Fatima, The Holy Fathers, and The Present

"Vatican Punishes French Priest for Being a Freemason"

And no one should have been surprised.  By the punishment, that is.  I'm surprised a French priest was that openly a member of the Masons.  Excerpts:

...Bishop Yves Boivineau had warned Fr Vesin about his "active membership" of the Grand Orient de France lodge.

Freemasonry has been condemned as anti-Christian and anti-clerical by various popes through history.

Bishop Boivineau ordered the priest to cease his functions "at Rome's request", the parish said.

In March, the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith - effectively the Church's watchdog - asked for the priest's departure.

Three members of the diocese of Annecy then met him but Fr Vesin said he would not leave the lodge...

Why am I surprised the priest is apparently so open about it? This is why. Excerpts:

...The Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was 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.

Propaganda Due

An overview from a piece published in 1992 on the trial and conviction of one of Italy's most powerful businessmen, Carlo de Benedetti:

In a statement issued in March 1991, Mr. de Benedetti said he had been forced off the bank's board because he was alone in "openly and strongly" contesting the management methods of its then chairman, Roberto Calvi. Mr. Calvi's body was found hanging under Blackfriars Bridge in London on June 18, 1982, officially a suicide, although the belief that he was murdered is still widely held in Italy.

Other famous names convicted today as accessories to fraudulent bankruptcy included Licio Gelli, a leader of the outlawed Masonic lodge known as P-2, who was sentenced to 18 1/2 years in prison; and Giuseppe Ciarrapico, a Rome financier and close friend of Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti, who was sentenced to 6 years and 4 months.

The unraveling of the bank began in 1981 when the discovery of the P-2 Masonic lodge, with many prominent names among its nearly 1,000 members, brought down the Italian Government. Not only was P-2, for Propaganda Due, suspected of responsibility for some rightist bomb attacks, but Mr. Gelli was later found to have used Banco Ambrosiano for money laundering.

Under Mr. Calvi, who took over the bank's presidency in 1975 and was also a member of P-2, the bank expanded rapidly abroad, notably in South America and in offshore financial centers. Evidence that it laundered some Mafia money and provided credit for some Mafia operations later formed part of the prosecution's case.

The Roman Catholic Church's embarrassing involvement came through the friendship between Mr. Calvi and an American prelate, Archbishop Paul C. Marcinkus of Cicero, Ill., who was head of the Institute for Religious Works at the Vatican. 'God's Banker'

Known as the Vatican Bank, the institute owned 1.5 percent of the Banco Ambrosiano as well as 10 shell companies in Panama and Luxembourg to which the bank lent $1.3 billion. Mr. Calvi's well-known ties to the Vatican earned him the nickname of "God's banker," but it was when the Vatican's shell companies could not repay their loans that the bank finally went under.

After the Banco Ambrosiano's collapse in August 1982, the Vatican contended that it played no role in the bank's management. In 1984, insisting that it was a gesture of good will rather than an admission of guilt, the Vatican nonetheless paid $250 million to the bank's creditors.

In 1988, arguing that it was a sovereign state, it also persuaded the Italian Supreme Court that Archbishop Marcinkus was protected from prosecution by diplomatic immunity. The Archbishop stepped down as head of the Vatican Bank in 1989 and retired the following year.

An article available to subscribers only, though it looks like an early overview sort of piece. Probably worth reading. And Propaganda Due appears to have been only the tip of the iceberg of the total network of corruption in Italy:

What started a year ago as a modest bribe for a cleaning contract in Milan has grown into one of the most extraordinary scandals of postwar Europe, revealing the vast corruption that cements patronage and power among Italy's political barons. ...the recent revelations have exposed startling levels of bribery involving the power elite, once an untouchable network of dynasties, family money, state largesse and high-flying entrepreneurs. At a time of broadening economic and political discontent, the so-called Mani Pulite, or "clean hands" affair, has brought broad demands for an end at last to the way politicians run Italy as a jigsaw of fiefs.

