// I think the members I know are at a low level in the organization, and I wonder how comprehensive their understanding of the organization is. //
How can there be such thing as a comprehensive understanding of Freemasonry, or, for that matter, of Catholicism, or of goodness and evil? Understanding is always foggy and incomplete. Through a glass darkly. That's the nature of the human mind.
The Church risks overreaching when it attempts to make the mystery of reality black and white. Principles are essential as guideposts, but to turn them into laws is to suck the life out of them, to turn them into empty shells. Laws are barriers, not teachers.
Most people who join organizations/clubs (heck, even churches) don't really "believe" in half the stuff they say they do, and know only half what that group teaches anyway. I mean, secret club, secret handshake, rituals in darkness sounds like something a lot of people would find cool. Maybe the Catholic Church needs to come up with a handshake or gesture you could give in public saying "hey, I'm Catholic, but don't want to just bring it up as it might be a weird time to say it." sort of like wearing a scapular or a rosary ring would be
What of college fraternities? Are they billed as Masonic organizations by the church? They are an explicitly North American phenomenon and have their roots in Masonry and Masonic initiation rituals.
I joined one in my college years when I wasn’t really a practicing Catholic. This article got me thinking about whether I should formally renounce membership.
What I find most endearing, yet also demonic about Masons is that the craft corrupts the language of the Church, along with the Catholic sense of humor, which is key, in my opinion. Granted, this is already done enough by pederast priests and adulterous spouses, but with masonry this appropriation of Catholic tradition and theology is far more structured and codified...which is partially why I think it blends so well with many forms of Protestantism. I don't think I can adequately articulate all the reasons why, but in American culture "bread" is a slang term for money. That alone should provide enough of a starting point to deduce attacks on God in the Host and Our Lady.
And yes, Masonry is often viewed as the Fraternity of fraternities. For men that like that sort of life, it makes sense to progress to an adult fraternity once they leave college. However, the Greek system is set up to form life-long friendships and help members of those brotherhoods progress in life according to their own values. Hence, you'll often hear men say something like "It was good for me," when referring to their college fraternities.
Growing up a college brat, I learned a decided dislike of fraternities from my father (one I have mostly never seen a need to modify in my own academic career), but a connection to Masonry I'd never heard.
Well to be fair, I heard about the connection from a freemason. Im suffering for lack of vocabulary here, but I think the craft is just like any pedagogical method in that once it’s learned and used, it’s application can be seen everywhere. Just like any other type education or formation.
Yes, like the Masons, college fraternities typically have passwords, secret handshakes, secret rooms and an initiation “ritual”. When Greek life was becoming a “thing” in the mid 1800s in North America they adopted all of this from the masons.
Just don’t cheat on your wife or do any homo shit, please. Somehow it seems I’ve become an honorary member of the Insane Clown Posse. DR Bible, Rosary, Little Office of the BVM ftw. And pray for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The college fraternity I joined is not Masonic, and does not use anything like Masonic symbols in its ritualism, I can't discuss in detail (and I won't name it here), but nothing I saw was opposed to Christianity.
There is a college offshoot of Freemasonry, called Acacia. Other than that, I don't think there is a strong attachment between college fraternities to Masonic organizations (although some of them might have rituals based on other fraternal societs like the Elks or Knights of Pythias). But there are things like oaths and secret handshakes which might lend a superficial similarity.
When I fled the Chicago House of Discernment, aka Casa Jesus, and now known as the Bishop Quarter House; it was an old friend from highschool, a full-blown Shriner, that helped me find a place to stay. He's one of my best friends, but as I said in another comment; the craft seems to mess up the language of the Church, and even worse, that Divine sense of humor that can only be obtained from the Treasury of Merit. Masons helped me out a great deal personally, but it's clear the FORMATION they receive makes a mockery of the Dogma of the Church.
It is possible to conceive that a Catholic may become a Freemason without full knowledge (for example, sometimes the rituals are somewhat summarized by those leading an initiate, such as, "Do you accept all the promises and oaths and all the other things involved in this Degree?"). However, apart from any possible culpability, the real problem is that making an oath is an act of the will, a legal act, which grants permissions to demons (e.g., in the 33rd Degree of Freemasonry, "The Great Architect of the Universe" is revealed as Lucifer). As the supreme law of the Church is the salus animarum, the prohibition against participation in Freemasonry is an act of real charity on the part of the Church. Almost any priest exorcist can attest to the great suffering endured as a result of Freemasonic curses. Stay away. And if one has been involved, ask an exorcist to help you renounce the ties.
Sexual abuse is a sin and a crime. Demons do not have direct access to our intellect or will; they can only tempt us, inviting us to join in their rebellion and rejection of God. Therefore, the claim that "the devil made me do it" is false. So, the answer to your question is: No, sexual abuse is not an effect of the Freemasonic Curse. Neither is the lack of repentance. And neither is trolling :).
