Denver Newsroom, Oct 18, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).-
A bill purporting to secure equality and anti-discrimination in Belize was withdrawn last month, after Bishop Lawrence Nicasio and other Catholic leaders raised objections to the bill’s treatment of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Nicasio said the bill risked creating a “new colonialism” where international experts are allowed to change the country’s laws, culture and values.
“I think that it was an important battle and that if the bill had passed, it would have had dire consequences for the future of Belize,” Father John Robinson, SOLT, told CNA Oct. 13. “However, I am under no delusion that the war has been won. There is a push in education at all levels to accept the new gender theory and to normalize and promote the LGBT lifestyle. I am sure that there will be similar proposals in the future.”
“It is important to realize that the Equal Opportunities Bill is only one part of a larger movement of social engineering that is largely promoted and funded by foreign entities,” said Robinson, who has lived in Belize since 1994 and is chairman of Belize’s Guadalupe Media.
“These groups have historically sought to bring about their agenda through education and law.”
Bishop Nicasio, of Belize City and Belmopan, had said the bill was “rushed” despite its great consequences for the country, and warned that it “ореnѕ thе dооr fоr Unіtеd Nаtіоnѕ Соmmіttееѕ аnd ‘ехреrtѕ,’ whо dо nоt lіvе іn Веlіzе аnd dо nоt undеrѕtаnd our vаluеѕ аnd сulturе, tо dісtаtе thе tеrmѕ оf оur lаwѕ.”
“Тhіѕ would bе а nеw соlоnіаlіѕm,” the bishop said in a Sept. 15 letter.
Several international NGO backed the legislation, as part of a global push to change laws in British Commonwealth countries.
In January the Belize government’s press office said the Equal Opportunities Bill was needed “to address and prevent discrimination, stigma, and violence.”
The bill aimed to regulate “specific conduct in areas of public life” regarding employment, education, access to premises or accommodation, provision of goods and services, travel, public services.”
It would have also established an Equal Opportunities Commission, a non-judicial body that would “work with stakeholders to address inequality, resolve disputes, conduct research and education, and develop guidelines to assist the government, businesses and the community in identifying and eliminating systemic discrimination.”
The commission would have been funded by the National Assembly but could also seek funds from domestic, regional and international sources, provided that the funding be disclosed.
Also called for by the bill was an Equal Opportunities Tribunal, a judicial body funded only by the Belize government. An appointed judge of the Supreme Court would compose the tribunal. The tribunal has the power to make declarations, awards and judgment on cases. It would “provide for broad-ranging remedies” and resolve claims not settled before the commission.
Bishop Nicasio, whose diocese encompasses the entire country of 383,000 people, voiced his desire “to end unjust discrimination and all injustice” and pledged cooperation to work towards these ends, but he said the Catholic Church could not support the bill for several reasons.
The bill could infringe on parents’ rights, and, given the power of law to form consciences and opinions, the bill would “do much to confuse the youth of Belize regarding the sacredness of sexuality.” Sexuality is “a way toward holy matrimonial union and the conception of children,” he said.
The view of human nature behind the bill also drew criticism from the bishop, who said “the novelty of the anthropology” in it was another reason not to support it. The bill recognizes “intersex” as a sex in addition to male and female.
“The bill introduces the notion that humanity has three sexes instead of two, the notion that subjective gender identity is more important than one’s God-given biological sex and would impose on Belizeans the task of ‘gender mainstreaming’.”
It would give “unparalleled power” to an Equal Opportunities Commission and an Equal Opportunities Tribunal. In the name of fighting discrimination, it could endanger freedom of conscience and religion. While the bill made some exceptions for religious organizations, there were none for “individual believers with deeply-held, Bible-formed beliefs.” He warned the bill could create a “pendulum effect” and enable discrimination against these individuals.
For Fr. Robinson, the bill itself was “not a surprise.” He saw it as “only one manifestation of an ongoing social engineering experiment.”
“However, the extreme nature of the proposals was surprising, especially the creation of an entirely independent judicial branch with the rank of a supreme court and the power invested in the Commission/Tribunal with no real checks or balances.”