There are Propaganda Due connections in the story:

The accusations against Mr. Martelli, the former Justice Minister, are even more opaque. In a seven-hour interview that he requested with Mr. Di Pietro last month, Mr. Martelli is said to have acknowledged that he knew of a bank account in Lugano, Switzerland, in the name of a Socialist party boss in Milan, Silvano Larini. But he has denied he was involved in corruption. According to his testimony, during a walk in 1980 with Mr. Craxi and Mr. Martelli, the Socialist party leader asked him if he knew of a Swiss account the party could use. Mr. Larini said his father had such an account. Mr. Martelli is said to have told Mr. Di Pietro that he wrote down the account number -- 63369 -- but never became involved in its operation. But investigators say the account was a conduit for illicit payments to the Socialist Party, most notably in 1981, when $7 million was deposited by Roberto Calvi, a financial adviser to the Vatican and head of Banco Ambrosiano. Mr. Calvi was found hanging from Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1982 in still mysterious circumstances. The money was a payoff to the Socialist Party, Mr. Larini testified, after its political appointees at ENI, the state oil company, organized a $50 million loan to Banco Ambrosiano in a vain effort to stave off its collapse. The Vatican held a large chunk of the bank's shares but denied involvement in the mismanagement and corruption allegations that accompanied its fall. The Vatican ended up paying $250 million to the bank's creditors as a "goodwill gesture"; the bank's bad debts totaled $1.3 billion.

Considering the apparent right-wing ties of Propaganda Due, here's an odd little tidbit of information:

Mr. Craxi himself has been accused of seven incidents in which unspecified millions of dollars were said to have been diverted to the Socialists. The party officials said to have acted on his behalf include two former mayors of Milan, one of whom, Paolo Pilliteri, is Mr. Craxi's brother-in-law.

Mr. Craxi has denied all criminal charges and has said he will answer accusations regarding illicit party funds but not those alleging corruption.

Still protected from prosecution by parliamentary immunity, he faces accusations involving kickbacks of $200,000 from a Fiat subsidiary, fraudulent bankruptcy in connection with the collapse of Banco Ambrosiano and efforts to extort $2.5 million for a power-plant contract and $20 million for contracts on the Milan subway... Bettino Craxi -- Socialist Party leader. He resigned on Feb. 11 after being served with a sixth formal notice that he was under investigation in connection with the scandal. He denies wrongdoing.

The more I look at this, the more fascinated I am. But where's the books on it? Where's the scholarly exposition of the networks and Byzantine plots?

Gladio According to the NY Times

Before we dive in--I discovered the existence of Gladio through researching Propaganda Due after reading Malachi Martin's Vatican. Vatican was published in the mid-80s. The Gladio scandals appear to have broken in the early 90s. Martin had some interesting sources of information. An overview from the New York Times:

A Western cold-war conspiracy to fight what seemed imminent danger is coming to light in Europe. It is already rocking the Italian Government and will touch many others. There was, it is revealed, an organized underground, provided with hidden arms depots, prepared to launch guerrilla wars and resistance in the event of invasion from the East or overthrow of democratic governments from within.

There were different epic names for the operations -- "Gladio" in Italy (manned by secret gladiators), "Rose in the Wind" in France, "Red Fleece" in Belgium. They were sometimes directed, but generally coordinated, by NATO with participation of the C.I.A. and British secret service.

Former C.I.A. Director William Colby has confirmed some of this in recent interviews with Italian journalists. They also reported that meetings of the clandestine groups were held as recently as a few weeks ago in Brussels, though several governments claim it all ended by the 80's.

The Italian Government has said there were 139 caches of clandestine arms, explosives and communications equipment of which 127 were recovered years ago. They haven't accounted for the rest.

There's some astounding stuff in this article from 1990, when the Gladio scandal broke in Italy:

New "gladiators" are still recruited, and two members of Parliament say they visited a military base on the island of Sardinia where guerrilla training exercises were held last spring. But Admiral Martini told the investigating commission that nearly three-fourths of the 622 members were over the age of 50, or were dead.

Nevertheless, the network continues, and several officials reported that a supervisory committee of European secret services met in Brussels only a month ago. Nourishing conspiracy theories are assertions from key European leaders that they knew nothing about the operation until recently. Joseph Luns, who was NATO secretary general from 1971 to 1984, said he had never heard of it.

The network extended throughout Western Europe, even beyond the NATO countries though it was a NATO operation:

The Prime Minister said last week that Gladio later evolved into a branch of an extensive network, operated within NATO and abetted by a 1956 agreement between the United States and Italian secret services. Over the years, he says, 622 Italians belonged to the operation -- civilians who were trained by intelligence operatives and who had fought in World War II or served in the peacetime forces.

