Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

Skip to comments.

The Church and Freemasonry: the Secret February 16 Meeting in Milan -- by Roberto de Mattei
Rorate Caeli ^ | February 22, 2024 | Roberto de Mattei

Posted on 02/22/2024 7:53:40 AM PST by ebb tide

The Church and Freemasonry: the Secret February 16 Meeting in Milan -- by Roberto de Mattei

On Feb. 16, 2024, representatives of the main Italian Masonic lodges and a number of influential Catholic prelates gathered in Milan for a day of study. The seminar, sponsored at the Ambrosianum Foundation by the Gris (Group for Socio-Religious Research and Information), was attended by the three Grand Masters of Italian Freemasonry: Stefano Bisi for the Grand Orient of Italy (GOI), Luciano Romoli for the Grand Lodge of Italy of the ALAMs (GLDI,  and Fabio Venzi (in connection) for the Grand Regular Lodge of Italy (GLRI). On the Catholic side, Archbishop Mario Delpini of Milan, Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, former president of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts, Franciscan theologian Father Zbigniew Suchecki, and Bishop Antonio Staglianò, president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, participated in the meeting. Archbishop Delpini gave the opening address and Cardinal Coccopalmerio the closing one. The meeting was behind closed doors, but the relevance of the participants leaked its contents, which Riccardo Cascioli first brought to light in The New Daily Compass on Feb. 19.


On Feb. 20, the website of the Grand Orient of Italy in turn carried the full report of Grand Master Bisi, who has led Italy's leading Masonic organization for ten years. "In the course of its more than 300 years of existence, no institution has been opposed, fought, misrepresented, besmirched, and so much feared as Universal Freemasonry," Bisi said, criticizing for this the Catholic Church, "which has seen Freemasonry as a potential competitor in the spiritualization and elevation of Man," but forgetting to say that it was precisely Freemasonry that has opposed, fought, misrepresented, and besmirched the Church over the past three centuries.


"Why is the Masonic lodge beautiful and why don't church authorities like it?" explained Bisi: "Because under the same sky -- which represents Creation -- each man is a brother to the other, the bond of brotherhood is independent of faith. It is only necessary to believe in the Great Architect of the Universe. The starry sky is the same for the Buddhist, for the Catholic, for the Waldensian, for the Islamic, for all those who believe in a supreme being. (...) Absolute truths and walls of the mind do not belong to us and for us they must be torn down."  For Bisi, who had the effrontery to ask the Pope to gather around the monument of the heretic and apostate Giordano Bruno, among the truths that must be torn down is, of course, the Catholic faith, which presents itself as absolute and universal. Bisi's wish that it be "declared that membership in a Masonic lodge is reconcilable with membership in the Catholic faith," is nothing more than a request to the Church to turn its back on its doctrine and join the Masonic, Gnostic and relativist Pantheon. And the fact that the Grand Master recalled the names of Cardinal Ravasi and Cardinal Martini as patrons confirms this impression.


Bisi recalled that Cardinal Martini "was at home" in Masonic circles and praised Cardinal Ravasi's well-known article "Dear Brother Masons" published in Il Sole24Ore on Feb. 14, 2016. Their pioneering work seems to want to be carried on by Cardinal Coccopalmerio who, in the Milan seminar, said, among other things, "Fifty years ago there was less knowledge but things have moved on and I hope that these meetings do not stop here. I wonder if we cannot think of a permanent panel, even at the level of authorities, to discuss things better."


Archbishop Staglianò for his part criticized the Nov. 13, 2023 document of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, signed by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández and approved ex audientia, by Pope Francis, according to which it is forbidden for Catholics to join Masonic lodges, "because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry." This document confirms the Church's centuries-old condemnation, which apparently was only recalled during the seminar by Father Zbigniew Suchecki. But we will have to wait for the publication of all the speeches to be able to make an accurate judgment on the proceedings.


What is certain is that, according to the Grand Lodge of Italy of the ALAM (Ancient Free and Accepted Masons), the meeting "culminated in a unanimous consensus on the advisability of establishing a permanent discussion panel."


It is worth mentioning at this point that relativism constitutes the soul of Freemasonry, although it does not encapsulate its entire essence. Freemasonry, in fact, presumes to be a "universal religion," the repository of a secret of which the Freemason gradually becomes aware through the rites, symbols, and texts he assimilates, but also through the atmosphere he breathes in the lodges in which he is placed.


