Freemasonry: What all Catholics Should know about it!

By Chriss Rainey

The subject of Freemasonry is complicated. It has a long and mysterious history involving people across several continents and individuals whose personal reputations we often find difficult to criticize. My own father and grandfather were Freemasons My brother is also a Freemason, and though I have tried diligently to convince him to leave it, he is certain it is not what I believe it to be. I know these men to be good and decent fathers and husbands. I have lived with them and loved them; it is difficult to imagine they were involved in anything as ugly as Freemasonry has proven to be.
So a couple of years ago when it was explained to me how evil Freemasonry is, and how the Church has strongly and repeatedly condemned it, I was shocked. I didn't want to believe that men in my family had been a part of anything as bad as had been described. I grew up in a Protestant family, and it was not unusual to know men who were Freemasons. They were assumed to be some of the finest people in the community, and if a man could boast of being one of them, he had reason to be proud. They sported lapel pins and rings and participated in annual town festivals and parades.

Setting out to discover the truth about Freemasonry can take up a lot of time and energy that could and should be spent more productively. I don't advise anyone to go down that path without a good reason. I felt I needed to know because of my family connection to it. The truth about the craft is not always easy to determine, and weaved into the truth is a lot of speculation and myth. In the information included here I am citing only those I consider to be reliable and trustworthy sources. They include the book, Masonry Unmasked: An Insider Reveals the Secrets of the Lodge, by John Salza, a Catholic, a lawyer, and a past member of the Lodge. His book is, as far as I'm concerned, the only source that can be trusted to completely and without reservation tell the whole truth without a lot of added sensationalizing.

The other two sources of documentation indispensable for a proper study of the subject are The Catechism of the Catholic Church, and all the papal bulls and encyclicals letters on the subject written over time by our Holy Fathers.

I suggest to anyone interested in the subject, avoid all the areas which have no basis in fact and the fabricated or supposed connections to ancient history, because they really aren’t Important and will waste a lot of your time. The devil loves to see you go down a rabbit hole and get distracted from the truth.

Starting with the Catechism, I suggest that you focus on Part Three: Life in Christ, Chapter Two, "The Human Community", Article 1, titled, “The Person and Society”, The Communal Character of the Human Vocation (#1878-1885), Conversion and Society (#1886-1896), and Article 2, titled, “Participation in Social Life”, Authority (#1897-1904), The Common Good (#1905-1912), and Responsibility and Participation (#1913-1923).

Without a very clear understanding of what the Church has to say about the government of men, it's not as easy to see what the contrast is between this teaching and the goals of Freemasonry, which are ultimately the total opposite.

By clicking on the website www.papalencyclicals.net, you can access a full list of papal documents which are easy to sort, read, and print. Just do a simple search for Freemasonry and see what you find. Arrange the documents in chronological order and you quickly see that the dates correspond in many instances with the prelude to, or the result of, a truly disturbing event in world history. The first of the letters about Freemasonry was published in 1738, twenty years after the birth of "modern" Freemasonry in London, England, at the height of the Enlightenment Period. The document is In Eminenti on Freemasonry, a papal bull by Clement XII. Quoting from that document (with considerable paraphrasing for the sake of space,) we hear the pope say, "…called in the popular tongue Liberi Muratori or Fancs Massons or by other names, are spreading and growing in strength; and men of any Religion or sect, …are joined together, according to their laws… We do condemn and prohibit them."

In 1826, Pope Leo XII, on March 13, wrote in Quo Graviora

"…from those old Masonic sects, very many others have arisen much more dangerous than the former. The sect of the Carbonari, considered the leader of all the others was considered to embrace all these, and having divided into, various branches diverse in name only, understood to fight most vehemently against the Catholic Religion and every topmost legitimate civil power. …these things those men teach, not only from a most offensive hate by which they are inflamed against Religion, but also, may be easily aroused by this example to change and destroy even the form of civil government. …they have declared by all their deeds that they wish to throw all things into disorder and to overturn all things.”

I think you must understand now why I began by first giving you the Church's position on civil authority so you would understand how contrary this hostile group behavior was then and now. Nowhere can there be found in our catechism the condoning of civil unrest and revolution. We are to respect authority and we are to pray for our leaders, that their rule over us will be reasonable and just, and that their decisions will be pleasing to God.

In the encyclical of Pope Pius VIII, dated May 24, 1829, Traditi Humilitati, on his Program for the Pontificate, the pope begins by saying,

"…we are sad. …due to the numberless errors and the teachings of perverse doctrines which, vigorously, attack the Catholic faith. …evil men have raised the standard of revolt against religion through philosophy, the philosophers of this age do not admit any difference among the different professions of faith and who think that the portal of eternal salvation opens for all from any religion."

The philosophy he refers to is communism. Shortly after this letter was written, Moses Mordecai Marx Levy, alias Karl Marx, in 1848 published "The Communist Manifesto." Marx was a member of an Illuminati front organization called the League of the Just which, merged with another group, wrote a new charter and named themselves The Communist League.