Germany, France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Greece and Luxembourg have all acknowledged that they maintained Gladio-style networks to prepare guerrilla fighters to leap into action in the event of a Warsaw Pact invasion. Many worked under the code name Stay Behind. Greece called its operation Red Sheepskin.

News reports in recent days assert that similar programs have also existed in Britain, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Austria, Turkey and Denmark, and even in neutral countries like Switzerland and Sweden.

The network also had supplies. Caches of arms were planted across Europe. Some caches of arms and supplies were never recovered. The chief of Italian military intelligence, Adm. Fulvio Martini, claimed that Gladio had no connection to any plots or neo-fascist organizations. That claim seems to lack support:

The Grey Wolves group, with which he [Mehmet Ali Agca, attempted assassin of Pope John Paul II] was associated at the time of the shooting, was linked to an underground network known as Gladio.

This was set up with CIA support in a number of European countries during the Cold War to prepare resistance to a possible Soviet invasion.

In both Italy and Turkey, Gladio networks are believed to have been behind numerous bombings and assassinations.

In Italy, the networks have been exposed and dismantled; in Turkey, they are still widely believed to exist as a so-called "deep state", with support from elements of the military.

There are ongoing trials of dozens of people accused of involvement in illegal, deep-state activities.

Agca was certainly helped to escape from prison in 1979 by his guards and some well-known underground right-wing figures. He was given false passports and enough funds to enable him to travel around Europe for several months before the attempted assassination.

The Turkish connection to Gladio is almost present-day news, as shown by this 2008 piece:

One of the most sensational public trials in Turkish history began Monday, as a court started hearing a case against 86 people — among them retired army generals, journalists and a former university rector — charged with assassinations, bomb attacks and trying to topple the government...

Turkey is a democracy with an elected government, but a powerful elite of military officers, judges and senior bureaucrats has helped steer the country since its inception in 1923, carrying out four coups. This trial is the first real attempt in Turkish history to prosecute the leaders of this country’s violent nationalist fringe, who prosecutors say have had links to the elite.

The case has riveted Turkish society because public criticism of the military, a vaunted institution in Turkey, is extremely rare. The military has denied any role in the plots; the officers identified in the indictment are all retired.

Prosecutors say the Ergenekon organization is the Turkish equivalent of the Italian Gladio network, a code name for operatives who infiltrated Italian society after World War II to counter Communism and who were responsible for a series of political assassinations and bombings in the 1970s. Turkey, according to the indictment, has allowed Ergenekon “to turn our country into a mafia and terror haven."

And more.

A Gladio Roundup

Most of these come from Time magazine archives. Nato's Secret Armies

The cold war was near absolute zero, the Korean War was raging, and the West could almost hear the Soviet tanks gunning their engines on the other side of the Iron Curtain. The U.S. and its European allies were determined not to be caught as unprepared as they had been when the Nazis invaded. So in the early 1950s they began training "stay behind" networks of volunteers. If the Soviet army rolled west, the groups were to gather intelligence, open escape routes and form resistance movements.

Originally advised and financed by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, many of the units and their clandestine arms caches were later taken over by the military intelligence organizations of West European countries and coordinated by a NATO committee. "It seemed like a pretty sensible business," recalls Harry Rositzke, a retired CIA officer who handled anti- Soviet operations in Munich in the mid-1950s. "But then, we were all hysterical at the time."

Nor has the emotion completely ebbed now that Europe is remaking itself. Last week in Italy and Belgium, investigators were looking into possible links between the clandestine networks and episodes of right-wing terrorism during the past 20 years. In Rome, Admiral Fulvio Martini, head of military intelligence, testified before a parliamentary committee. Italy's paramilitary group, dubbed Gladio (Sword), had 622 members and 139 stockpiles of arms and explosives hidden around the country, Martini said. When the caches were gathered up in 1972, he added, 10 were found empty. One of them had contained eight kilos of plastic explosive, leading left-wing politicians to voice suspicion that the plastic had been used for the neofascist terrorism that plagued Italy in the 1970s and '80s.

The Belgian government is investigating the possibility that its secret resistance members might have been responsible for a wave of terrorist raids on supermarkets near Brussels in which 27 people were killed between 1983 and 1985. As the accusations echoed across the Continent, France and Greece announced that their clandestine volunteer groups had been disbanded...