It should be added that there is no such thing as a "bad," atheistic, and anticlerical Freemasonry, and a "good" "religious" and "spiritualist" Freemasonry, as one often hears people repeat, distinguishing between the Latin (left-wing) and the Anglo-American (right-wing) Freemasonry. In reality, in all lodges, the first degrees are overlaid with Masonic High Degree systems called "Rites," which are characterized by magical and "Kabbalistic" content. Not all affiliates of Freemasonry know its ultimate ends, learned only from the initiated to the highest degrees, who swear, under penalty of death, not to reveal them, but behind the different rites and obediences, there is the same worldview, diametrically opposed to that of the Catholic Church. Jean-Claude Lozac'hmeur's studies on the occult origins of Freemasonry show that it inherits faith and customs from Gnosticism (Fils de la veuve: essai sur le symbolisme maçonnique, Éditions Sainte Jeanne d'Arc, Chiré 1990), and Father Paolo Siano has devoted in-depth studies to Masonic Luciferism, refuting the thesis of those who believe that it is cultivated only by "fringe," i.e., marginal, Freemasonry, but is alien to regular Freemasonry (Studi vari sulla Libera Muratoria, Casa Mariana Editrice, Frigento 2012). 


Father Siano himself, who has devoted many essays to Freemasonry, including recent ones, in "Corrispondenza Romana," in a polite controversy with Gaetano Masciullo, author of La tiara e la loggia. Freemasonry versus the Church (Faith and Culture, Verona 2023), showed that Freemasonry is far from declining, but is still alive and operational (https://www.fidescatholica.com/1828-2/ and https://www.corrispondenzaromana.it/in-merito-alla-mia-recensione-al-libro-la-tiara-e-la-loggiadi-g-masciullo-e-la-replica-dellautore/).


The danger is to divert attention away from Freemasonry in order to pursue forms of neo-complottery, which denounce the action of "plutocratic elites," and "Cabals" of different kinds, forgetting the presence of what Leo XIII, in his encyclical Custodi di quella fede of December 8, 1892, calls "a sect which after nineteen centuries of Christian civilization strives to bring down the Catholic Church." If Freemasonry no longer poses a threat, even meetings like the one in Milan find their own reason to take place.


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Current Events; Theology
KEYWORDS: antoniostagliano; coccopalmerio; fabiovenzi; frankenchurch; freemasonry; freemasons; heretics; lucianoromoli; mariodelpini; newage; satanism; stefanobisi; zbigniewsuchecki
Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 181-195 next last
To: cgbg

I’ve read it. It’s mostly moronic!


101 posted on 02/22/2024 3:01:58 PM PST by Reily (!!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 96 | View Replies]

To: mdmathis6

Here is an interesting article from Tanzania Africa—some tidbits you will not find anywhere else:

https://www.thecitizen.co.tz/tanzania/news/east-africa-news/the-freemasons-an-insider-account-of-feared-secret-society-3971650

While the article seems designed to debunk “conspiracy theories” it gives some I have not heard before.


102 posted on 02/22/2024 3:07:00 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]

To: Reily

I have heard Manley Hall called a lot of names but nobody thinks he is stupid.

His research is meticulous.


103 posted on 02/22/2024 3:08:08 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 101 | View Replies]

To: Reily
But you go ahead and continue to be a low life ignoramus.

Only the ignorant are Freemasons, if they truly profess belief in Jesus Christ and the Holy Trinity yet reject Him within their lodges in favor of some "Grand Architect" acceptable to all men, whether they be christians, muslims, hindus, etc.

104 posted on 02/22/2024 3:08:15 PM PST by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: mdmathis6

And now Hamas has renewed the evil of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ to use against Israel.

Looks like the Freemasonry haters keep pretty stinking company.


105 posted on 02/22/2024 3:08:34 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 99 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide
Albert Pike

Albert Pike (December 29, 1809 – April 2, 1891) was an American author, poet, orator, editor, lawyer, jurist and Confederate States Army general who served as an associate justice of the Arkansas Supreme Court in exile from 1864 to 1865. He had previously served as a senior officer of the Confederate States Army, commanding the District of Indian Territory in the Trans-Mississippi Theater. A prominent member of the Freemasons, Pike served as the Sovereign Grand Commander of the Supreme Council, Scottish Rite (Southern Jurisdiction, USA) from 1859 to 1891.

