Freemasonry is an initiatory and esoteric brotherhood widespread almost all over the world, whose origins can be traced back to modern times in England, specifically in London in 1717, as a union of associations based on a democratic order, known as ‘lodges’.

A Grand Lodge is the governing body of Freemasonry within a particular territory, where territory usually means a country or state. The United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), which dates back to June 1717, is the oldest Grand Lodge and is universally regarded as the Mother Grand Lodge of organised Freemasonry.

It is not easy to define what Freemasonry is. Generally, no doctrine is expounded inside the lodge; there are no sermons, no interpretations. Even though teachings are incorporated within the rites, the meanings and interpretations are for the most part left to the candidate, whose task is to integrate them into his own past and future life. But from the writings of the many masonic scholars that have written on the subject throughout the centuries, and most importantly from the rituals used, we can deduct some common denominators.

Therefore, by attempting to give a definition we could say that:

Freemasonry (also known as Masonry) is a secret fraternity, founded upon man’s religious aspirations, which, by forms, ceremonies, and elaborate symbolism, endeavours to instil in its members its ideology so that, in turn, masons may bring the masonic ideology into the society.

Let us analyse this definition.

Is Masonry a secret organisation?

Most masons would deny that Freemasonry is a secret organisation. They often present these arguments:

1. Their Grand Lodge is very public, does a lot of charity that is under the eyes of everyone, and people can easily visit their buildings and museums;
2. Its philosophy, history, symbolism, aims, and principles are published in periodicals and books, many of which are found in public libraries.  
3. The rituals can be easily found online.
4. It is a well-known, world-wide fraternity whose members proudly proclaim their membership. 

It is true that a number of Grand Lodges are very public and try their best to be recognised as a ‘charitable’ institution in the mind of the public, but it is also true that Masonry has modes of recognition and ceremonies with which the world is not acquainted. Yes, many books and even rituals can be found online, even with passwords and handshakes exposed, but that doesn’t mean that anyone can understand what’s going on in the rituals, that’s because you can only learn all the secrets when you become a member and go through all rituals and degrees.

What is the meaning of the word ‘secret’? It comes from the Latin secretus, which means ‘separate, set apart’; it is something not meant to be known or seen by others. That’s exactly what Freemasonry is. A Mason will never reveal the ‘words, grips, and tokens’, or admit any non-mason in their meetings. So yes, Freemasonry is still a secret society.

Thus, Freemasonry is a secret society which forms its members according to its own method, known as ‘initiation‘, so we are in the realm of the esoteric perspective: a hidden reality to which few have access. This reality strives to instil in members the masonic ideology. By ‘masonic ideology’ is meant a certain outlook on life, a certain mentality, a certain ideological perspective; so that, in turn, members strive to make this ideology triumph in society. The knowledge of the masonic ideology must not be reduced to a kind of cultural enrichment, it is rather a mean to change society.

Two branches of Freemasonry

There is a distinction to be made here: Freemasonry has two branches that are ‘not in mutual regular amity’ and not infrequently also show antipathies and antagonisms towards each other.

• The Anglo/American “Regular” tradition of jurisdictions, typified by the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE), and the various Grand Lodges in the United States.

• The Continental European tradition of jurisdictions, typified by the Grand Orient of France, with varying and shifting amity. This is generally considered “irregular”.

There are three core issues that separate the Anglo-American Branch and the Continental Branch of Freemasonry: 

Issue	Anglo-American	Continental
Belief in Deity	Requires its members to express a belief in Deity as a condition of membership.	Not a requirement, allowing atheists to join.
Female membership	Does not admit women as members. There are associated organisations in American Freemasonry which are open to women, but unrecognised in England or Ireland.	Open to female membership by means of mixed lodges, women-only lodges or amity with women-only bodies.
Political involvement	Strict ban of the discussion of politics in a lodge setting, and its Grand Lodges will not comment on political matters.	Allows political discussion, and its Grand Orients will often issue statements on political issues.

Therefore, from a historical and sociological point of view, there is a distinction between these two branches of Freemasonry, but from an ideological point of view, they both present a unity (albeit not a juridical/administrative one), that is, a substantial unity and identity of theories and practices that hold the same Masonic principles: ‘humanism’, ‘rituality’ and ‘esotericism’.