After the bill failed to advance, Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow told reporters Sept. 16 that the cabinet was “very upset” not to proceed with it and felt it was a good, necessary, and “overdue” bill, PlusTV Belize reported. He said the Belize constitution provides equal opportunity and the bill would have provided an “umbrella of protection”.
He claimed it was a misconception that the legislation would be “rushed” since there would be time for views to be voiced in committee. Barrow insisted that there had been “widespread” consultations.
The Anglican Bishop of Belize, Phillip Wright, in his role heading the Belize Council of Churches, had told the prime minister the council could not support the bill as it was written. The Roman Catholic Church in Belize is also a member of the council.
Backers of the bill were planning to proceed in the face of expected opposition from evangelical Christians, but opposition from other churches was too much, according to Barrow.
“We’re not going to go against all the churches, the evangelicals plus the Belize Council of Churches,” said the prime minister. According to Barrow, Wright seemed to suggest that further work could have resulted in an agreement.
The U.K.-based Human Dignity Trust, an LGBT advocacy group, aided with the drafting of the Belize bill. In an April 17 announcement, the trust said the Belize bill was “the first of their kind for the Caribbean region.” The trust “supported the process of public consultations on the proposed legislation” and translated the legal documents into “digestible explanatory materials for everyday Belizeans.”
The trust is a member of the Equality and Justice Alliance, a consortium of three NGOs which received about $7.25 million from the U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2018 for a two-year program. This program aimed to engage Commonwealth leaders, governments and civil society leaders “to advance equality and equal protection before the law in order to secure the rights of all Commonwealth citizens, regardless of gender, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression.”
Besides the U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office and others, the trust is presently funded by the Canadian government’s diplomatic department Global Affairs Canada; the Tides Foundation’s Equality Without Borders Fund; the Open Society Foundations; and the Sigrid Rausing Trust, among others.
The Human Dignity Trust worked with the Belize National AIDS Commission and Office of the Special Envoy for Women and Children “in order to create an enabling environment for the introduction of this progressive legislation.”
Its specific efforts included a “public education campaign” on television, radio, a website and social media. Its public service announcements were “designed to break down stigma and encourage respect and tolerance for LGBT people, women and girls and people with disability,” the trust said.
Belize First Lady Kim Simplis Barrow, wife of Prime Minister Barrow, served as Belize’s Special Envoy for Women and Children through Oct. 1. She has praised the Human Dignity Trust’s work on the Equal Opportunity Bill.
While critics of Belize’s bill see it as a form of ideological colonialism, some backers of this international effort claim they were making amends for the colonial legacy of the British Empire. Then-Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to the Joint Forums of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2018, voicing “deep regret” that Britain had instituted “discriminatory laws,” including the criminalization of same-sex sexual relations, in its Commonwealth territories.
“It has been a great honor to be entrusted by the British government to provide technical support for law reform that has the power to transform millions of people’s lives across the Commonwealth,” Téa Braun, director of the Human Dignity Trust, said in April 2020. “We have been overwhelmed by the commitment of government officials in Belize, Mauritius and St Vincent and the Grenadines to rid their law books of discriminatory laws and enact protective legislation, and assisting them has been a privilege.”
The National Evangelical Association of Belize’s Sept. 9 criticism of the bill appeared to counter claims that there was sufficient consultation in the bill’s drafting. The first announcement of the consultations took place four days before the consultations. The 75-page first draft of the bill was released the same day as the first consultation.
The group said the proposed human rights commission’s ability to investigate someone without a formal complaint would allow “special interest activism in targeting organizations, schools or businesses.” The bill’s definition of “gender identity” has never appeared in Belize law before and would be that of LGBT activists. “Intersex” would also be a term new to Belize law.
The evangelical critics objected that similar anti-discrimination laws have been used in other countries to “arrest pastors, silence those who speak up about their values, sue cake bakers for not doing same sex wedding cakes.” The bill’s religious freedom protections are “severely deficient.”
Because the law aimed to protect “lawful sexual activity” from “discrimination,” a school that fired a teacher for sexual relations with a student age 16 or over would have faced a discrimination complaint if the bill had become law.
The critics also faulted the law’s ambiguity in banning “unintended,” “undirect,” “unaware,” and “partial” discrimination. The tribunal system established an “alternate independent judicial path” that undermines protections like presumption of innocence and provision of legal representation, they sad.