Nor is trolling a sin or a crime, it’s just annoying. My temptation is to fold back into to AA. However, everyone knows there’s 13 steps in an American pyramid, I’m just trying to fill the gap via my genuine questions. A solid priest suggested I fast from the internet for Lent, but as everyone can now see, it’s essential to my work.
My great grandpa on my mothers side was a Scottsman, a Methodist, and a Free Mason, btw. I’m just trying to figure out what I’m dealing with. If someone tells the wrong doctor “I think I’m experiencing the negative effects of a Freemasonic curse.” They likely won’t get you a Priest, they just sedate you and put you under observation. If you’re already deep in the Catholic formation system, my guess is you’ll get a free stay at the Saint Luke Institute, depending on who your superior is. By the Grace of God, I was already out and wound up at Madden Mental Health. Funny thing about those places, if you listen closely, you learn more from the patients than you do the doctors. I certainly did.
Oh and for what it’s worth, I was 5+ years sober including psych meds before I applied to seminary. I did certain things because I thought I had to, like see the Archdiocesan psych and start up on ADHD drugs, EMDR therapy, other shit. Sure, I got high again for a bit afterwards. That’s better than suicide and homicide tho, right? No drugs except nicotine and caffeine now and I’m more fired up for the Faith than I’ve ever been in my life!!!
Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Edwin, Ora Pro Nobis!!!
Fair enough. I didn't intend to be provocative; there's too much of that already around. I would be happy to take the conversation off-line if it would help you; perhaps one of the moderators can make that happen if you'd like (I don't know how).
For the record, however, the basic principle underlying what I wrote is that there is a difference between culpability for sin (which requires knowledge and consent, and which is absolved in the Sacrament of Confession) and afflictions which come about as the effects of sin (my own or another's). Demons do not have the power to make us do anything. But they can harass us, especially if we give them permission by dabbling in the occult, or joining the Masons. The trouble is, the Masonic promises include permissions for a Mason's descendants, too. It is not unlike a person joining the Mafia; once in, it is very difficult to leave.
There is more that can be said, but I think I'll end it there. If you need help, I will try to be of service.
Everyone is formed by their experiences, and the Grace of Forgetfulness is one I hope is mainly bestowed on Priests who diligently reside in the confessional. You don’t have to be provocative (I’ve been shy my whole life, I’M in my provocative stage now:), just do what you can to encourage devotion to Our Lady and Eucharistic Adoration. So, so many Catholics hit that point where they think “wait, this is all just another hustle” and quit the practice of the Faith. By the Grace of God, I was carried through that particularly horrifying temptation.
Whoever you are, you’re in my prayers for Mass this Sunday.
I could write for days, but I'll settle for saying that while I think this article is good, I think that some of the "outlandish conspiracy theories" are not as outlandish as all that.
All this modern history (roughly post-1492, though effectively earlier) isn't exactly my strength, but my understanding has been that Masons were also active in the "anti-Catholic" side of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and of the Cristero War (1926-1929) in Mexico, as well as in the reluctance of the US government to promote a peaceful settlement (and perhaps even to some extent support the Mason-affiliated Mexican government) in the latter.
I’ve seen it in my research on the Cristero rebellion. Free masonry in Mexico was basically required by the anticlerical government to advance in politics, military and civil services. The PRI ruling party were a kind of autocratic liberal with a dash of classical jacobinism that seems a unique mix for central and South America.
So yes free masons were involved in the cristero rebellion but in some ways it was an ideological litmus test for state officials and public servants. It’s a bit hard to tell what came first, masonry and it’s anticlerical ideas or rebellious elites looking for anything to stick it to the Church.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Knights of Columbus being formed effectively as the Catholic antidote to Freemasonry, not even as a passing reference of note. It would be an important note for your readership to know: if you want to join something without risk to your faith, join the Knights.
Then and now. Why not the Communist Party or the forty-two thousand other organizations in whose membership much the same sorts of things exist?
One flaw of law is that it's black and white. The human mind is all colors. Another is that power is likely to do what it pleases, reinterpreting or abolishing or simply ignoring law.
Outlawing something labeled Freemasonry is like outlawing reading Plato.
Universal education has created a hopeless mess. Lawyers and courts pretend hypocritically to make it all black and white, and nations pretend to believe that they can.
// I think the members I know are at a low level in the organization, and I wonder how comprehensive their understanding of the organization is. //
How can there be such thing as a comprehensive understanding of Freemasonry, or, for that matter, of Catholicism, or of goodness and evil? Understanding is always foggy and incomplete. Through a glass darkly. That's the nature of the human mind.
