Our Catlzolic Heritage in T eza..r
45 2
"The ceremonial of the Order teaches a high and noble patriotism, instills a love of country, inculcates a reverence of law and order. We can find nothing in the entire ceremonial of the Order that to our minds could be objected to by any person." The report was signed by Motley Hewer Flint, 33rd Degree Past Grand Master of Masons of California; Dana Reed Waller, 32nd Degree Past Grand Master of Masons of California; William Rhodes Hervey, 33rd Degree Past Master and Master of Scottish Rite Lodge; Samuel E. Burke, 32nd Degree Past Master and Inspector of Masonic District. The Supreme Board of Directors then made public the real pledge taken by the Fourth Degree Knights of Columbus and the findings of the Masonic Committee so that the "bogus oath" might be compared with the true oath and the findings by whoever wished to do so. The persistence of detractors in circulating the slander, however, forced formal suits for libel to be instituted. The distributors of the calumny, whenever identified, were brought before the courts, and if found guilty fined. One of the first trials of this nature was the action taken at Beeville in 1923, where the detractor was identified, tried, and convicted. The enemies of the Church and Catholics continued, nevertheless, to circulate the "bogus oath" during the heyday of the Ku Klux Klan. To the credit of the fair-minded be it said that in San Benito, Texas, a non-Catholic, Sam Robertson, championed the cause of the maligned Knights, going as far as to offer a reward of $750 and the forfeiture of his home to anyone who could prove the "bogus oath" to be true. He declared that he had been convinced of its falsity through an investiga- tion of the whole matter in which he had been aided by several friends: a Jew; four Protestants, of whom one was a Mason and one a Ku Klux Klansman; four Catholics, all Knights of Columbus; and a Catholic priest-all of whom are very human," he remarked. This admirable inci- dent and its happy result was reported by the State Deputy at the Austin Convention in May, 1923, and made known to the Supreme Officers of the Order. The Supreme Council, in order to make the truth about the Order better known and to curb the circulation of the "bogus oath," following the example set, sent $25,000 to the State Council in Texas for the purpose of fighting libel and disseminating the truth. At the recom- mendation of the State Officers, who consulted the Bishops in the State, it was decided to assign $5,000 to be offered as a reward to anyone who produced evidence to prove the "bogus oath" was genuine. The offer of
Powered by FlippingBook