Robinson told CNA that advocates who campaigned to remove Belize’s little-enforced anti-sodomy law used success there to press for further changes.
“I am very grateful to those who vigorously opposed this bill and who sounded the alarm,” the priest said. “I found it very concerning that many Catholics were oblivious to the harm that this bill would have done to Belize and (that there) was reluctance in the Church to take action. I am grateful especially to the Evangelical churches who were largely responsible for opposing and helping to defeat this bill.”
Another point of controversy in the country is the Ministry of Education’s “Belizean Studies” program in non-denominational secondary schools.
“This program has been rejected by the denominational schools because of its relativism, its subtle Marxism and its gender theory which promotes an anthropology that is in direct conflict with a Christian anthropology,” Robinson said.
In 2012 controversy focused on a Health and Family Life Education manual promoted by the U.S. Peace Corps through the Ministry of Education. Before its distribution through all primary schools in Belize, evangelical and Catholic critics objected to what Robinson characterized as “highly inappropriate sexual content” and its promotion of “sexual indulgence.” Objections from critics halted the program.
The United Nations is another area where Belizean leaders are encouraged to advance LGBT causes like the equal opportunity bill.
LGBT issues in Belize were a topic at a Nov. 12, 2018 review of Belize’s human rights record conducted by a working group of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. At that meeting several countries pressed Belize to pass anti-discrimination laws on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and some sought the legalization of abortion.
The Belize delegation said some recommendations were aligned with the government’s priorities. The delegation also voiced support for sex education and HIV prevention programs developed by UNESCO.
[…]
From The Liber Christo Method: A Field Manual for Spiritual Combat (page 195 of 783 of the Apple eBook)
“If you were a member of a Masonic organization, or a descendant of a freemason, we recommend that you pray prayers of renunciation to break their effects. [endnote] 147 This is best done in front of a practicing Catholic as a witness, preferably on holy ground, and three times over the course of several days or weeks. Having Masses said for the deceased family member is also laudatory. If you were a Mason, be sure to confess this as a first commandment violation.”
Endnote 147: These are found in Ripperger, Deliverance Prayers for Use by the Laity, 122–35, and http://www.liberchristo.org.”
The Liber Christo Method book also recommends getting rid of any Masonic regalia present in your home.
I should make it clear that “The Liber Christo Method” is not available through Apple Books. I was reading the ePub file sold by publisher TAN Books, using Apple’s Books application, which has the advantage over the Kindle application of being able to display more than one book at a time.
This article by Walter Sánchez Silva regarding Fr Eduardo Hayen’s list of reasons why Catholics are forbidden by the Church from membership of freemason lodges should be reprinted in every parish bulletin and preached from every pulpit, several times a year at every Sunday Holy Mass.
I’ve been interested in this topic for decades, having witnessed the devastating destruction of Catholic faith in family members & university colleagues after they were inducted into freemasonry. It can be personally traumatic. For example, in Brisbane in the 1970’s & ‘8o’s, the Emmanuel Covenant Community attracted some of the finest Catholic families to live a full-on Christian life style. What a shock, when Brian Smith, the senior elder, and many of the other leaders were exposed as committed freemasons! Today there’s only a rump left of what was a very large community. The crest they now use is unshamedly masonic; yet approved by Archbishop Mark Coleridge!
Catholic Church leaders (and those of many other Christian churches) have been systematically proslytized by senior freemasons, so that these days it’s hard to find a single-hearted priest, bishop, or Catholic college professor. I attribute much of the catastrophic state of the Church today to God’s anger at the widespread conflating of our holy faith with freemason pagan spiritism.
Many books & articles are available on-line detailing both the childish & the devilish incantations, accoutrements, passwords, body postures, ceremonies, & twisted philosophies involved in becoming a freemason & in progressing through it’s various ‘degrees’. Yet, many freemasons think that what they do as lodgemen or lodgewomen is a closely-guarded secret!
There are plenty of articles on line by ex-freemasons advising how to exit the lodge. They usually mandate a much more systematic deliverance than indicated here in the helpful comment from dear Charles E Flynn.
From the start, the Church has had to deal with the challenge of in-house gnosticism. The growth of in-house freemasonry is the major problem that we have to deal with today. It is the bitter root of many ailments. I’m hoping we are up to the task.