Morals and Dogma of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, or simply Morals and Dogma, is a book of esoteric philosophy published by the Supreme Council, Thirty Third Degree, of the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction of the United States. It was compiled by Albert Pike, was first published in 1871 and was regularly reprinted thereafter until 1969. An upgraded official reprint was released in 2011, with annotations by Arturo de Hoyos, the Scottish Rite, Southern Jurisdiction's Grand Archivist and Grand Historian.

One of Pike's influences was the French author Éliphas Lévi, the pen name of Alphonse Louis Constant. Lévi was a prolific writer on occult topics who, in Pike's day, was considered an expert on pagan mysteries and Gnosticism.

Éliphas Lévi Zahed, born Alphonse Louis Constant (8 February 1810 – 31 May 1875), was a French esotericist, poet, and writer. Initially pursuing an ecclesiastical career in the Catholic Church, he abandoned the priesthood in his mid-twenties and became a ceremonial magician. At the age of 40, he began professing knowledge of the occult. He wrote over 20 books on magic, Kabbalah, alchemical studies, and occultism.

He (Lévi)had a deep impact on the magic of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn and later on ex–Golden Dawn member Aleister Crowley... Lévi's ideas also influenced Helena Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society.

In his book Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie (1855), Lévi claimed that Freemasonry had its roots in ancient pagan rituals, and Pike accepted many of these claims. According to Chris Hodapp, "whole passages of Levi's book [were] made into Pike's".

French philosopher René Guénon noticed that "a considerable part of ... Morals and Dogma of Freemasonry is clearly plagiarized from Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie by the French occultist Éliphas Lévi". Craig Heimbichner and Adam Parfrey write that Pike "seemed untroubled by the need to properly attribute text that he borrowed or lifted" and that in Morals and Dogma "Pike plagiarized from the French occultist Eliphas Lévi."

Pike was heavily influenced by the occultist Lévi. Lévi also influenced Aleister Crowley - an admitted occultist, as well as Blavatsky and the Theosophical Society.

The Theosophical Society is the organizational body of Theosophy, an esoteric new religious movement. It was founded in New York City, U.S. in 1875. Among its founders were Helena Blavatsky, a Russian mystic and the principal thinker of the Theosophy movement, and Henry Steel Olcott, its first president. It draws upon a wide array of influences among them older European philosophies and movements such as Neoplatonism and occultism, as well as parts of Asian religious traditions such as Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam.

As recently as 2011 a new edition of Morals and Dogma was published.

Eventually Morals and Dogma entered the public domain and like many public domain works, it was reprinted many times by various publishers. In August 2011, the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., announced that they had published a new annotated edition. Titled Albert Pike’s Morals and Dogma: Annotated Edition, the work was prepared by Arturo de Hoyos, 33° the Scottish Rite's Grand Archivist and Grand Historian. The text is reprinted in full, with about 4000 scholarly notes on difficult passages, touching on historical, religious, and philosophical issues. The new edition is augmented by subject headings, and illustrations from the original books Pike used, new paragraph numbers, and corrections based upon original texts.


Freemasonry continues to embrace the whole of Pike's work in Morals and Dogma. To not recognize Freemasonry's connection to occultism is to be willfully blind.

106 posted on 02/22/2024 3:11:22 PM PST by yelostar (Spook codes 33 and 13. See them often in headlines and news stories. )
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 2 | View Replies]

To: Jamestown1630

It looks like we have some “guilt by association” going on here.

That is a five yard penalty.

There are a lot of very good and very bad people who have been Masons.

It would be unfair to judge the organization based on just a few of them.

The problem with this topic is that neither its defenders nor its attackers seem to have much of a handle of what it is and how it really works.

My conclusion—which I know you disagree with—is that in the current modern era it is a force for evil—regardless of the past history which we could debate endlessly.


107 posted on 02/22/2024 3:13:45 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: Jamestown1630
And now Hamas has renewed the evil of ‘The Protocols of the Elders of Zion’ to use against Israel.

So you just pulled that out of thin air to defend your defense of freemasonry?

That's not only weak, but pathetic.