Bear in mind, evil has no demands on itself to be truthful, transparent, honest, or trustworthy. So joining forces, changing names, starting new fronts are all very typical behaviors of Freemasonry which thrives in secret and in darkness. If it is any compensation, we can remind ourselves that Revelations 22:14-15 says, "Blessed are they who wash their robes so as to have the right to the tree of life and enter the city through its gates. Outside are the dogs, the sorcerers, the unchaste, the murderers, the idol-worshippers, and all who love and practice deceit."

We need to also note here this is the first reference by a pope to the concept of indifferentism. This is the belief that all religion is equally valid or invalid; there is no difference between one and another. This is also the time when we see a general rise in the concept of relativism and a sharp disconnect with the idea of real truth.

From 1872-1888, further editions of the Communist Manifesto were published in German, Russian, and English. A curious quote worth noting can be found in the preface of the English document. It says, "The Manifesto was published as the platform of the 'Communist League', a working men's association, and under the political conditions of the Continent before 1848, unavoidably a secret society." It is undoubtedly the most widespread, the most international production of all Socialist literature.

This quote gives us the proof needed to link communism/socialism to secret societies and Freemasonry. And to be sure, communism and socialism are one and the same. Ludwig von Mises, the renowned Austrian economist, said the only difference is how they are instituted: one by revolution and the other over time. And we know that all the great communists’ powers refer to themselves as "socialist republics." In 1884 the encyclical, Humanum Genus was issued by Pope Leo XIII. Fifty years had gone by since his predecessor last wrote about Freemasonry. This is long enough for another generation to have grown up, and long enough for people to have lost interest in previous warnings. And perhaps it is partly due to that fact that Pope Leo speaks to Catholics with such gentleness and patience, knowing that this subject is new to them and that most of them may have had no knowledge or personal interest in it up to this point. In what I feel is the most important and convincing papal document on the subject, Pope Leo XIII spells out clearly how this movement, this group of secret societies is literally the work of the devil, and the threat is not only to individuals who associate with it, but to the whole Catholic Church.

In the document he says,

9. “There are several organized bodies bound together by community of purpose and by the similarity of their main opinions, as to make in fact one thing with the sect of the Freemasons, which is a kind of center whence they all go forth, and whither they all return. There are many things which it is the fixed rule to hide from very many members, such as their final designs, and the names of the chief leaders, as well as their decisions, and the ways and means of carrying them out.“

13. “… they endeavor to bring about this result -- namely, that the teaching office and authority of the Church may become of no account in the civil State; and contend that Church and State ought to be altogether disunited.“

Pope Leo XIII wanted us to understand we should not be fooled by the good works they do. Not by their Shriner Hospitals, or their parades, their outward friendliness or "good works." He also did not hesitate to lump all these various groups together as one and the same, since he knew they were linked and connected into one. Men who had once been in these groups and left were informing clergy and testimony, and documentation was shared with those in the top leadership of the Church, including the pope.

In 1890, Pope Leo XIII felt compelled to write again on this subject, and in October of that year he released another encyclical titled, Dall' Alto Dell' Apostolico Seggio, in which he said, "As the enemy makes no truce, so neither you nor We must remain silent or inert.

It is the plan of the sects, especially in what relates to the Catholic religion and the Church, with the final and avowed purpose, of reducing it to nothing. Possessed by the spirit of Satan, whose instrument they are, they burn like him with a deadly and implacable hatred of Jesus Christ and of His work; and they endeavor by every means to overthrow and fetter it."

This is his strongest statement yet, in my opinion. Emphatically he sounds the warning to all Catholics that the sect of Freemasons has as its goal the total destruction of the Roman Catholic Church. And how are they planning to do this since the Freemasons have no army? By using the power of elected officials anywhere the sect has influence over them to undermine all teachings of the Church and all authority of its clergy and all the rights of its faithful followers.

In the years that followed the Second World War, Freemasonry had gained such a foothold in the halls of power and had put such a mask over the minds of the public at large, who no longer had a pope willing to face down this enemy, that methods of changing society other than armed conflict were possible. The court became the primary tool. Franklin Roosevelt appointed six Masons to the Supreme Court and three others who espoused the Masonic philosophy. Harry Truman appointed four justices. All were Freemasons. Eisenhower, a Mason himself, appointed two more Freemasons to the court.

In this era, with a Masonic dominance of the court, Justice Jackson admitted that he and those who shared Roosevelt's viewpoint on the Constitution had succeeded in their efforts to shape democracy in America through the appointment of "forward-looking justices." Freemasonry's aim was to bring establishment-clause cases to the high court so they could be adjudicated by justices who shared the same Masonic philosophy of Church-State separation.

Beginning in 1947, and for the next quarter century, the court systematically eroded the Christian underpinnings of American government. There is much speculation in our society about the coming of a New World Order. Some believe that Freemasonry, with its secret religious teachings and its powerful influence in all three branches of government is the vehicle by which the New World Order will be realized.

Masonry, according to H.L. Haywood, “is a world law, destined to change the earth into conformity with itself … the Masonic brethren are to pray for the 'universal dominion of the true principles of Masonry." When they pray, one must wonder to whom do they actually pray.

Chriss is an avid reader of history and free market economics. She is also a freelance writer and lives in Reston, VA, with her husband, Spencer.