The Church risks overreaching when it attempts to make the mystery of reality black and white. Principles are essential as guideposts, but to turn them into laws is to suck the life out of them, to turn them into empty shells. Laws are barriers, not teachers.
The Lawman for the Lord delivers once again!
Great article. Masonry likes to extoll it's goodly neighbour and charitable works angle. It's all a smoke screen.
This is the stuff, Ed.
Most people who join organizations/clubs (heck, even churches) don't really "believe" in half the stuff they say they do, and know only half what that group teaches anyway. I mean, secret club, secret handshake, rituals in darkness sounds like something a lot of people would find cool. Maybe the Catholic Church needs to come up with a handshake or gesture you could give in public saying "hey, I'm Catholic, but don't want to just bring it up as it might be a weird time to say it." sort of like wearing a scapular or a rosary ring would be
That's how the fish sign as well as the sign of the cross (on the forehead) functioned in the early church.
The sign of the cross
What of college fraternities? Are they billed as Masonic organizations by the church? They are an explicitly North American phenomenon and have their roots in Masonry and Masonic initiation rituals.
I joined one in my college years when I wasn’t really a practicing Catholic. This article got me thinking about whether I should formally renounce membership.
What I find most endearing, yet also demonic about Masons is that the craft corrupts the language of the Church, along with the Catholic sense of humor, which is key, in my opinion. Granted, this is already done enough by pederast priests and adulterous spouses, but with masonry this appropriation of Catholic tradition and theology is far more structured and codified...which is partially why I think it blends so well with many forms of Protestantism. I don't think I can adequately articulate all the reasons why, but in American culture "bread" is a slang term for money. That alone should provide enough of a starting point to deduce attacks on God in the Host and Our Lady.
And yes, Masonry is often viewed as the Fraternity of fraternities. For men that like that sort of life, it makes sense to progress to an adult fraternity once they leave college. However, the Greek system is set up to form life-long friendships and help members of those brotherhoods progress in life according to their own values. Hence, you'll often hear men say something like "It was good for me," when referring to their college fraternities.
Growing up a college brat, I learned a decided dislike of fraternities from my father (one I have mostly never seen a need to modify in my own academic career), but a connection to Masonry I'd never heard.
Well to be fair, I heard about the connection from a freemason. Im suffering for lack of vocabulary here, but I think the craft is just like any pedagogical method in that once it’s learned and used, it’s application can be seen everywhere. Just like any other type education or formation.
Yes, like the Masons, college fraternities typically have passwords, secret handshakes, secret rooms and an initiation “ritual”. When Greek life was becoming a “thing” in the mid 1800s in North America they adopted all of this from the masons.
Just don’t cheat on your wife or do any homo shit, please. Somehow it seems I’ve become an honorary member of the Insane Clown Posse. DR Bible, Rosary, Little Office of the BVM ftw. And pray for the Archdiocese of Chicago.
The college fraternity I joined is not Masonic, and does not use anything like Masonic symbols in its ritualism, I can't discuss in detail (and I won't name it here), but nothing I saw was opposed to Christianity.
There is a college offshoot of Freemasonry, called Acacia. Other than that, I don't think there is a strong attachment between college fraternities to Masonic organizations (although some of them might have rituals based on other fraternal societs like the Elks or Knights of Pythias). But there are things like oaths and secret handshakes which might lend a superficial similarity.
When I fled the Chicago House of Discernment, aka Casa Jesus, and now known as the Bishop Quarter House; it was an old friend from highschool, a full-blown Shriner, that helped me find a place to stay. He's one of my best friends, but as I said in another comment; the craft seems to mess up the language of the Church, and even worse, that Divine sense of humor that can only be obtained from the Treasury of Merit. Masons helped me out a great deal personally, but it's clear the FORMATION they receive makes a mockery of the Dogma of the Church.
It is possible to conceive that a Catholic may become a Freemason without full knowledge (for example, sometimes the rituals are somewhat summarized by those leading an initiate, such as, "Do you accept all the promises and oaths and all the other things involved in this Degree?"). However, apart from any possible culpability, the real problem is that making an oath is an act of the will, a legal act, which grants permissions to demons (e.g., in the 33rd Degree of Freemasonry, "The Great Architect of the Universe" is revealed as Lucifer). As the supreme law of the Church is the salus animarum, the prohibition against participation in Freemasonry is an act of real charity on the part of the Church. Almost any priest exorcist can attest to the great suffering endured as a result of Freemasonic curses. Stay away. And if one has been involved, ask an exorcist to help you renounce the ties.
Do the effects generally involve addiction and unrepentant sexual abuse?
Sexual abuse is a sin and a crime. Demons do not have direct access to our intellect or will; they can only tempt us, inviting us to join in their rebellion and rejection of God. Therefore, the claim that "the devil made me do it" is false. So, the answer to your question is: No, sexual abuse is not an effect of the Freemasonic Curse. Neither is the lack of repentance. And neither is trolling :).