Italy: A Double-Edged Sword

The story seems straight from the pages of a political thriller. During the early days of the cold war, the Italian government, assisted by the CIA, sets up a clandestine paramilitary network designed to resist a communist invasion. Code name: Operation Gladio, as in a gladiator's double-edged sword. Skip ahead to last July, when a Venetian magistrate named Felice Casson, investigating a 1970s car bombing in Peteano, uncovers the network while searching through files at SISMI, the Italian intelligence service. When Prime Minister Giulio Andreotti admits Gladio did exist, a national scandal ensues. Most disturbing are suspicions that renegade Gladio agents may have been involved in right-wing terrorism in the 1960s and '70s. Last week, during an address to Parliament, Andreotti insisted Gladio was completely justified by the climate of the times and chided the opposition for "insinuating suspicions." He insisted that although Gladio had a military structure, "it had never been involved in terrorist activities." Meanwhile, Casson has summoned President Francesco Cossiga to testify on the Peteano attack.

Turkey Busts Alleged Murder Network

Turkey's Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk might sleep a little easier tonight — or not. A series of dramatic arrests over the weekend has laid bare what is alleged to be a shadowy network of ultra-nationalist killers with connections in high places. Their hit list allegedly included the famous writer, targeted for speaking out about Turkey's patchy treatment of its minorities. The allegations, widely reported by Turkish newspapers, are certainly as dark as anything Pamuk ever wrote. Istanbul prosecutors have arrested 13 people, including a former general and a high-profile lawyer, on charges of "provoking armed rebellion against the government." They are suspected of involvement in last year's string of nationalist-motivated murders, which cost the lives of prominent ethnic Armenian journalist Hrant Dink and three Christian missionaries, according to newspapers...

Of those, Veli Kucuk, a retired major general, was allegedly plotting to kill Pamuk, Turkish newspapers reported. Kucuk is suspected of running a secret unit within police forces that carried out bombings and killings for which other groups were widely blamed. Also arrested was Kemal Kerincsiz, a nationalist lawyer responsible for numerous cases against Pamuk, Dink and other intellectuals. None of the suspects have spoken about the charges.

"If they are true, it suggests there are two parallel universes in Turkey," says Hakan Altinay, director of the Open Society Institute, a think tank. "There are people who wake up every morning and plan murders of political opponents, plot coups and how to destabilize the country," he said.

Most Turks have long suspected the existence of a covert web of elements within the security forces and bureaucracy who act outside the law to uphold their own political ends. There is even a household name for it: the "deep state," referring to a state within the state.

Newspapers have suggested that this network is the Turkish remnant of Gladio, a Cold War-era program, orchestrated by the U.S. in several NATO countries, to create a covert paramilitary force to counter Communist activities.

Gladio in Italy appears to have had some rather highly placed friends with close ties to the finances of Vatican City State. Italy: Bank Error

His passport identified him as an Argentine citizen named Bruno Rizzi. He turned up one day last week at a Geneva branch of the prestigious Bank of Switzerland to withdraw money — as much as $60 million, according to some reports — from numbered accounts. But Swiss police swiftly arrested him. His real identity: Licio Gelli, 63, an Italian businessman sought for 16 months for his part in two of the biggest scandals to rock Italy in years.

Gelli, who held dual Italian-Argentine citizenship, had been on the run since last year after a police raid on his luxurious villa in Arezzo, 130 miles north of Rome. There, they discovered, the financier also served as "venerable master" of a bizarre Masonic lodge known as Propaganda Due, or P2. Its membership of nearly 1,000 included powerful Italian politicians, military men and police. The fact that Gelli was apparently using the lodge to achieve political power in Italy unleashed such a furor that high military and security officials whose names were found on the rolls were forced to resign; so was Prime Minister Arnaldo Forlani, though he was not a P2 member. Gelli's name was also linked to the collapse of Milan's Banco Ambrosiano, whose president, Roberto Calvi, was not only a member of P2, but was believed to be the lodge's paymaser, allegedly funding right-wing Latin leaders who were friends of Gelli's.

With an Italian prison term awaiting him, Calvi fled to London. There he apparently hanged himself last June, although many Italians believe he was murdered. An attorney general of a Swiss canton has since discovered that close to $100 million of Banco Ambrosiano's money had been stashed in numbered Geneva accounts. And Licio Gelli knew the numbers...