The term Continental Freemasonry was used in Mackey’s 1873 Encyclopedia of Freemasonry to “designate the Lodges on the Continent of Europe which retain many usages which have either been abandoned by, or never were observed in, the Lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland, as well as the United States of America”.

Today, it is frequently used to refer to only the Liberal jurisdictions typified by the Grand Orient de France. 

The majority of Freemasonry considers the Liberal (Continental) strand to be Irregular, and thus withhold recognition. The Continental lodges, however, did not want to sever masonic ties. In 1961, an umbrella organisation, Centre de Liaison et d’Information des Puissances maçonniques Signataires de l’Appel de Strasbourg (CLIPSAS) was set up, which today provides a forum for most of these Grand Lodges and Grand Orients worldwide.

Birth and History

No one knows with certainty how or when the Masonic Fraternity was formed. It certainly neither originated nor existed in King Solomon’s time, and although many historians have tried to prove some connection with the mysteries of classical Greece or Rome, or that it was derived from the religion of the Egyptian pyramid builders, there is really no evidence to support such theories. Other theories include that Freemasonry evolved from some Knights Templar that allegedly escaped to Scotland after the order was persecuted in Europe, or that it derived from the mysterious Rosicrucian Brotherhood which may have existed in Europe in the early 1600s, but again, there is no substantial evidence. The real answer is that we do not know with certainty where and why Freemasonry originated.

A widely accepted theory among historians and researchers is that it arose from the stonemasons’ guilds during the Middle Ages, entrusted with the construction of Cathedrals. In order to build the house of God, those stonemasons had to be deeply religious and Catholic. Those stonemasons started to gather in lodges to reast and eat, and soon these lodges became places where they met to regulate their craft. It seems that it is at this point that a sort of ceremony was devised to receive new apprentices.

These guilds also carried out a kind of mutual aid within themselves; for example, helping the orphaned children of workers belonging to the guild itself. This mutual aid, precisely in keeping with the medieval mentality of the interpenetration of the natural and the supernatural, also had a spiritual dimension. The individual guilds had their chapels, their spiritual directors, their patron saints, their spirituality…. their secrets. Secrets that concerned the skills of the trade.

As stonemasons were accustomed to travelling all over the country and as there were no trade union cards or certificates of apprenticeship, they began to adopt a private word which they could use when arriving at a new site to prove they were properly skilled and had been a member of lodge. In fact, using a secret word was more practical than demonstrating one’s abilities by spending hours carving a block of stone to demonstrate their skills.

With time, things changed. A beginning of transformation was motivated by two factors:

1. With the end of the Middle Ages, the construction of large cathedrals ceased. As a result, the guilds decreased in number and personnel.
2. This was a period of great religious and political turmoil and intolerance. Men were unable to meet together without differences of political and religious opinion leading to arguments. Families were split by opposing views and the English Civil War of 1642 to 1646 was the ultimate outcome. Moreover, the Renaissance man still felt the importance of a religious education. Not finding it elsewhere, he sought ‘hospitality’ in these Masonic guilds that still kept this need alive.

These factors caused a phenomenon in Scotland and England, in the 1600s, that would essentially change the structure and purpose of medieval Freemasonry. Some lodges of operative masons began to accept honorary members, especially nobles and intellectuals, attracted by the principles of brotherhood. Their presence was simply tolerated, accepted (accepted masons) in view of the protection and help that could be given to the guild.

With time, in the general decay of the guilds, the accepted free masons ended up prevailing in numbers. The lodges then lost their initial character to take on that of more or less mundane associations, while retaining rituals and symbols of the operative masons.

Thus, in the space of about two centuries, a new phase was developed: the transition from operative Freemasonry to speculative Freemasonry, as the new adherents belonged to the intellectual and aristocratic sphere. The Lodges no longer had any connection with the stonemasons’ craft. It seems that these speculative masons were men who wished to promote tolerance and build a world in which men of differing opinions and religions could co-exist and work together for the betterment of mankind.

In the custom of their times, they used allegory and symbolism to pass on their ideas and principles and as their central idea was the building of a different society, they borrowed their forms and symbols from the operative builders’ craft and took their central allegory from the Bible. Stonemasons’ tools provided them with the multiplicity of emblems to illustrate the principles they were putting forward.

