Leading Catholic prelates and a scandal-plagued Vatican cardinal have taken part in a meeting with senior Italian Freemasons who aim to overturn the Church's condemnation of Freemasonry.
We must speak out now to protect the Church's teaching.
SIGN: All Catholic prelates must uphold the Church's condemnation of Freemasonry.
The Grand Orient of Italy – the nation’s leading Freemasonic lodge – held the meeting in Milan on February 16. Titled the “Catholic Church and Masonry”, the conference was addressed by the Grand Master of the Grand Orient, Stefano Bisi.
Several members of the Catholic hierarchy attended, including:
- Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmerio, emeritus prefect of the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts
- Milan’s Archbishop Mario Delpini
- Monsignor Antonio Staglianó, president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Theology
Cardinal Coccopalmerio reportedly told the meeting: “From what I could understand, but I am little expert in this matter, I think there is an evolution in mutual understanding” of relations between Catholics and Masons. “Fifty years ago, there was less understanding, but things have moved on, and I hope these encounters don’t stop there. I wonder if we cannot think of a permanent table, even at the level of authorities, so that we can better confront each other.”
According to La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana, Msgr. Stagliano “gave a long speech-show tearing apart the doctrinal approach on the Catholic side and basically going along with the demands of the Freemason exponents.”
Meanwhile, Grand Master Bisi criticized Pope Francis for not being more open to Masons.
He argued that Francis’ infamous “who am I to judge” comment about homosexuals should have also been applied to Masons:
Pope Francis made the famous statement ‘Who am I to judge?’ at the beginning of his pontificate addressed to homosexuals, he then opened the doors to the divorced but forgot that among the Masons there are also many Catholics who are prevented from receiving communion and when it came to granting credentials to a Masonic ambassador said ‘no.’
Bisi attested that the Catholic Church was preventing Freemasons’ attempts at “dialogue” or “reconciliation,” expressing his desire for intimate collaboration between the Church and the lodge.
“My wish – which is also a hope – is that one day a Pope and a Grand Master can meet and make a piece of road together, in the sunlight. I feel like saying in the light of the Great Architect of the universe,” he closed.
SIGN: The Church's condemnation of Freemasonry must be upheld.
The nefarious influence of Freemasonic ideas has been felt for centuries, as elite members work for the destruction of Christian civilization in favor of a secular order devoid of the supernatural.
Voltaire, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington, Franklin D. Roosevelt (and almost one-third of U.S. Presidents), King George VI, Winston Churchill, Prince Philip, Simón Bolívar, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, J. Edgar Hoover, and Reverend Jesse Jackson are just some of the more notable Freemasons that history is littered with.
With Masons occupying positions of power in many countries, Fr. William Saunders' masterful exposition of Freemasonry explains that it is a kind of religion unto itself, including "temples, altars, a moral code, worship services, vestments, feast days, a hierarchy of leadership, initiation and burial rites, and promises of eternal reward and punishment..."
In 1877 the "Grand Orient" Lodge in France eliminated the need to believe in God or the immortality of the soul, with an atheistic form of Freemasonry spreading particularly in Latin countries.
"Moreover, the rituals involve the corruption of Christianity," Fr. Saunders writes. "The cross is merely a symbol of nature and eternal life, devoid of Christ's sacrifice for sin. INRI (For Christians, 'Iesus Nazarenus Rex Iudaeorum,' i.e. Jesus of Nazareth King of the Jews) means for Masons 'Igne Natura Renovatur Integra' (the fire of nature rejuvenates all) referring to the sacred fire's (truth and love) regeneration of mankind, just as the sun regenerates nature in the Spring."
"The rituals are also inimical to Catholicism. During the initiation rite, the candidate expresses a desire to seek 'light,' and he is assured he will receive the light of spiritual instruction that he could not receive in another Church, and that he will gain eternal rest in the 'celestial lodge' if he lives and dies according to Masonic principles. Note also that since Masonry involves non-Christians, the use of the name of Jesus is forbidden within the lodge."
"A strong Anti-Catholicism also permeates Freemasonry. The two traditional enemies of Freemasonry are the royalty and the papacy. Masons even believe that Christ, dying on Calvary, was the 'greatest among the apostles of humanity, braving Roman despotism and the fanaticism and bigotry of the priesthood.' When one reaches the 30th degree in the masonic hierarchy, called the Kadosh, the person crushes with his foot the papal tiara and the royal crown, and swears to free mankind 'from the bondage of despotism and the thraldom of spiritual tyranny'", according to Fr. Saunders.
SIGN: All Catholic prelates must uphold the Church's condemnation of Freemasonry.
Indeed, the Freemasons in 1917 celebrated their bicentennial by marching in front of St. Peter’s Square in the Vatican with banners declaring, “Satan must reign in the Vatican. The Pope will be his slave.”
Freemasonry is simply incompatible with Catholicism.
The Catholic Church has consistently and firmly forbidden Catholics from joining the Freemasons, which was re-stated by the Vatican in recent weeks. Pope Clement XII’s 1739 papal bull, In Eminenti, judged Freemasonry so serious a matter, and membership in it so dangerous, that he imposed an automatic excommunication, latae sententiae, on any Catholic who joined the Freemasons.
Subsequently, Pope Leo XIII wrote in Humanum Genus that Freemasons have as “their ultimate purpose…the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism.”
In the CDF’s 1981 Declaration Concerning Status of Catholics Becoming Freemasons, the Vatican reaffirmed the prior teaching on this prohibition, based on renewed questions on the topic, noting that the excommunication and all penalties remained in place for Catholics looking to become Masons.
Subsequent texts a few years later – the Declaration on Masonic Associations and Irreconcilability of Christian Faith and Freemasonry – re-iterated the Church’s position, noting the “irreconcilability between the principles of Freemasonry and the Catholic faith.”
Pope Francis and the current CDF prefect Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández reaffirmed the Church’s teaching regarding Freemasons via a November 15 document.
SIGN: The constant Magisterium of the Church must not be defied by wavering prelates.
This generation of Catholics must not relent in the fight against Freemasonry and its evil end of destroying Christian civilization.
Please SIGN & SHARE our petition today.
Thank you.
MORE INFORMATION:
Vatican cardinal calls for ‘permanent’ Catholic-Freemason dialogue at ‘historic’ joint event - LifeSiteNews
Cardinal of Vatican orgy fame takes part in ‘historic’ meeting with Italian Freemasons - LifeSiteNews
Albert Pike’s anti-Catholic Freemasonry and its diabolical influence in America - LifeSiteNews