Staggering charges await Gelli in Italy if, as expected, he is extradited. They will probably include political and military espionage, illegal possession of state secrets and fraud. Magistrates investigating yet another incident that rocked Italy have reason to suspect that Gelli played a behind-the-scenes role in the explosion of a terrorist bomb in the Bologna railroad station on Aug. 2, 1980. The bomb killed 85 people and injured another 182.

Calvi was also known as "God's Banker." Italy: The Great Vatican Bank Mystery

A tale of two deaths, twelve investigations and missing millions

Two suicides, both of which could conceivably be murder. As much as $1.2 billion in unsecured loans. The failure of Italy's huge Banco Ambrosiano, which has left more than 200 international financial institutions holding the bag for millions in loans. A scandal that has threatened the stability of the entire international banking system and has begun to bring about subtle changes in the way the world's major banks do business. A secret plot to undermine the government of Italy and to change the shape of politics in several Latin American countries.

Even if these were the only ingredients, the story would still be intriguing enough for a Robert Ludlum thriller. But an added element is making the scandal that has rocked the world of international finance one of the most compelling real-life mysteries of the century: the involvement of the Istituto per le Opere di Religione (I.O.R.), better known as the Vatican bank.

Founded in 1942 to invest and increase the funds given to the Holy See for religious works, the I.O.R. is much like any other international commercial bank. It accepts savings and checking accounts, transfers funds in and out of the Vatican and makes investments. There are, however, some interesting differences in the bank, which is tucked away in the medieval tower of Sixtus V. Depositors must be connected with the Vatican. The list of those eligible includes members of the Curia (the Pope has a personal account, No. 16/16), the 729 permanent residents of Vatican City, and a small group of clergymen and laymen who have regular business dealings with the Vatican. No others need apply. The bank's assets are thought to be modest by international standards. For that reason, the scandal is especially threatening to the I.O.R.: Italian authorities say the bank may be liable for much of the millions the Banco Ambrosiano Group owed to international banks.

The scandal has also brought a wave of unwelcome attention to the Vatican bank's American-born president, Archbishop Paul Marcinkus. So far no one has openly accused Marcinkus of any illegal acts. But he is one of three Vatican officials under investigation by Italian authorities, who have indicated that Marcinkus could ultimately be charged. Serious questions are also being raised about his judgment and competence, specifically about his willingness to let the Vatican bank and its good name be used by international wheeler-dealers. At least eleven other official inquiries into Banco Ambrosiano's affairs are under way, in Italy, Britain, Switzerland, Luxembourg, the Bahamas and Peru. As those investigations stumble forward, the archbishop's once promising career is endangered, and the affair threatens to become an embarrassment for Pope John Paul II...

There's much more in this last article, well worth reading the whole thing. What does this add up to? The Church is a divinely established institution run by human beings and sustained by the Holy Spirit or else we'd have been gone a long time ago. Both sides of the Cold War utilized some rather nasty infiltration techniques and probably still have operations and influence in place that we've all kind of forgotten. There's probably a connection in a lot of modern jihadist activity to the Cold War, by means of old alliances used for new things, money and training that were meant for an older war now being used in the current war, and resources and organizations around the world that may be reactivated, if the need is perceived.

Operation Gladio

This BBC article on the release of Mehmet Ali Agca, attempted murderer of Pope John Paul II, connects him to a fascinating bit of Cold War history with which I was, up until recently, unfamiliar:

The Grey Wolves group, with which he was associated at the time of the shooting, was linked to an underground network known as Gladio.

This was set up with CIA support in a number of European countries during the Cold War to prepare resistance to a possible Soviet invasion.

In both Italy and Turkey, Gladio networks are believed to have been behind numerous bombings and assassinations.

In Italy, the networks have been exposed and dismantled; in Turkey, they are still widely believed to exist as a so-called "deep state", with support from elements of the military.

There are ongoing trials of dozens of people accused of involvement in illegal, deep-state activities.

Agca was certainly helped to escape from prison in 1979 by his guards and some well-known underground right-wing figures. He was given false passports and enough funds to enable him to travel around Europe for several months before the attempted assassination.