On 24 June 1717 in London, on the feast of St John, four lodges merged together – under the leadership of a French Protestant, Jean-Théophile Désaguliers, a member of the Royal Society – giving birth to the Grand Lodge of London, definitively abandoning any character of trade association. From this moment on, Free Masonry changed from operative to speculative, taking on the appearance of a closed and secret association, practising certain activities, including civil and social ones.

As membership grew, in 1723, Grand Lodge produced a Book of Constitutions which outlined the rules and regulations governing Freemasonry.

The first phase of this new period was characterised by religious faith and philanthropy. Acceptance of the article of faith in the ‘Great Architect of the Universe’ was required. The three degrees of apprentice, fellowcraft and master of operative masonry were retained.

Second phase: after 1720, Freemasonry spread across the Continent. Lodges recognised the Grand Lodge of London as the Order’s supreme authority. 

Third phase: in France, the passion for secrecy inspired new degrees and ceremonies. The freemason Estienne Morin compiled twenty-five degrees into “The Rite of the Royal Secret”, which was later modified when it arrived in the United States and it is known today as “The Scottish Rite”, comprising 33 degrees in total.

Fourth phase: at the turn of the 18th and 19th centuries the beginning of true Masonic culture can be placed. Under the influence of positivism, encyclopedism and anarchic political tendencies, the religious idea was abandoned and moved towards an agnosticism of a materialist and anticlerical nature. Especially in Continental Freemasonry.

Inevitably a question arises: why the guild of masons and not another? The answer lies in the symbolic dimension. The art of masonry calls for construction and possibly demolition before construction. And this was precisely the purpose of this new speculative Freemasonry. To demolish an old world in order to build a new one. To demolish the old cathedral where God was worshipped in order to build a new cathedral where man is to be worshipped.

The doctrine

The sources of Masonic ideology can be grouped into the following five currents of thought: naturalism, humanism, illuminism and rationalism, which find Gnosticism as their common denominator. Then we will see in what sense Gnosticism also constitutes the deepest error of Freemasonry.

Everything comes down to the triumph of naturalism

These systems contain an undue and exaggerated exaltation of purely human and natural values. As a consequence, at least implicitly, they deny the supernatural order and all the truths connected to it: in particular divine revelation, faith, and grace. In practice, the existence of absolute truth is denied. 

Those who profess naturalism believe that human reason is endowed with so much strength and light that it is capable of understanding everything by itself. It cannot, therefore, admit the existence of the mysteries of faith or dogmas, let alone resign itself to accepting them with the enlightened humility of the believer.

Such naturalistic systems profess unlimited optimism in the gifts and goodness of human nature: original sin and its consequences are considered fantasies; all human activity is enclosed in the present life, in which man would be rendered an end in itself and exhorted to a utopian selfless dedication to perfecting himself and humanity.

Reason is considered self-sufficient; man is good and must not be distressed by the idea of sin, guilt and otherworldly sanctions.

It follows that morality must be absolutely autonomous: man is also a law unto himself; he is accountable only to his conscience. Only in his conscience must he base the criterion of good and evil.

And so, everything is finalised in the triumph of freedom: freedom of thought, of conscience, of action, of investigation.

And here are the consequences that these principles entail in the religious field.

1. Absolute freedom of conscience: the claimed moral freedom to believe or not in God, to conceive of him in one way or another, to accept or not accept Revelation and the Magisterium of the Church. The only imperative would be to obey one’s own reason. Authentic Catholicism, which obviously rejects this absolute freedom of conscience, is then an enemy.
2. Rejection of the supernatural value of religion: in Masonic doctrine, at best, there is only a certain natural religiosity, i.e. adherence to certain truths that man is able to know exclusively through reason. For the followers of naturalism, a supernatural religion is inconceivable, with truths communicated by God through revelation, with very precise obligations imposed by the authority of the Creator or those who have received a mandate from Him. Nothing is therefore objective, but only a vague and subjective religiosity, which each person can define and determine in his own way. In Masonic writings it is continually said that dogmas are only superstition, obscurantism and absurdity.
3. Religious relativism: no religion can claim the right to be the true one. All would be equally good and equally false, as none would be definitive. A question could arise in this regard, that is, whether Freemasonry has a true doctrine or only proposes a method, which would be that of relativism. In reality, this is a question that makes little sense, because relativism already constitutes a doctrine and a very precise view of things.
4. Promotion of a new universal religion: the last word is up to science, which would demolish one after the other the dogmas and errors of religions, and would prepare the ground for a universal religion, the religion of the truly free higher spirits, to whose advent Freemasonry glories in collaborating by clearing the ground with the fight against superstition and error. Terms, the latter, by which Masonic writings refer to the Catholic Church.