Under the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
Today, even within the Church, a view of humanity, morality, and society that trusts in the power of reason, law, science, technology, and human dominion over nature is gaining much credit, as well as in the realization of continuous progress in equality, tolerance, freedom, and the pluralism of cultures. This is certainly a legacy of Freemasonry. It is present in all major international organizations, starting with the UN. But ultimately, the UN is also a providential organization, as the recent Popes have acknowledged.
What is concerning about Freemasonry is the underlying pride that animates this association, which presumes that man, on his own, can reach the highest goals of knowledge and virtue. For this reason, it is not wrong to accuse it of satanism. It ignores the value and necessity of grace and the weight that sin has in our lives. The Pope might call this a form of Pelagianism. This is why it hates a society like the Church, which reminds it of the duty of humility, penance, atonement, listening to the Word of God, the sacraments, obedience to its ministers, prayer, the invocation of grace, and divine mercy.
A question we might ask ourselves is: what weight does Freemasonry have today in the competition among the great powers vying for world domination? Freemasonry is certainly a product of the West. Beyond its superficial esotericism, it is a product of Western rationalism, with its strengths and weaknesses. Its roots are in Greece, Rome, and pagan myths, with contributions from Kabbalistic and Zionist Judaism.
It certainly has influence in Europe, the United States, and Latin America, to a lesser extent in Judaism, Russia, and China, even less in India and Muslim states. Australia and African states depend on European, American, Chinese, Russian, and Islamic powers.
Freemasonry seems to be triumphant everywhere. I am not far from believing that in Ukraine, two opposing factions of Freemasonry, Russian and American, are at war with each other. But it has made a fundamental mistake: trying to destroy the Church. Today, the Church seems to be discarded by the great rulers of the world, despite its one and a half billion mostly poor followers. And yet, ‘The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone. Anyone who falls on that stone will be dashed to pieces, and it will crush anyone on whom it falls’ (Luke 20:18).” (https://oraetcogita.substack.com/p/part-one-a-new-study-on-freemasonry)
One may wonder how the Church can deny Free Masonry yet promote socialism, liberation theology and progressive ideologies that are anti Catholic in thought, word and deed.
Excellent point!
It doesn’t. Anti-Catholic Catholics promote anti-Catholicism, even if they are high prelates, not Catholics who are Catholic.
Wouldn’t any member of the democrat party fit the same circumstance of canon 1374?
Yes. Which is morally worse, being a Mason or being a Democrat? Tough call.
Just for everyone’s information: Many Evangelical Protestant denominations forbid membership in the Masons (or at least, they used to–Evangelical Protestantism seems to be disintegrating into non-denominational churches with no written doctrines). I grew up in a Baptist church that had Masons membership on the list of forbidden activities (along with drinking alcohol!). But the reasons they gave were very similar to this article. My husband’s grandfather was a Mason for many years, but when his Protestant (Evangelical) church made it clear that Masonic membership was forbidden and explained the reasons, he quit immediately. I do think that men need organizations to be part of, and perhaps the Knights of Columbus works for some men. But other men–well, most younger men find it a little strange to walk around in a helmet with a giant feather. I really like some of the modern organizations; my late husband enjoyed his That Man Is You! meetings and activities. The one flaw with this organization, at least at our parish, is that when the presentation was over, everyone just left–no one wanted to go out for coffee or go to some sporting event or just be friends outside of the meetings. In this era, men seem to be lonely–it’s no wonder they spend so much time with their heads buried in their phones. Men need friendships with other men.
I heard the same thing from Evangelical friends Mrs.Sharon.. They were very concerned about their relatives who were Masons and for mostly the same reasons that Catholics would be.
Both men and women need friends and fellowship. Its a shame how isolated we’ve become. Fraternal orders like the Masons at least offered fellowship and mutual support. I think for many US Masons like those in my family that’s really all it was about. In Europe and Latin America that could differ.
Here, hear!!! A document approved by Pope Francis condemning the Free Masons.
I am not a Mason, nor do I intend to join, but I have known several during my lifetime and all were good people. Fraternal Orders have not done well in recent years, with declining membership. I do not view the Masons as a threat.