Gladio came to my attention in connection with the Propaganda Due Masonic Lodge scandal in Italy, a massive affair implicating most of the upper levels of Italian public life, and entangling any number of other people in the tendrils of its reach. Anyone interested in one possible account of both these affairs from the perspective of Catholic internal politics should check out this novel--the sort of book Dan Brown dreams of being able to write. I should caution you, though--the author's a liar.

Gnosticism vs. Catholicism

I'm also reading through Henry Chadwick's classic The Early Church, which frequently makes reference to the early controversies between the leaders of the Church (going straight back to the apostles and writers of Scripture) and the various Gnostic heresies--that is, those sects which preach salvation through hidden knowledge, or gnosis. And various is the right word for them--they diverge and multiply as the heads of the Hydra!

In the context of the previous posts on Masonry, and reflecting on the traditionally antagonistic relationship between Christianity and Masonry, I was struck rather forcibly by the realization that Gnosticism is truly the one constant opponent of Christianity throughout history, or at the very least, the one strong alternative system offered the Christian at every age. There's always the basic temptations, of course, and any number of ways to damn your soul without going in for esoteric speculation, but really, in terms of serious, long term religious competitors, the Gnostic offer has paralleled the Christian from the earliest days of out history.

There's something incredibly Biblical about this--almost a literal actualization in the world of the two trees in the Garden of Eden. God presented mankind with a garden full of good things, of which man was free to partake. The two trees specifically mentioned in the second creation account (cf. Genesis 2:9) are the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Interestingly, the tree of life is not forbidden to them by God. That tree is among the trees of the garden permitted to them.

Many people find the prohibition of the tree of knowledge an incredible act--he's holding them back! Why on earth would God forbid them from knowing the difference between good and evil? And yet we have much the same understanding today: some sorts of knowledge ought not be had. There are books we wish we hadn't read, images we wish we hadn't seen, thoughts we wish had never crept into our minds in the middle of the night. There are some things that ought never to be known.

Indeed, since evil is the privation of the good, to know evil (especially in the deep sense of knowing indicated throughout the Bible) seems like a very foul thing indeed. But look again at what we are faced with: the two trees, one with the fruit of life, and the other with the fruit of the knowledge of good and evil. The serpent speaks to the woman, calling her to taste of the fruit of the forbidden tree "and become like God." Funny thing, though--when God speaks his name at the request of Moses, he does not name himself "I am who knows." He says, "I am who am." His self identification is the one who is, the one who lives. He is the God of the living, not the dead. And the consequence of eating of the forbidden fruit was death.

In knowing good and evil, somehow Adam and Eve knew less. They became less wise--they hid from the omnipotent. They attempted to avoid blame. They lost their way, and drew all their children after them. What if Eve had repudiated the serpent, and gone to the tree of life, and eaten of that instead? In much the same spirit--what if people reject the poison pill of gnosis, of secret wisdom, of that inexpressible sense of self satisfied pride of being among the elite, the Inner Circle, as Lewis called it, of the Knowing Ones? What if they instead turned towards the tree of life, the Cross, on which hung the fruit of life, which we must eat if we are to have life within us? What if we walked with the New Eve, the Lady of Sorrow, to the foot of the tree where the serpent was crushed and a new garden, the Church, was planted to feed and save the world?

Masonry (cont.)

A run-down of Masons of note and terms. Ignatius Insight blog has a post on Catholicism and Freemasonry, as well as a brief comment on The Lost Symbol and a book recommendation:

What is it about Freemasonry that would cause churches to forbid or openly discourage seventy million Americans from membership? Why have eight popes condemned the Lodge? Why has the relationship between the Catholic Church and the Masonic order been strained for centuries? Christianity and American Freemasonry answers these and many other questions and describes why Christ ianity and Freemasonry are incompatible. Today over two million American men belong to the Masonic order, the largest and oldest secret fraternal society. In earlier history the Freemasons boasted a prestigious membership, including fourteen American presidents and such founding fathers as Ben Franklin, Paul Revere, and Alexander Hamilton. [Christianity And American Freemasonry, by William J. Whalen] is the most complete reference book available on the subject. Chapters discuss the rituals and oaths, the Scottish and York rites, allied organizations such as the Shriners, and the historic antagonism of Christianity toward Masonry.

