ABSTRACT
In England and Wales, newspaper readers in the first half of the twentieth century could be in no doubt - from the many articles published - that freemasonry was designed for people with a declared belief in God and a strong interest in morality and that the organisation attracted followers from the world's major religions. The story of masonic benevolence was described in newspapers in England and Wales on an almost weekly basis in the first 50 years of the twentieth century. The steady expansion of freemasonry, both at home and overseas, made the construction of many more places for meetings an imperative throughout the century. For the Christian churches the picture was more complex, with the debate centred upon the question of whether freemasonry was a religion-and therefore a rival-or not. In the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church, freemasonry was undoubtedly both.