What is striking about Freemasonry is that, on the one hand, it promotes the idea of an egalitarian society, free from hierarchical structures. In the name of this ideal, it supported the overthrow of the monarchy and the nobility during the French Revolution. If it could, it would also seek to dismantle the hierarchical structure of the Church, following a Lutheran model.
Today, Freemasonry strives tirelessly to undermine, trivialize, and ultimately dissolve the Petrine ministry, seeking to reduce the Pope to the level of any other member of the people of God. It champions synodality not because it recognizes any episcopal charisma within it, but because it falsely sees in it a reflection of Rousseau’s populism or, at most, the Lutheran concept of the common priesthood of the laity. Yet, paradoxically, Freemasonry itself is marked by an excessive number of hierarchical degrees, which renders it somewhat absurd.
Similarly, Freemasonry presents itself as being grounded in the strictest rationality and scientific method, rejecting any form of irrationality and superstition. This leads it to dismiss even the most reasonable acceptance of the mysteries of the Christian faith, revealed by Christ to humanity and safeguarded by the Church. However, at the same time, high-ranking Masons claim to possess infinite intellectual power and supreme clairvoyance, supposedly granted to them by Lucifer as the ultimate development of idealistic degrees, passed down through tradition from their masters. This, they believe, allows them to perceive the divine light in a way that surpasses the Christian vision, which they regard as irrational and unreliable.
Today, Freemasonry poses the greatest threat to the Church due to its ability to infiltrate and harm it from within, often without the knowledge of many faithful and pastors. It is more dangerous than Protestantism, Marxism, Islamism, Judaism, Hinduism, or Buddhism. Through clever manipulations, the faithful are gradually led to distort the concept of the Church, transforming it into a purely worldly entity, to the point where they believe they are still within the Church, when in reality, they have become enslaved by the world.
I believe that R.H. Benson had the most profound insight into the danger of the Antichrist when, on pages 142-143 of his masterpiece *The Lord of the World*, he writes:
“Once, in the early ages, Satan’s attack had been made on the bodily side, with whips and fire and beasts; in the sixteenth century it had been on the intellectual side; in the twentieth century on the springs of moral and spiritual life. Now it seemed as if the assault was on all three planes at once. But what was chiefly to be feared was the positive influence of Humanitarianism: it was coming, like the kingdom of God, with power; it was crushing the imaginative and the romantic, it was assuming rather than asserting its own truth; it was smothering with bolsters instead of wounding and stimulating with steel or controversy. It seemed to be forcing its way, almost objectively, into the inner world. Persons who had scarcely heard its name were professing its tenets; priests absorbed it, as they absorbed God in Communion – he mentioned the names of the recent apostates – children drank it in like Christianity itself. The soul „naturally Christian“ seemed to be becoming the soul „naturally infidel.“ Persecution, cried the priest, was to be welcomed like salvation, prayed for, and grasped; but he feared that the authorities were too shrewd, and knew the antidote and the poison apart. There might be individual martyrdom – in fact there would be, and very many – but they would be in spite of secular government, not because of it. Finally, he expected, Humanitarianism would presently put on the dress of liturgy and sacrifice, and when that was done, the Church’s cause, unless God intervened, would be over.”
Atheistic humanism (deism) and, worse, moral relativism, which has conquered almost all over the world (except perhaps Slovakia and, obviously the Holy See, is the essence of Freemasonry, and in ecclesiastical terms, it corresponds to modernism, pantheism, and Rahnerism.
Marxism is a far greater threat to the church than Freemasonry.
The contemporary era, the age of secularization, according to A. Del Noce and E. Nolte, should be seen as beginning with the Russian Revolution of 1917. Initially, two “religious nominalisms” simultaneously emerged, both sacred, millenarian, Manichean, messianic, Joachimite, Hegelian—such as Marxism and National Socialism (and partly Fascism)—which became embodied in political institutions with universal ambitions. National Socialism was the German response to Bolshevism, the Nazi extermination camps were a reproduction of the Gulag Archipelago, and nation and race replaced the proletariat. A single Marxist/Hitlerian twin was responsible for the expansion of atheism.
