocracy, and more selfish than bureaucracy.  It denounces as public enemies, all who question its methods or throw light upon its crimes.  I have two great enemies, the southern Army in front of me and the bankers in the rear.  OF THE TWO, THE ONE IN THE REAR IS MY GREATEST FOE...corporations have been enthroned and an era of corruption in high places will follow and the money powers of the country will endeavor to prolong its reign by working upon the prejudices of the people until the wealth is aggregated in the hands of a few and the Republic is destroyed..."
                                                                                                             --ABRAHAM LINCOLN


    "As with individuals, so with nations.  These, too, must necessarily tend to ruin if they go astray from "The Way."  The Son of God, the Creator and Redeemer of mankind, is King and Lord of the earth, and holds supreme dominion over men, both individually and collectively."
                                                                                                      --Pope Leo XIII


      "We pray and beseech you, Venerable Brethren, to join your efforts with ours, and earnestly to strive for the extirpation of this foul plague [Masonry], which is creeping through the veins of the body politic.  You have to defend the glory of God and the salvation of your neighbor; and with the object of your strife before you, neither courage nor strength will be wanting....But as it befits the authority of Our office that We Ourselves should point some suitable way of proceeding.  We wish it to be your rule first of all to tear away the mask from Freemasonry, and to let it be seen as it really is, and by sermons and pastoral letters to instruct the people as to the artifices used by societies of this kind in seducing men and enticing them into their ranks and as to the depravity of their opinions and the wickedness of their acts....
       "Let no man think that he may for any reason whatever join the Masonic sect, if he values his Catholic name and his eternal salvation...It may seem to some that Freemasons demand nothing that is openly contrary to religion and morality; but as the whole principle and object of the sect lies in what is vicious and criminal, to join with these men in any way to help them cannot be unlawful...."
                                                                                                 Pope Leo XIII