What does Freemasonry think about God and the afterlife?

To better understand how naturalism is the essence of Freemasonry, something must be said about the Great Architect of the Universe (G.A.O.T.U.).  If we were to read all the things wrote by Freemasons in their publications on the subject, we would be confronted with a jumble of divergent definitions. That Freemasonry is a religion in the strict sense of the term is not said by any Freemason of any Grand Lodge, but one should instead correctly speak of an initiatory society. In the lodge it is forbidden to speak about religion, although each Freemason can practise the religion he wants, but that is his own business. However, in the religious field, each one who professes a dogmatically defined religion cannot help but feel the inhibition of entering into spiritual communion with those who exercise their freedom of thought and conscience in the free search for the Truth without apriorisms, without mythological fabulations, but with the sole guidance of common sense, reason, and the discoveries of natural sciences.

Freemasonry has as its principle the existence of a God, a creator principle that it worships and respects under the title of Great Architect of the Universe. All the Grand Lodges that accept and recognise the G.A.O.T.U. think that it is a principle that is affirmed but not interpreted, and this is deism.  In fact, the masonic ideology does not determine privileged interpreters between God and man, but educates the latter to the consciousness of individual and collective progress, in order to bring his soul closer to that which encloses the universe. So, if the principle is only affirmed and there are no intermediaries, man is left to himself and his conscience to determine the moral rules. The Great Architect is therefore not a personal God, but a Law that regulates, in the most perfect balance, the Universe. This formula is nothing more than a locution that can suit all tastes, even those of an atheist. The afterlife is conceived very vaguely and to die is to pass to the “Grand Lodge above“. We will return to this point later.

If, therefore, the G.A.O.T.U. is a simple affirmed principle from which no rule of conduct derives, the central point of the Masonic ideology is Reason and it becomes almost an object of true worship. 

While the Church reminds us that original guilt produces a fallen nature that is redeemed by the sacrifice of the Cross, thus enabling us to regain our lost Paradise, the Freemasons, on the other hand, insist on infinite progress, the natural goodness of man and a purely earthly purpose. If God is humanised with Christ, Freemasonry, on the contrary, deifies man. As it was for Reason and Science, so it is for Nature: it is deified. And it is Pope Leo XIII in the most important encyclical ever issued on Freemasonry, the Humanum Genus, who reminds us of the first principle of Masonic Naturalism: Nature and Reason are sovereign masters. By deifying nature, one is logically led to deify all inclinations of nature. Those who claim to live according to virtue (as Freemasons do) while living only according to nature, are very quick to call virtue what is basically nothing but vice. In conclusion, naturalism means a horizontal vision of the world and is the cement of a Masonic vision where there is no room for the supernatural.

If there is no room for the supernatural, there is some for the preternatural, and the preternatural is that sphere into which dark entities can slip. This happens in the Scottish Rite and in the many other esoteric orders associated with Freemasonry, which are mainly a mixture of Kabbalah, Hermeticism, Rosicrucianism, Mithraism, Manichaeism, and Gnosticism. But of the esoteric aspects of Freemasonry we shall speak in the future.

What does Freemasonry think of Jesus?

Jesus is seen only as the symbol of a philanthropic humanitarianism that would find perfect fulfilment in the Masonic fraternity; the prototype of the man martyr of free thought, of freedom of conscience, and therefore above all the victim of “priestly tyranny”, as said in one of the Scottish Rite degrees.

It is a complete demolition of the historical Christ. But not only: also of His Mystical Body, because He is denied the intention of having founded the Church or at least the essential organisation of it as visible and hierarchical. The Church, which is accused of having operated a foolish deformation by divining Christ, in order to use Him for its own interests.

What does Freemasonry think of the Catholic Church?