From the same book:

After the Reformation had practically halted the construction of new church buildings, the waning masonic lodges began to admit "honorary" or nonworking members to their ranks. The original lodges were unquestionably orthodox in their adherence to the Catholic religion that they served so admirably. One of the earliest masonic charges reads: "The first charge is that you shall bee true man to God and holy church, and that you use no heresie or error by your understanding or by teachings of indiscreet men." Eventually the honorary members outnumbered the operative masons, more or less dispossessed the active members, and took over the symbols and secret signs of the lodges to form what we know as speculative Masonry. Members were expected to believe in God and in the immortality of the soul, but otherwise their religious views were completely irrelevant to the lodge. In 1717 a governing authority known as the "Grand Lodge of England" was established at a meeting of four surviving lodges in the Apple Tree Tavern in London...

Also, current Catholic apologist and ex-Mason on Masonry. All very interesting. All suggesting that more time might be profitably spent examining the group which has, for most of the modern age, been counted amongst the Churches most persistent and effective foes.

Click to download in FLV format (123.06MB)

And Now, the Masons...

Just cause The Lost Symbol came out (btw--Chesterton on Dan Brown), it's part of American history, I'm curious, and gee golly, it's a traditional Catholic conspiracy theory. So...a Masonic roundup. Victorian prime minister William Gladstone's private library was for sale in 2008. He had a "typical Victorian gentleman’s library, featuring the subjects of interest of the day...", including:

An unusual sub-collection is formed by 60 books dealing with the history of freemasonry in Dundee, Perth, Scone and Edinburgh.

One particularly unusual item being sold on behalf of the Gladstone family is The Memoirs of The Carbonari.

Published in 1821, it is one of the earliest books written about a topic that has long fascinated writers everywhere – the secret societies of Sicily.

A Mason's complaint and call to action:

By focusing on ourselves and failing to perceive the true cause of our decline in numbers, we have gone down many false paths. One day classes, reduced proficiencies, and lately a loss of respect for our obligation towards secrecy are all a part of these changes. To stem this decline many Grand Lodges focused significant resources towards charitable activities in the belief that Masonry should be perceived more as a fraternal organization working for the public good. This, it was thought, would serve to lift the veil from our private functions, to depict us as another form of Elk or Lion. In recent years, lodges have opened themselves up and allowed ritual to be recorded knowing it would be publicly broadcast. This was done, as well, to say we have no secrets, when in truth we do...

The Internet has created an enormous temptation for lodge officers and brothers that is very destructive to the Craft. There already exists today video programs on the Internet which can be downloaded and used within the lodge as part of its education program. Many of these are quite engaging but they are often the product of non-Masons and contain information which we are obligated not to disclose. Because it comes from the Internet, and because anyone can view it there, there is the tendency for Masters and brothers to disregard their obligation. They justify this by arguing that because so much that violates Masonic secrecy is readily available, there is no harm in their violating their obligation.

Setting aside the utterly lack of judgment such a decision represents, it also reveals a failure to understand the true nature of our obligation. One consequence is that newly raised Masons who have been aggressively charged in the Third Degree to never violate their obligation are then exposed to a cavalier disregard for it by long standing brothers. They form from that the notion that the obligation is not to be taken seriously, and if the obligation is not a serious matter than neither are the other teachings of Freemasonry. The steady erosion of our commitment to secrecy which has been encouraged by the spread of the Internet is a great threat to our Craft. Every Grand Lodge should have an educational program to impress upon all Masters and line officers what information they can, and cannot, use in the lodge.

A canon lawyer explains the past and continuing ban on Catholics being Masons:

So what is the big deal about Freemasonry, anyway? Masons frequently describe their organization as one devoted to brotherhood and the improvement of society by enlightened means. They deny that they are a secret society at all, much less a society conspiring to destroy the Catholic Church. They emphasize that, as mentioned above, they are largely a social fraternity involved in charitable works.

It must be pointed out that many, many Masons make these assertions in good faith, genuinely unaware of the overarching aims of international Freemasonry. A thorough history of the Masons is of course beyond the scope of this column, but there is much historical evidence that there is a lot more to Masonry than just fraternity and brotherhood...

