Louis André was France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

's Minister of War from 1900 until 1904. Loyal to the laïque Third Republic, he was anti-Catholic, militantly anticlerical, a Freemason and was implicated in the Affaire Des Fiches

Affaire Des Fiches

L'Affaire des Fiches de délation was a political scandal in France in 1904-1905 in which it was discovered that the militantly anticlerical War Minister under Emile Combes, General Louis André, was determining promotions based on a huge card index on public officials, detailing which were Catholic...

, a scandal in which he received reports from Masonic

Anticlericalism and Freemasonry

The question of whether Freemasonry is Anticlerical is the subject of debate. The Catholic Church has long been an outspoken critic of Freemasonry, and Catholic scholars have often accused the fraternity of anticlericalism. The Catholic Church forbids its members to join any masonic society under...

groups on which army officers were practicing Catholics for the purpose of denying their promotions.