The second phase of 20th-century history, the “secular nominalist” one, resulted in an affluent/therapeutic/liberal society characterized by scientism, “universalism,” and moral relativism—the foundation of Masonic lodges of every rite—and the expansion of atheism.
The new welfare society in Italy and Europe no longer needed religious forces to oppose communism. The new West was now capable of winning by expanding the welfare society. This was a society marked by the primacy of instrumental reason, more irreligious than communist atheism, victorious on the very ground of communism—materialism. In 1963, Del Noce sensed that the new adversary of faith in the post-Marxist era would emerge. He foresaw a time when the relativization of every ideal would converge with a technocratic vision of the world.
(It is this perspective that allowed him, in 1975, to appreciate the insights of Pier Paolo Pasolini, whom he saw as the most astute interpreter of the new totalitarianism of dissolution.)
Recently, Orban opposed liberal “universalism” with the “realism” of an alliance with Eastern and Russian despotisms. Orban’s realism recalls the Ostpolitik of Nixon and Kissinger towards China and that of Paul VI and Cardinal Casaroli towards the Soviet Union. The former did not foresee that, thanks to their détente policy, China would become the main political and economic adversary of the United States. The latter did not foresee the collapse of communism and sacrificed the head of the Primate of Hungary, Josef Mindszenty, to dialogue with Moscow. Orban’s strategy resembles Vatican and American Ostpolitik not only for the “outstretched hand” to the Russian and Chinese East but also for the mistaken belief in the irreversibility of the historical course, to which one can only conform.
The ideological dimension, without which one cannot explain the neo-communism of Putin and Xi Jinping, seems entirely absent from Orban’s strategic vision. “But how can a Christian… think that the future of the world belongs to communist, Islamic, Confucian, Hindu, and Buddhist Asia, and not to Jesus Christ, King of history, for whom everything is possible, including a bright revival of the West, now immersed in the darkness of confusion?” (R. de Mattei)
Being a “good person” doesn’t get you into Heaven.
For American Masons I think that’s mostly true Will. I read that Danny Thomas became a Mason. I knew a lovely devout Catholic man who joined a Masonic Lodge. I doubt he understood Catholic teachings against that.
As you say, fraternal orders are on the decline today. No one wants to join much of anything or participate in the community. Which is sad .
Less well understood is that to become a Shriner — those guys on motorcycles wearing fezes and running children’s hospitals — a man must first reach the level of Master Mason in Freemasonry. Not all Masons are Shriners, but all Shriners are Masons.
Is Freemasonry even a thing anymore? What are their numbers?
They’re aging out from what I see locally Athanasius.
From the Wikipedia article titled Freemasonry:
In the United States, there are 51 Grand Lodges (one in each state and the District of Columbia) which together have a total membership of around 875,000 according to the Masonic Service Association of North America.
Yes but when you look at the number of Masonic Lodge members over the last 100 years it’s shrunk by more than 2/3rds.
“Marxism is a far greater threat to the church than Freemasonry.”
Maybe where you live, dear ‘Athanasius’.
In Australia, some diocese have many freemason-controlled parishes, with clergy and lay leaders roundly scorning the Church’s ban on Catholic membership. Charismatic prayer groups and communities seem especially vulnerable.
My experiences whilst working in America suggest this is true of many churches and ministries there.
Yet, Marxists seem to be absent. Though I am aware of one lady who had allegiances within both freemason & Marxist organisations.
The key question is: “How can our teaching of Christ Jesus have been be so effete that these dual allegiances have become common among our fellow Catholics?” Few seem to listen to James 1:8 – “That sort of person, in two minds . . . must not expect The LORD will give them anything.”
And, the bigger question: “What can we do to bring infested diocese & parishes to singl-hearted devotion & obedience to King Jesus Christ?”
There’s much to pray about.
Ever in the love of The Lamb of God; blessings from marty
Less well understood is that to become a Shriner — those guys wearing fezes and riding motorcycles in parades, and running pediatric hospitals — a man must first reach the level of a Master Mason in Freemasonry. While not all Masons are Shriners, all Shriners are Masons.
US Freemasonry has been in sharp decline since its peak in the 1920s, for the simple reason that there’s no advantage gained by joining. Look around your town and note the old lodge buildings turned to other uses. Even here in Indianapolis, where Masons ran the state–google D. C. Stevenson–the huge Scottish Rite cathedral downtown only stays open by renting itself out as an event center and catering kitchen.