Freemasons’ references to their enlightened ideas and generous ideals of universal fraternity may sound positive, but their insistence on acceptance of these concepts actually implies a fundamental conflict with the Catholic Church. Insofar as the Church teaches that it possesses divine truths which were revealed nearly 2000 years ago by the Son of God, it embraces a belief system that is diametrically opposed to Freemasonry. And in asserting its own beliefs, Freemasonry cannot but work against the Catholic Church. To cite just a few examples, if one delves in detail into the history behind the bloody persecution of Catholic clergy during the French Revolution in the 18^th century, political upheavals in Catholic Spain in the late 1800’s, or the brutal assault on the Catholic Church in Mexico in the early 20^th century, the quiet, behind-the-scenes direction and influence of Freemasonry can be seen. In other words, there is plenty of evidence that Masons have already in the past been involved in attacks on the Church. The Vatican’s assertion that Masonry is anti-Catholic is not based merely on some sort of vague notion of potential problems; it is grounded in cold, hard historical facts!

For further proof of this, one can hunt in the texts of the Masons themselves, if one has the call to do so. Possible problems for society from the organization are made explicit by the affair known as Propaganda Due, and are laid out by the British in this piece from 1998:

"While many people find the rituals of Freemasonry a risible diversion, concern has been growing about the number of Masons thought to be in positions of influence, particularly in law enforcement, and what kinds of favored treatment they afford one another. Masons have always resisted attempts by officials to learn the identities of their members. A portion of the Mason code compels them to form a ''column of mutual defense and support,'' language that investigators suspect has been used to protect lawbreakers in the ranks from police inquiries. Parliament's home affairs committee last month conducted hearings into Freemason membership on three police forces responsible for well-known miscarriages of justice. Michael Higham, a former Naval Commander who is the Grand Secretary of the London-based United Grand Lodge, the premier institution of world Freemasonry, acknowledged about 20 names on a list only after being threatened with a contempt-of-Parliament order. Over the years, a number of cases have spurred calls for the end of secrecy. In the late 1960's the head of the Obscene Publications Squad sponsored a convicted pornographer as a member of his own lodge. In the 1970's there were a number of cases where leading criminals were members of the same lodge as senior police intelligence officers. In the early 1980's one of Britain's ''most wanted'' criminals, Leonard Gibson, was found to be the Worshipful Master, or head, of a lodge that included eight police officers."

For an overview of Masonic involvement in history, check out 10,000 Famous Freemasons from A to J Part One and 10,000 Famous Freemasons from K to Z Part Two. Apparently, Harry S. Truman wrote the afterword of this two volume set. More on the Masons as an avenue to polite society:

At the same time Albert Nordheimer, the building’s owner, was becoming involved with the growing and highly enigmatic Masonic movement that was sweeping through North America. So he decided to convert the former upper floor music hall into the various homes to the nine Masonic Lodges then in Toronto.

The Masons have been in Toronto since the late 1700s with one of their first permanent lodge homes standing where the entrance to 35 Church St. is today. Back then it was the site of Russell’s Hotel (c.1848) of which the upper floor was built especially for the St. Andrew’s Lodge of Freemasons.

It was de rigueur for men in early York (and later Toronto) society to belong to this mysterious and beneficent organization with its constitutional declaration of a belief in a Supreme Being. It was the only way to get ahead in business or to climb the social ladder (today there are about 5 million members worldwide of the Masons).

Those early men of York had as their grandmaster none other than the Duke of Kent who lived here in York from 1799 till 1806. As well as being the fourth son of King George III, he is best known to history as the father of Queen Victoria.

And there's more.

Dan Brown and Why He Annoys Me So

And here is demonstrated perfectly the nature of the Dan Brown phenomenon:

The Lost Symbol looks set to create a huge uproar across the USA, with its allegations that far from being the country's 'founding father,' Washington was actually a traitor who had been secretly negotiating with the British during the American War of Independence.

He has written a novel, much like his previous novels--and reviewers speak of "allegations" made in the novel. "Allegations". Not plot points. Not ideas. Claims of truth. See, this is why I get on the defensive about "Code" and "Demons"--because Dan Brown does not purport, nor is he expected, to merely write fiction. He gets the big headlines because he makes "allegations" in his "fiction". He makes claims of fact, spins theories, makes accusations--without ever writing a work of non fiction. So don't tell me to calm down, what am I getting so upset about, it's only a novel. He never writes "only a novel". He wouldn't make the big bucks if he only wrote novels, and this reviewer obviously knows that.