Free Republic

A few years ago I was told that at the ceremony of induction of the vicar of one of the local Anglican churches, the Bible which was handed to him had embossed on its front cover the emblem of the Freemasons, the square and compasses. It subsequently came to light that nearly all the male members of his Parochial Church Council were "on the square", and his predecessor as vicar had been a Mason as well. This is not a "low", or Evangelical, church, but very firmly in the Anglo Catholic tradition, where a number of clergy and lay people...

Is There No Help For The Widow's Son? By Dr. Reed C. Durham, Jr.There are two concepts I need at this point to reiterate. Firstly, I said that Joseph Smith had no qualms about using Masonry. This letter, I think, is evidence of that. One historian has described this use of Masonry as the "grabbing on" principle employed by Joseph Smith. This was explained to me that whatever was in his surroundings, being preached, professed, or practiced, he sometimes borrowed it and incorporated it into his ideological theology and system.The second concept I wish to reiterate is that the...

Is There No Help For The Widow's Son? By Dr. Reed C. Durham, Jr.Someone has said that a historical convention like this - all of these papers that we have heard - are like a pair of steer horns, with a point here and a point there and a lot of bull in between; and in my case, a lot of "Bull Durham."One thing we won't have to put up with though is the wind blowing - just hot air. And I know the disadvantage that we are placed in, with the dimness of the room, the delightful meal...

I have become very curious about the Freemasons and freemasonry in general. How does it "fit in" with the group of Christian religions...how about islam? What are the views and opinions of those at this site?

January 21, 2009 I am sure you have heard rumors about Galveston, here are the facts. Please read this carefully, each of us must be concerned about our Endowment Fund and our ability to serve Children for many years to come. Therefore, the Joint Boards found it necessary to do the following. Ralph W. Semb, President and Chief Executive Officer, Shriners Hospitals for Children SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN GALVESTON HOSPITAL UPDATE Shriners Hospitals for Children (SHC) is facing the most tumultuous and trying economic environment in the history of the organization. Leadership is focused on what is best for the...

The Great Orient of France and Zapatero by Cesar Vidal. November 19th, 2008 Last Friday, I read an editorial in La Linterna [the Lantern] that brought about an extraordinary commotion up to the point of which it has been a true multitude the one that has requested this text. I reproduce it next. It was the year 1801, when in the French port of Brest the first Masonic lodge participated by Spaniards was constituted. Its name was La Reunión Española, and we know that it had 26 members, among them some priests. The goal of the lodge was obvious. Napoleon...

Shriners Hospitals for Children, an organization where the practice of medicine has long been unfazed by finances, is struggling with a money crunch and may close some of its hospitals. Rising health care costs and an endowment that has lost $2 billion -- a quarter of its value -- in three years may give Shriners no other choice but to shrink the 22-hospital system to save it. At the group's annual meeting on Monday in Minneapolis, 1,400 Shrine representatives are scheduled to vote on closing the hospital there. Officials at the Shriners International headquarters in Tampa said the Minneapolis hospital...

    Send Masonic E-Card ISLAM AND FREEMASONRY by W.Bro. Shaikh Hatim Fidahussein Nakhoda PM Research Lodge St. Michael No. 2933, SingaporeDistrict Grand Lodge of the Eastern Archipelego, UGLE. Presented in The Lodge St. Michael No. 2933 on 29th July, 2006. W. Bro. Shaikh Hatim Nakhoda is a Past Master of Lodge St. Michael No. 2933 and a Past District Senior Grand Warden of the District Grand Lodge of the Eastern Archipelago. He is also a Past Master of Lodge Singapore No 7178. In addition, he holds the rank of Past Asst. Grand Director of Ceremony in the Grand Lodge...

Lesson 34: The First Commandment "Come let us praise the Lord with joy:  let us joyfully sing to God our savior.  Let us come before His presence with thanksgiving; and make a joyful noise to Him with psalms.  For the Lord is a great God, and a great King above all gods.  For in His hand are all the ends of the earth:  and the heights of the mountains are His.  For the sea is His, and He made it:  and His hands formed the dry land.  Come let us adore and fall down:  and weep before the Lord that...

After decades of indirectly criticizing the Catholic Church through friendly media outlets, the powerful Mexican Masonry has now directly gone after Catholic bishops, accusing them of pretending to “control” Mexican politics by demanding the right to education and information. The previous Mexican Constitution, because of Masonic influence, stripped the Church of the right to own schools and communications media. Recently, the Mexican bishops announced they would begin a campaign to regain these rights. The Grand Lodge of the Valley of Mexico, which brings together 12,000 Masons, reacted to the proposal by calling a press conference in which Great Teacher Pedro...