I dealt with these issues here a few years ago in one of the most controversial articles CWR ever published: https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2017/02/07/freemasons-and-their-craft-what-catholics-should-know/
Two good, sensible books on this subject are: CHRISTIANITY AND AMERICAN FREEMASONRY by William Whalen and INSIDE THE BROTHERHOOD by Martin Short. The latter covers the sharply waning influence of Masonry in the UK, where the Craft originated ca. 1600.
The Masonic Lodge of Freemasonry I see every weekday morning on my way to work is in impressive repair, with nothing worn by the passage of time, and not a blade of grass out of place on its grounds. On the other hand, I have not once since 2005 when this route became by commute seen anyone enter or leave this brick building.
I’d like to share a summary of a recent intriguing online article by Father Paolo Siano, an expert on Freemasonry, who challenges the views of a rising star in Italian philosophy. This philosopher suggests that Freemasonry has been in decline and completed its mission after 1945 (see: [FidesCatholica](https://www.fidescatholica.com/1828-2/) for excerpts).
“The average reader often takes things at face value, accepting them as true and certain. However, a true scholar seeks to trace sources and verify each citation. Unfortunately, this isn’t always possible. Personally, I cannot base my research on anti-Masonic or anti-globalist studies. When writing on these topics, I strive to use direct sources—those coming from Masonic circles.
Freemasonry, from the first three degrees to the higher degrees, clearly aims, as outlined in its statutes or constitutions, to achieve Universal Brotherhood, first among the initiated and then among all people. This involves both initiatory and universal perfection.
Freemasonry and modernism coexist and are allied.
It is not true that the lodges are no longer flourishing, nor is it true that Freemasonry is in decline. In fact, the spread of Masonic thought beyond the confines of Freemasonry itself doesn’t necessarily indicate its decline or that it has fulfilled its purpose. On the contrary!
From the latter half of the 19th century, and especially from the early 20th century to the present, various mixed Grand Lodges (both male and female) and even exclusively female Grand Lodges have emerged, and these are fully recognized as Freemasonry. Many, if not all, of these mixed and exclusively female Grand Lodges are connected to the influential Masonic network associated in some way with the Grand Orient of France.
Magic and Lucifer are also of interest to regular Freemasons and Masonic institutions! Of course, we can’t expect them to openly admit this in official statements. Freemasonry is an initiatic, esoteric, and Gnostic sect that conceals many things from us ‘profane’ individuals.
If one accepts the theory that a Luciferian cult exists among high-ranking Freemasons—who are by no means ‘marginal’—it logically follows that one cannot fully embrace the denialist or minimalist theory of the so-called ‘fringe Freemasonry,’ a theory ‘invented’ by the English Mason Ellic Howe in the mid-1970s. I would caution traditionalists to be very careful not to lump everything together indiscriminately. Freemasonry knows how to play both the left and the right (see Sandra Miesel’s link: ‘Italians and Radical Traditionalists’).
The problem with traditionalist anti-Masonry is that it tends to rely too heavily on indirect sources, i.e., citations from anti-Masonic sources.
In 2022, a self-proclaimed converted Mason (whose identity I cannot reveal) told me that Freemasonry has nothing to do with magic and Luciferianism. He also reiterated the theory of ‘fringe Freemasonry’ and claimed that today Freemasonry is no longer significant, not as important as in the past. But I remain unconvinced.”
Dear Sandra Miesel, your data would convince that formal FM is on the decline. However, less formal FM initiation is thriving like never before and flourishing in our Catholic Church & in many US protestant churches such as that of Benny Hinn, that of Bill & Bennie Johnson, & so many others.
Incidentally: “the craft originated circa 1600” needs correction. James Anderson & John T. Desaguiliers instituted the 4 founder London lodges in 1771.
Ever in the grace & mercy of King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
The actual roots of Freemasonry date to 1590-1600 in Scotland. See THE ORIGINS OF FREEMASONRY: Scotland’s CENTURY 1590-1710 by David Stevenson (Cambridge UP, 1988) The British Constitutions regularized a movement that had long existed.
