On December 8, 1869, the International Congress of Freemasons imposed it as a duty on all its members to do all in their power to wipe out Catholicity from the face of the earth. Cremation was proposed as a suitable means to this end, since it was calculated to gradually undermine the faith of the people in 'the resurrection of the body and life everlasting.'"
--Fr. John Laux, Catholic Morality (Imprimatur 1932), p. 106