While Anglo-American Freemasonry does not pronounce itself on the Catholic Church (at least not publicly), Continental Freemasonry proclaims itself to be anti-clerical but not anti-ecclesiastical, which means that it hopes for a Church without hierarchy, without a priesthood, without a fixed rule of faith, without firmness in defending the Deposit of Revelation, without the rightful intransigence towards error, without the powers received from Christ to legislate, teach, judge and condemn. This is also the view of many other esoteric orders, including Martinism, which we will analyse in the future.

The Church that Freemasonry and many other orders dreams of (and would be willing to tolerate) is one where practically everyone is left more or less free to believe and do as they please, without true authority, without sacraments.

Freemasonry sees itself as the heir of those sects, those rebels, those movements that have been fighting against the Church for centuries. It therefore celebrates and commemorates them. One thinks of the Cathars, Giordano Bruno, and many others. And it takes care to convince its members that the Catholic Church has betrayed the message of Christ. The French are quite keen on this topic and particularly Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, the main figure behind Martinism.

Freemasonry felt the duty to rebel against the Church and at the same time to reform it from within, attracting the best of the clergy and laity to adhere to its doctrines. This happened especially in Italy, starting from the scandal that happened when many high dignitaries of the Vatican that played prominent roles in the Second Vatican Council were found to be freemasons. Perhaps that’s why in 1972, Pope Paul VI wrote: “We would say that, through some mysterious crack — no, it’s not mysterious; through some crack, the smoke of Satan has entered the Church of God”.

The Organisation

The organisation of Freemasonry mirrors that of the Masonic guilds. Meeting places are called Lodges; squaring the rough stone means preparing the soul to absorb Masonic principles; the square, the compass, the plumb line, the apron… all are symbols of this pseudo-spiritual architecture.

Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason are the three fundamental Degrees of Freemasonry, just as masons were once divided into as many categories. The head of a Lodge is called Worshipful Master. In ancient times, the word “Worshipful” meant “Respected”. Because one Master Mason was elected by the members to lead them, he was given the title Worshipful Master indicating that he was a respected Master Mason.

In modern Lodges, a new Worshipful Master is elected each year.  The Worshipful Master serves as the chief officer of the Lodge, and presides over all its meetings.  

Since modern Freemasonry brought together a number of ideas and elements from several traditions, such as rosicrucianism, kabbalistic, spiritualism, gnosticism, paganism, magical, chivalrous, and many others, the doctrinal baggage of Freemasonry became increasingly heavier and more complex. The need was then felt to fragment the education of members, adding new degrees, i.e. new steps towards that knowledge that according to gnosticism was hidden by the various religions.

The multiplicity of degrees distinguishes one type of Freemasonry from another, that is, to put it in their language, one rite/order from another. Today there are many organisations and orders which form part of the widespread fraternity of Freemasonry, each having its own structure and terminology. Collectively these may be referred to as Masonic bodies, Masonic orders or appendant bodies.

The basic unit of Freemasonry is the Masonic Lodge, which alone can “make” (initiate) a Freemason. Such lodges are controlled by a Grand Lodge with national or regional authority for all lodges within its territory. A masonic lodge confers the three masonic degrees of Entered Apprentice, Fellowcraft and Master Mason. This is usually called the Blue Lodge, while in England it is called the Craft.

Therefore, while technically there is no degree in Freemasonry higher than that of Master Mason, there are additional degrees that are offered only to those who are Master Masons. Most of these are supervised by their own “Grand” bodies (independent from the Grand Lodge). 

In this way, the Blue Lodge is like a stump, from which depart multiple rites, differentiated from each other by the different number of degrees.

There are about fifty different rites in the history of Freemasonry. The most common are:

• The Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite of Freemasonry, also known as the Rose-Croix in England (33 degrees);
• The York Rite (which in England is divided into many independent orders, such as the Royal Arch, the Mark, etc.);
• The Rite of Memphis-Misraim, usually only worked in irregular Grand Lodges (95 Degrees).

Purpose of Freemasonry

Historically, one of Masonry’s primary objectives has been the destruction of the Catholic Church; this is especially true of Freemasonry as it has existed in certain European countries, like France or Italy. In the United Kingdom and United States, Freemasonry is often little more than a social club, but it still espouses a naturalistic religion that contradicts Christianity.