The texts of Masonic rituals have long been known–and examined by Christian critics. Note that Freemasonry encompasses only the Three Blue Lodge degrees. The Scottish and York Rites, etc. are “para-Masonic” and do not answer to the Mother Lodge in London.
Dear Sandra Miesel, your basic message of: “Nothing to see here!” is contr-factual to my own experiences.
The idea that freemasonry is: “sharply waning in influence in the UK” is ludicrous. In both universities and churches it’s flourishing.
Rather than ‘the spent force’ you depict, freemasonry is evolving as a vigorous contemporary competitor for ensnaring souls from both outside and inside our Church. A fact that has provoked Philippines bishops and, as this article makes plain, Mexican clergy to preach corrective Gospel truth.
Freemason universalist, syncretistic unitarianism is the opposite of Gospel truth.
Always seeking to hear & lovingly follow King Jesus Christ; blessings from marty
There are approximately 1,000,000 (one million) Freemasons in the United States today according to recent estimates.
In 1925, there were 4 million Masons out of a population of 115 million (3.8 %). One million today among 330+ Americans is a drastic fall-off in numbers (.3 %), more than ten-fold in a century. Moreover, the Craft has much less prestige and has many fewer influential men on its rolls. Gerald Ford was the last President who was a Mason and Truman (Grand Master of Missouri) was the last elected President who was a Mason.
The grandiose Masonic headquarters in Washington are still perfectly maintained because they’re supported by huge endowments. Their website gives a virtual tour of the facilities.
Tom Holland has at least one podcast about freemasonry on The Rest is History. I really enjoyed listening to it.
There’s a huge data-base about the very Non-Christian rituals of freemasons.
Comments that downplayed FM’s shocking divergences from Catholic spirituality are readily corrected with a few insights on actual FM initiation procedures.
Some extracts from an interview with Tanya (not her real name) by Dr Ana Mendez-Ferrell might be salutary [and, yes, my dears, many women have been initiated into FM, up to the 3rd, Master Mason Degree].
When Tanya’s brother – a senior FM – died suddenly, she inherited all the original manuals of the order. She sought to become a FM, hoping for resolution of her inner strife. Yet, after being initiated, Tanya felt deeply revolted by the lodge’s twisting of Bible teachings.
This was her severe discernment: “Anyone who is in search is an easy prey. FM appears noble & of goodness but it is Satan’s greatest ruse to overwhelm the ego with dainties, entangle the human soul, & drag it to his eternal abyss.”
On the evening of Tanya’s initiation, a hooded man greeted her at the door of the lodge. She was blindfolded and led through the lodge to a ‘reflection’ room.
Blindfold removed she was shocked to see a table with a human skull, and an open coffin nearby. The walls were decorated with symbols of death. She was instructed to fill in an application on a triangular sheet of paper.
For the following two hours, Tanya was led, blindfolded, through a sequence of rooms where she was exposed to a gamut of intimidating & bloodcurdling sounds & bodily impacts. Each was explained as supposedly necessary to build good character!
At the end she was bled & had to use her own blood to sign a document unread. It turned out to be a false confession of the most horrendous crimes & offenses.
‘Magnanimously’ her FM initiators pierced her ‘confession’ with a sword, lifted it up, & set it on fire. Tanya was told this symbolized her new status as a lodge member, with every freemason, from then on, always forgiving & concealing all future offenses & crimes that she might commit.
Tanya’s ‘initiation by ordeal’ experienced is typical of all FM ‘degrees’. Higher degrees place demands on men that can even include gross immoralities. Strict hierarchical dominance enforces secrecy; punishments can be severe.
To this outsider: FM secrecy regarding hand-grips & passwords seems secondary to the secrecy required over initiation acts & covered crimes that breach the criminal code.
This is the main motivation of what FMs call ‘brotherly love’. Fear is the predominant spirit that knits them together. Unearned preferments are a reward. This ‘stick & carrot’ control operates, largely unseen, beneath the fabric of society.
That is, of course, categorically different to what genuinely Catholic Christians mean by loving & serving each other as part of The Body of Christ.
There is so much more that could be described but this short account is hopefully enough to overcome any misconception that FM is an innocent boy’s club.
Always seeking to hear & lovingly follow King Jesus Christ; love & blessings from marty
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