108 posted on 02/22/2024 3:17:47 PM PST by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: Jamestown1630

Oh we sure do have Freemasons here and I’ll say to you what I said to them. They may have some bad actors but for the most part for their supposed networking and connectedness at best does nothing for troubled America and does nothing to stem the attacks against a stabilizing morality that keeps evil in check. At best they have proved themselves impotent to effect change in in our trouble land. At worst many of the more renegade lodges may be instrumental in accelerating our national demise!


109 posted on 02/22/2024 3:19:47 PM PST by mdmathis6 (A horrible historic indictment: Biden Democrats plunging the world into war to hide their crimes!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 45 | View Replies]

To: yelostar; Jamestown1630; Jumper; caver

Thank-you for that post.


110 posted on 02/22/2024 3:21:13 PM PST by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 106 | View Replies]

To: Jamestown1630

It is more profound...

Let me ask:

Which is the first/chief importance of the gospel in accordance with the scriptures?

The Vatican’s
Friday,Saturday,Sun day?
Or
The Father’s
Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits?

Both are the 6th day, 7th Day, 1st day,on their respective calendars..

That’d be news for lunar only followers in Islam and solar followers in Judeo Christianity..


111 posted on 02/22/2024 3:24:41 PM PST by delchiante
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 95 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Go proofread your own post 73.

It’s really small and a cheap diversion to call someone on a misspelling, when it happens to everyone here at one time or another.


112 posted on 02/22/2024 3:24:55 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 97 | View Replies]

To: Reily
My father was a Mason and a better Christian man then you will ever be!

And just how do you know that?

113 posted on 02/22/2024 3:24:59 PM PST by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 93 | View Replies]

To: Jamestown1630

Strike that reverse that...Masons at the highest levels Hate Israel. The use of many Muslim symbols and images Masons use tells me all about the company Masons keep.As for those “Protocols”...The Muzzies have never stopped using them against Israel.

I have nothing but blessings for Israel and for the Hebrews where-ever they are in the world. Christ will bring Israel back into his fold as Paul said!

It’s rather instructive that you would raise such an accusation. Are you saying that Masonry can be compared to the Jewish experience?


114 posted on 02/22/2024 3:31:03 PM PST by mdmathis6 (A horrible historic indictment: Biden Democrats plunging the world into war to hide their crimes!)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 105 | View Replies]

To: Jamestown1630; Jumper
Do you believe in multiple gods as Jumper does?

Each religion has a God.

115 posted on 02/22/2024 3:33:06 PM PST by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: Jamestown1630

“Efile”, really?

And he called me the idiot?


116 posted on 02/22/2024 3:38:37 PM PST by ebb tide
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 112 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Here is a Wikipedia article on Hindu deities—quite a list—good luck pronouncing many of them—lol:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hindu_deities

Here is an article on India’s Freemasons:

https://vaseemkhan.com/2021/03/14/inside-india-16-indias-freemasons-ritual-mystery-and-imperial-legacy/

The first lodge in India dates back to 1729.


117 posted on 02/22/2024 3:38:38 PM PST by cgbg ("Our democracy" = Their Kleptocracy)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Go read The Covenant of the Islamic Resistance Movement – Hamas. They equate Freemasonry with ‘Zionist organizations of sabotage and saboteurs’ and accuse Jews/Israel/Zionism, with the aid of Freemasonry, of all the great wars, controlling world media, sparking revolutions, etc.

The Nazis would be proud.


118 posted on 02/22/2024 3:39:44 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 108 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

Bookmark


119 posted on 02/22/2024 3:41:11 PM PST by Pajamajan (Pray for our nation. Never be a slave a new Socialist America.)
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 1 | View Replies]

To: ebb tide

I believe Jumper meant that every religion believes in God and expresses that belief IN ITS OWN WAY.

I know you think you’re on some sacred ‘mission’, but you are not getting anywhere with it here. Maybe you should have a rest.


120 posted on 02/22/2024 3:42:07 PM PST by Jamestown1630 ("A Republic, if you can keep it.")
[ Post Reply | Private Reply | To 115 | View Replies]


Navigation: use the links below to view more comments.
first previous 1-20 ... 81-100101-120121-140 ... 181-195 next last

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.

Free Republic
Browse · Search
Religion
Topics · Post Article

FreeRepublic, LLC, PO BOX 9771, FRESNO, CA 93794
FreeRepublic.com is powered by software copyright 2000-2008 John Robinson