A hot and fetid June night on the small Mediterranean island of Malta, and a Christian sentry patrolling at the foot of a fort on the Grand Harbour had spotted something drifting in the water. The alarm was raised. More of these strange objects drifted into view, and men waded into the shallows to drag them to the shore. What they found horrified even these battle-weary veterans: wooden crosses pushed out by the enemy to float in the harbour, and crucified on each was the headless body of a Christian knight. This was psychological warfare at its most brutal, a...

What's true and what's not about the Masons is the topic of a recent book by an expert in the history of religions. Father Manuel Guerra Gómez, who is an author of 25 books on sects and other topics, recently released "La trama masónica" (The Masonic Plot), published in Spanish by Styria. Father Guerra is a diocesan priest of Burgos, and a retired professor of the Burgos headquarters of the Faculty of Theology of Northern Spain. In this interview with ZENIT he says that "the Masonic method, atheistic in nature, reflects historical relativism and leads to the socio-cultural relativism that...

Says Its Philosophies Are Incompatible With Church ROME, MARCH 2, 2007 (Zenit.org).- The Church has not changed its ruling on Catholic membership in the Masons, said the regent of the Apostolic Penitentiary. Bishop Gianfranco Girotti made this statement Thursday at a conference on the topic of Freemasonry held at the St. Bonaventure Pontifical Theological Faculty. The bishop presided over the congress held in cooperation with the Socio-Religious Research and Information Group of Italy. Officials of Masonic associations and grand masters also took part in the meeting. Bishop Girotti reminded his listeners that the Church has always criticized the concepts and...

We have to issue an occult watch -- perhaps "warning" is more like it -- for a new self-help trend that apparently is sweeping or beginning to sweep segments of America.   The "method" is now on DVD as a movie called The Secret, and has been featured, among other places, on Oprah and Larry King Live.   We are reluctant to readily dismiss innovative spiritual means, and always urge openness in the supernatural realm, which is so often beyond human reckoning.   But in the case of The Secret, a warning is especially needed because its claims and temptations are especially potent:...

Q: A member of the RCIA program was told by another member of the parish that if they were going to become Catholic they needed to terminate their involvement with the Masonic lodge before they could join. Is this still the case in the United States? -- T.N., Howard City, Michigan A: This question is more canonical than liturgical. The Church's position with respect to membership of Masonic lodges, even though canon law no longer explicitly mentions the Masons, has not substantially changed. The new code states in Canon 1374: "A person who joins an association which plots against the...

The era of the free-masons. Between 1937 and 1958, an amazing succession of publicly Masonic Supreme Court justices were appointed to the Supreme Court. Collectively, they radicalized American politics. Since their ascension, it can truly be said that every major socio-political change in America has been brought about by judicial, rather than legislative, means. They utterly dominated the Supreme Court during the Warren, Stone, and Vinson courts (1941-1969.) At times, as many as eight of the nine justice were Masonic. The following is a listing of Masonic US Supreme Court justices appointed in the last 70 years. This is no...

Is the Devil in the Details of D.C. Streets?Laris Karklis -- The Washington Post

COMMENT: New-Church Catholics who have fully embraced the ecumenical, Romasonic Catholic creed will be shocked to learn that the "naturalism" or "universalism" preached by Masonry was condemned for centuries by the real Roman Catholic Church. Since the Grand Lodge started claiming Popes as enrolled members, the condemnations have all but ceased. For Freepers wondering what the big deal is about Fez bedecked men driving in go-carts, you're driving in the wrong direction... ### FORWARD TO THINGS CATHOLICS ARE ASKED ABOUT, by MARTIN J. SCOTT : Outside the Catholic Church there is at present very great interest in things Catholic. Sincere...

The Man Who Stepped Out of LineIn this post-feminist age where men are still learning remedial masculinity, we have a model of manhood lived heroically which we would do well to emulate. In the early twentieth century Poland gave us that manly priest, John Paul II, but also his hero, Maximilian Kolbe, priest, missionary, spiritual father and martyr of brotherly love. St. Maximilian’s feast day is August 14th, the vigil of his beloved Virgin Mary’s Assumption and the day which commemorates the conquest of virile love over the totalitarian creeds of his generation. As men, we could all learn a...

Dan Brown clearly enjoys playing with legends, history, symbols and secrets. And readers' minds. In his best-selling novel, The Da Vinci Code, Brown wove all these - real and imagined - into a breathless mystery about Christianity, Mary Magdalene and the Divine Feminine that has spawned an industry of de-coders eager to separate fact from fiction.     Now that he has turned his attention to the mysteries of Freemasonry, the centuries-old fraternal order, the new book also might deal with Mormonism.    But rather than announce the Da Vinci sequel in a news release, Brown embedded tantalizing clues to its subject...