Here we need to say one very important thing: most freemasons do not realise that the primary goal of Freemasonry is the destruction of the Church. This is because its mission is not accomplished in the physical world but in the psychological and spiritual realms. First of all, in its external activity, Freemasonry behaves more like a preparatory organ for ideological action than an organ of direct political action. Then,once a person become a freemason through the initiation ritual, the masonic ideology starts to work in his mind and spirit.  Rituals, ceremonies, the study of several esoteric disciplines (astrology, alchemy, kabbalah, gnosticism, etc.), the lodge environment, lectures, discussion, social activities, all have the purpose to produce long-term changes in one’s mind and alter brain function patterns. In simple words, it is the Masonic indoctrination.

All who join Freemasonry are indoctrinated into the basic principles of “rational religion”. They are given careful instructions concerning the basic beliefs on which, supposedly, all religions agree: belief in a creator God, the existence of an immortal soul, and the importance of expressing spiritual conviction through moral living and charity. What seem good is actually bad. This is because these beliefs promote the heresy of universalism (the belief all people will eventually be saved) and a works-based view of salvation. Confidence in the masonic teachings, in fact, has always tended toward the embracing of a false hope of salvation through good works and improved moral service. It seems there is nothing wrong with it, right? Well, let’s see what Universalism and Salvation are according to Masonry.

Universalism

There is a Christian universalism. God has His elect in every age and every nation. Ever since the fall of man the Son of God has been gathering the elect into His church by His Word and Spirit. In Christ Jesus there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female, for all are one in Him (Galatians 3:28). John saw the four living creatures and the four and twenty elders fall down before the Lamb and he heard them sing: “Thou wast slain, and didst purchase unto God with thy blood men of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation” (Revelation 5:9).

• Masonry also lays claim to universalism, but its universalism differs radically from that of Christianity in that it denies Christian particularism and exclusivism;
• Christianity claims to have the only true book, the Bible. Masonry places this book on a par with the sacred books of other religions;
• Christianity lays claim to the only true God, the God of the Bible, and denounces all other Gods as idols. Masonry recognizes the Gods of all religions;
• Christianity describes God as the Father of Jesus Christ and of those who through faith in Him have received the right to be called the sons of God. The God of Masonry is the universal father of all mankind;
• Christianity acknowledges but one way of salvation, that of grace through faith. Masonry rejects this way and substitutes for it salvation by works and character;
• Christianity teaches the brotherhood of those who believe in Christ, the communion of saints, the church universal, the one body of Christ. Masonry teaches the brotherhood of Masons and the universal brotherhood of man.

Salvation

The Christian doctrine of salvation is heterosoteric; it teaches that man must be saved by another. Masonry’s doctrine of salvation, on the other hand, is autosoteric; it teaches that man must and can save himself. “Freemasonry,” we are told by J. S. M. Ward, one of the most eminent Masonic authors, “has taught that each man can, by himself, work out his own conception of God and thereby achieve salvation’”

The Christian way of salvation is supernatural while the Masonic way of salvation is naturalistic. According to Christianity the new birth is a supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. According to Freemasonry a person is born again through initiation into the lodge.

We will come back to this point, for now, to confirm what we have just said, let us read what Pope Leo XIII (1810-1903) wrote in his encyclical Humanum Genus: “The principal and last of its (Freemasonry’s) aims is to destroy from the foundations the whole religious order born of the Christian institution and to create a new order at its will that draws its foundations and norms from materialism.”

Action

Masonic action within society is carried out according to two directives: secrecy and wide penetration.

Secrecy

If Freemasonry today goes about saying that it is no longer a secret society, this is only in order to have a free hand to act, without running into the prohibition contained in the Constitution of many countries; but it is certainly not to its credit that its rituals, constitutions and so many other things concerning it have become known.