Nor is trolling a sin or a crime, it’s just annoying. My temptation is to fold back into to AA. However, everyone knows there’s 13 steps in an American pyramid, I’m just trying to fill the gap via my genuine questions. A solid priest suggested I fast from the internet for Lent, but as everyone can now see, it’s essential to my work.
My great grandpa on my mothers side was a Scottsman, a Methodist, and a Free Mason, btw. I’m just trying to figure out what I’m dealing with. If someone tells the wrong doctor “I think I’m experiencing the negative effects of a Freemasonic curse.” They likely won’t get you a Priest, they just sedate you and put you under observation. If you’re already deep in the Catholic formation system, my guess is you’ll get a free stay at the Saint Luke Institute, depending on who your superior is. By the Grace of God, I was already out and wound up at Madden Mental Health. Funny thing about those places, if you listen closely, you learn more from the patients than you do the doctors. I certainly did.
Saint Peter Damian, Ora Pro Nobis!!!
Oh and for what it’s worth, I was 5+ years sober including psych meds before I applied to seminary. I did certain things because I thought I had to, like see the Archdiocesan psych and start up on ADHD drugs, EMDR therapy, other shit. Sure, I got high again for a bit afterwards. That’s better than suicide and homicide tho, right? No drugs except nicotine and caffeine now and I’m more fired up for the Faith than I’ve ever been in my life!!!
Saint Francis de Sales and Saint Edwin, Ora Pro Nobis!!!
Fair enough. I didn't intend to be provocative; there's too much of that already around. I would be happy to take the conversation off-line if it would help you; perhaps one of the moderators can make that happen if you'd like (I don't know how).
For the record, however, the basic principle underlying what I wrote is that there is a difference between culpability for sin (which requires knowledge and consent, and which is absolved in the Sacrament of Confession) and afflictions which come about as the effects of sin (my own or another's). Demons do not have the power to make us do anything. But they can harass us, especially if we give them permission by dabbling in the occult, or joining the Masons. The trouble is, the Masonic promises include permissions for a Mason's descendants, too. It is not unlike a person joining the Mafia; once in, it is very difficult to leave.
There is more that can be said, but I think I'll end it there. If you need help, I will try to be of service.
Everyone is formed by their experiences, and the Grace of Forgetfulness is one I hope is mainly bestowed on Priests who diligently reside in the confessional. You don’t have to be provocative (I’ve been shy my whole life, I’M in my provocative stage now:), just do what you can to encourage devotion to Our Lady and Eucharistic Adoration. So, so many Catholics hit that point where they think “wait, this is all just another hustle” and quit the practice of the Faith. By the Grace of God, I was carried through that particularly horrifying temptation.
Whoever you are, you’re in my prayers for Mass this Sunday.
I could write for days, but I'll settle for saying that while I think this article is good, I think that some of the "outlandish conspiracy theories" are not as outlandish as all that.
Only The Pillar would review meeting minutes for a story. Bravo.
All this modern history (roughly post-1492, though effectively earlier) isn't exactly my strength, but my understanding has been that Masons were also active in the "anti-Catholic" side of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and of the Cristero War (1926-1929) in Mexico, as well as in the reluctance of the US government to promote a peaceful settlement (and perhaps even to some extent support the Mason-affiliated Mexican government) in the latter.
Does your research cover these cases?
I have heard Patrick Madrid speak on Masonic involvement in the Cristeros War.
I’ve seen it in my research on the Cristero rebellion. Free masonry in Mexico was basically required by the anticlerical government to advance in politics, military and civil services. The PRI ruling party were a kind of autocratic liberal with a dash of classical jacobinism that seems a unique mix for central and South America.
So yes free masons were involved in the cristero rebellion but in some ways it was an ideological litmus test for state officials and public servants. It’s a bit hard to tell what came first, masonry and it’s anticlerical ideas or rebellious elites looking for anything to stick it to the Church.
I'm surprised you didn't mention the Knights of Columbus being formed effectively as the Catholic antidote to Freemasonry, not even as a passing reference of note. It would be an important note for your readership to know: if you want to join something without risk to your faith, join the Knights.
Any truth the Masons were behind the Mexican persecution?
This explainer is amazing 👏👏👏
Terrific summary. Thank you.
Then and now. Why not the Communist Party or the forty-two thousand other organizations in whose membership much the same sorts of things exist?
One flaw of law is that it's black and white. The human mind is all colors. Another is that power is likely to do what it pleases, reinterpreting or abolishing or simply ignoring law.
Outlawing something labeled Freemasonry is like outlawing reading Plato.
Universal education has created a hopeless mess. Lawyers and courts pretend hypocritically to make it all black and white, and nations pretend to believe that they can.