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The June 19, 2000 issue of the B.C. Catholic included a column by the Rev. Msgr. Pedro López-Gallo entitled "Plotting against the Church bears penalty." It contained, among other falsehoods, the errors refuted on this page.
The B.C. Catholic is the official publication of the Roman Catholic Vancouver Archdiocese. Only after repeated requests, was a retraction published in the August 28, 2000 issue.
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The B.C. Catholic bears false witness
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| PUBLISHED ERROR | DOCUMENTED FACT |
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"Its origins date back to the 12th century, when the English masons established a religious fraternity"
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Although the links from English Freemasonry to trade guilds prior to 1646 may be open to debate, there is nothing to suggest they were a religious fraternity. The oldest document extant dates from 1390, not the 12th century.
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"it was later abolished by King Edward VI"
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The first statutes of Edward’s reign, "1 Edw. VI., c. xiv.," gave to the king "...all chantries, colleges, and free chapels, all lands given for the finding of a priest for ever, or for the maintenance of any anniversary, obit, light or lamp in any church or chapel, or the like; all fraternities, brotherhoods, and guilds (except those for mysteries and crafts), with all their lands and possessions."
In 1548, statute "2 and 3 Edward VI., Chapter XV" prohibited price fixing by guilds of Bochers, Bruers, Bakers, Poulters, Cooks, Costerdmongers, or Frewterers." It also prohibited any restrictions on where a "Fremason, roughmason carpenter bricklayer playsterer joyner hardhewer sawyer tyler pavyer glasyer lymeburner brickmaker tylemaker plumber or laborer," if he was a English citizen, could work. This clause was repealed the following year at the urging of the London Company who feared an influx of workers from the countryside. [3 and 4 Edw. VI., c. xx.]
In other words, Edward VI, or more accurately his regent, Edward, Duke of Somerset, was supportive and responsive to stonemasons and their guilds, while also restricting the privileges and properties of the Church. Freemasonry was not abolished.
Note: In 1425 Henry VI prohibited the holding of annual gatherings of stonemasons, a statute that was overturned by Queen Elizabeth I (1533/09/07 - 1603/03/23) in 1562.
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| "From their religious origins...."
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Freemasonry did not have religious origins; they were trade guilds. |
| "...they turned to look for a natural type of religion, termed deism"
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Freemasonry is not deist. Freemasonry does not deny revelation; Freemasonry simply does not define revelation. Freemasonry cannot define revelation because Freemasonry is not a religion, natural or otherwise.
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| "its goal was to destroy the Church...."
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Regular and recognized Freemasonry has never declared a goal of destroying the Roman Catholic Church.
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| "...practising atheism...."
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Regular and recognized Freemasonry has never practiced or promoted atheism.
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| "...canon 2335 stated: 'Who adhere to the Masonic sect that plot against the Church or the Civil authorities are automatically excommunicated, reserved to the Apostolic See'."
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Canon 1374 replaced and superseded canon 2335.
The present legislation of the Church is contained in canon 1374: "One who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; one who promotes or moderates such an association, however, is to be punished with an interdict." [Code of Canon Law, Latin-English Edition. Canon Law Society of America, Washington, D.C., 1983, p. 497.] |
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"...the 'Risorgimento,' an armed movement the aim of which was to deprive the Church of its possessions and destroy the temporal kingdom of the Popes, was led by Giuseppe Garibaldi...."
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Regular and recognized Freemasonry was not associated, in any form, with the Risorgimento.
The Risorgimento was as much a literary or journalistic movement as a military one. Garibaldi led the Italian Legion in fighting for the Risorgimento; he did not lead the Risorgimento. Both Garibaldi and the Risorgimento offered their aid to Pius IX but were rebuffed. The goal of the Risorgimento was the expulsion of the French and later, the Austrians, and the unification of Italy under some form of representational democracy.
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| "...Albert Pike. He was the Grand Sovereign Master in 1971...." [sic]
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Pike was Sovereign Grand Commander of the Southern Supreme Council, Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, from his election in 1859 until his death in 1891. This body had, and has, no authority over any Grand Lodge of Freemasons.
The title, "Grand Sovereign Master" was coined by the anti-mason Leo Taxil [see below].
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| "...and wrote the book, Morals and Dogma, which has become the Masonic bible."
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There is no such thing as a "Masonic Bible" and if there was, it certainly wouldn't be Pike’s Morals and Dogma. To quote from the preface to the book: "The teachings of these Readings are not sacramental, so far as they go beyond the realm of Morality into those of other domains of Thought and Truth."
"Every one is entirely free to reject and dissent from whatsoever herein may seem to him to be untrue or unsound." (page iv)
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"The following are a few excerpts: "Yes, Lucifer is God. For the eternal law is that there is no light without shade, no beauty without ugliness, no white without black, for the absolute can only exist as two Gods: darkness being necessary to light to serve as its foil, as the pedestal is necessary to the statue and the brake to the locomotive.
"Thus, the doctrine of Satanism is a heresy; and the true and pure philosophic religion is the belief in Lucifer, god of light and god of good, struggling for humanity against Adonay, the God of Darkness and Evil."
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A careful reading of Morals and Dogma, or in fact anything Pike wrote, will prove that Pike never claimed that Lucifer is God. This entire quote is a documented forgery by Léo Taxil who publicly confessed before an audience of journalists and clerics on April 19, 1897 that he and his writings were a fraud.
Catholic journalist and author, Abel Clarin de la Rive, who had reprinted many of Taxil’s lies, recanted anything originating with Léo Taxil in the April 1897 issue of his anti-masonic publication, Freemasonry Disclosed. Among further denouncements, two are particularly noteworthy: that of the Abbé Hemmer in the religious weekly Semaine religieuse de Paris, 1900, page 214, and that of Canon Mustel in Histoire d'une Mystification, Paris, 1901.
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| "A declaration of Nov. 26, 1983, explains that Masonic associations are included in this canon (c.1374) under a more general heading which could include any other association conspiring against the Church. Therefore, the Church’s negative judgement in regard to Masonic associations remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and membership in them remains forbidden."
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A Commentary on The Code of Canon Law; 27 November 1983, referring to canon 1374 (which replaced canon 2335) reads: "While the former excommunication of Catholics who joined Masonic societies has not been repeated in this Code, a sanction can be imposed on those who join associations that work against the Church, and an interdict can be placed on those who promote or run such groups. Whether Masons fall within these strictures must now be determined by authorities within the particular churches." |
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"...recent Masonic fraternities, especially in North America, have abandoned their hostility against the Church..."
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Not one of the 103 independent, and regular Grand Lodges of Freemasonry in North America has ever declared any hostility towards the Roman Catholic Church.
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