Many things still remain hidden; not for nothing one of the tightest and most repeated oaths in the rituals is the following: ” I. …, in the presence of the Great Architect of the Universe, and of this worthy, worshipful, and warranted Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons , regularly assembled and properly dedicated, of my own free will and accord, do hereby, and hereon, sincerely and solemnly promise and swear, that I will always hele, conceal, and never reveal any part or parts, point or points of the secrets or mysteries of or belonging to Free and Accepted Masons in Masonry which may heretofore have been known by me, or shall now or at any future period be communicated to me, unless it be to a true and lawful Brother or Brothers, and not even to him or them, until after due trial, strict examination, or sure information from a well-known Brother that he or they are worthy of that confidence; or in the body of a just, perfect and regular Lodge of Ancient Freemasons.”

To say that Freemasonry, like any other society, only has secrets, but is not secret, is a defence that does not hold water. Of other societies, in fact, one knows all the members openly, and where and when they meet. Freemasonry, on the other hand, is said by its own proponents to be ‘essentially secret’. Its members are not publicly known and they are exhorted not to reveal themselves as such.

Wide penetration

We now come to the second directive of action: broad penetration. 

Cloaked in secrecy, Freemasonry attempts to infiltrate everywhere, especially in those places where it can most easily manoeuvre the levers of public and political life. Hence its preference for the professional class, universities, research centres, state employees, the military, aiming as much as possible at high ranks and key positions. Even, if possible, in Catholic organisations.

Wherever they infiltrate, Freemasons must try not to make themselves known as such, because “freemason uncovered would be no more”; they must protect the interests of the Craft, skilfully manoeuvring to advance its political aims. Each Freemason is convinced that he is thus laying his own stone in the construction of a new world.

Freemasonry uses its members to promote concordant action, to make secularism triumph, to oust the Church from all forms of associated life. It pursues secular education, seeking to exclude Catholics in the educational activities of the young. It advocates the abolition of the teaching of Religion in schools, the total removal of the clergy from schools, the suppression of Catholic educational, educational and charitable institutions, and even seeks control over seminaries. It also states that concordats with the Catholic Church should be eliminated and suppressed, because they would be a humiliation for states.

Once could argue that this doesn’t happen in English Freemasonry but only within Continental Freemasonry. Yes, that’s true, and there’s a reason for that. This process was already achieved in England and in the US in the past. While Italy and France still retain some Christian values in their cultures, the American-Anglosaxon culture has already eliminated all of them in their countries. 

Is Freemasonry Satanist?

Many studies confirm the fact that the ‘Masonic religion’ ultimately coincides with Satanism. Certainly this is an assertion that must be expressed with great caution.

One must make a premise: if this is indeed the case, there would be few affiliates of Freemasonry who would consciously come to see the coincidence between Masonic essence and Satanism. For most, Freemasonry is satanic, i.e. a ‘school of anti-Catholicism’.

In short, if there may be some difficulty regarding the affirmation of a Satanist essence of Freemasonry, there is none as far as its Satanic nature is concerned, i.e. the fact that this reality is at the service of the Evil One’s action in history.

However, attention must be paid to the divine references in the Masonic tradition. Pre-Christian deities with clear Gnostic connotations reign supreme, especially in the side degrees.

As we have already mentioned, freemasons maintain that to participate in Masonic rituals it is necessary to believe in the existence of a Supreme Being. But beware, the Supreme Being is not the only deity that Freemasons recognise. Although many Freemasons are unaware of the polytheism practised in some degrees, many gods and goddesses are worshipped in a number of ‘appendant bodies’, especially in the degrees of the Scottish Rite.

Also, Sun worship, disguised in the use of gods’ names or symbols, plays a very important role in Freemasonry. It is Osiris (under the name Hiram Abiff), whom Freemasons honour in the 3rd degree, and not Jesus, as many thinks.

The degrees of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite are full of symbolism and images of snakes. I have seen many in the degrees I went through, often represented as the ‘good spirit’ without realising that it was the same Serpent of the Bible. 

Given that the gods mentioned in those degrees (including Thor, Baal, Shiva, Dionysus, Pan, Osiris, etc.) represent Satan in various disguises, and that the cult of the Serpent is present, and that the Bible explicitly states that the Serpent is Satan, there are arguments to suspect that these degrees in fact are a disguised worship of Satan (Lucifer). 

A possible Satanism of Freemasonry would be neither in the perspective of a rationalist Satanism (reference to Satan as a symbol of subversion), nor in that of a personalist Satanism (belief in the personal existence of Satan), but in the so-called Luciferian one who also belongs to the Gnostic tradition.

The Catholic Archbishop Josef Stmpfle (1916-1996) who, on behalf of the German episcopate led a delegation to verify with high Masonic dignitaries the possibility for Catholics to join Freemasonry, reaffirmed the irreconcilability of Church and Freemasonry. Stmpfle recalls that the Masonic dignitaries always refused “in a radical, almost brutal manner” to disclose any details about the Masonic degrees above the first three. The reason for this stubborn refusal lies perhaps also in the fact that in the high Masonic degrees – Stmpfle recalls – instead of the “Great Architect of the Universe” worshipped by the Freemasons (and which for some naive people would refer to the Christian God) appears the name Jah-Bul-On, which is to be understood as follows: Jah stands for Jahwé, Bul for Baal and On for Osiris. Now, according to the Bible, Baal is God’s opponent and his worship is a horror to God. From here, too, it is clear why the Catholic who joins Freemasonry should be excommunicated.

What is the Catholic Church’s official position on Freemasonry? Are Catholics free to become Freemasons?

As we have seen, Freemasonry is incompatible with the Catholic faith. Freemasonry teaches a naturalistic religion that espouses indifferentism, the position that a person can be equally pleasing to God while remaining in any religion.

Masonry is a parallel religion to Christianity. The New Catholic Encyclopedia states, “Freemasonry displays all the elements of religion, and as such it becomes a rival to the religion of the Gospel. It includes temples and altars, prayers, a moral code, worship, vestments, feast days, the promise of reward or punishment in the afterlife, a hierarchy, and initiation and burial rites.”

The condemnation of Masonic doctrine and method

The main reference is to the encyclical Humanum Genus. This condemns the vehicle of naturalism, which is the system of rationalism – but also of scepticism – and which translates into the practice of secularism, indifferentism and relativism. Thus, independent, or civil, or free morality, civil marriage, egalitarianism, permissiveness, the radical separation of Church and State, the state school monopoly, and so on up to divorce, are radically condemned.

From this encyclical, which is dated April 20, 1884, we read: “s Our predecessors have many times repeated, let no man think that he may for any reason whatsoever join the masonic sect, if he values his Catholic name and his eternal salvation as he ought to value them. Let no one be deceived by a pretense of honesty. It may seem to some that Freemasons demand nothing that is openly contrary to religion and morality; but, as the whole principle and object of the sect lies in what is vicious and criminal, to join with these men or in any way to help them cannot be lawful.”

Therefore, the Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was also explicit in the 1917 code of canon law (canon 2335), and it is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374).

Because the revised code of canon law is not explicit on this point, some drew the mistaken conclusion that the Church’s prohibition of Freemasonry had been dropped. As a result of this confusion, shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983 and may be found in Origins 13/27 (Nov. 15, 1983), 450.

This is how the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith expressed it on 26 November 1983: “The faithful who belong to Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and cannot receive Holy Communion.”

I would like to close this post with some food for thought.

Final remark

On speaking about the Masonic indoctrination above, I mentioned the spiritual realm. I left that discussion till now because I think it is the most important part: I am fully convinced that by joining Freemasonry and let our mind and spirit accustomed to their rituals and practices, we sin against the Holy Spirit and with time we lose Him.

The following words of Our Lord show how grievous are sings against the Holy Spirit: “Every sin and blasphemy shall be forgiven men, but the blasphemy of the Spirit shall not be forgiven.”

The sins against the Holy Spirit are commonly said to be six, viz., despair, presumption, impenitence, obstinacy, resisting truth, and envy of another’s spiritual welfare. Deliberate and habitual sins, sins against the light of truth, offend God more gravely than sins due to weakness and ignorance.

If anyone has committed one of these sins and so expelled the Holy Spirit from his soul, Confession purifies the soul in the Blood of Jesus Christ and brings back the Holy Spirit, who once more comes to dwell in the soul as in His Temple and gives it again all His gifts and graces.

Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 6:19-20: “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore honour God with your bodies.”

If you are a Freemason, I would invite you to think about these two questions: 

• Did I really need to allow my body, which contains the Holy Spirit, to go through the Masonic initiation?
• Through Christian baptism I have received the Holy Spirit, was I really a “poor candidate in a state of darkness” before joining the Lodge?