When the Pope becomes the chaplain of Masonry

Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2008

On April 18, 2008, Benedict XVI went to the United Nations headquarters to officially commemorate the 60th anniversary of the promulgation of the Declaration of Human Rights. As anyone knows, this declaration closely follows the Declaration of the Rights of Man and Citizen of the French Revolution, inspired by the principles of the Enlightenment, which professes a system called Deism, a belief in a vague "god."

In his speech Benedict could not have been more admirative of this Masonic document. Indeed, he affirmed, "It is evident that the rights recognized and expounded in the Declaration apply to everyone by virtue of the common origin of the person, who remains the high-point of God's creative design for the world and for history." Therefore, the Pope conferred a kind of divine mission to this Declaration.

His eulogies of the revolutionary ideals were not limited to the Declaration. The institution of the UN itself, an organ to accomplish the goals of the Universal Republic dreamed of by Freemasonry, were also the object of his warm praise. He emphatically stated: "The United Nations embodies the aspiration for a greater degree of international ordering, inspired and governed by the principle of subsidiarity, and therefore capable of responding to the demands of the human family by means of binding international rules and structures capable of harmonizing the day-to-day unfolding of the lives of peoples."

Further on, he declared: "My presence in this Assembly is a sign of esteem for the United Nations, and it is intended to express the hope that the Organization will increasingly serve as a sign of unity between States and an instrument of service to the entire human family."

He also gave an account of the inter-confessional efforts of the Conciliar Church to build a Panreligion as a collaboration that should be placed under the hegemony of the UN. He said: "The United Nations can count on the results of the dialogue between religions, and can draw fruit from the willingness of believers to place their experiences at the service of the common good. Their task is to propose a vision of faith not in terms of intolerance, discrimination and conflict, but in terms of complete respect for truth, coexistence, rights and reconciliation."

He ended his speech by declaring the Holy See itself a type of subordinate of the UN when he affirmed: "The Holy See has always had a place at the assemblies of the Nations, thereby manifesting its specific character as a subject in the international domain ... The United Nations remains a privileged setting in which the Church is committed to contributing her experience in humanity ... and placing it at the disposal of all members of the international community."

It is not difficult to see that Benedict XVI took upon himself the role of a chaplain of the UN, who supports its actions wholeheartedly. A chaplain of the UN is in effect the same as to say, a chaplain of Masonry.

Below first row, he blesses a flag of the UN that was damaged by a car bomb in Iraq. Second row, during his speech. Third row, an overview of the assembly hall with Benedict at the podium. Last row, at right, he poses with the president and the secretary of the UN in turn.

http://www.un.org/webcast/pdfs/Pope_speech.pdf

Estructura la Masoneria

QQ:.HH:. y estimados lectores

Este diagrama llamado "Estructura de la Masonería" en realidad representa la estructura de los Grados en los Ritos de York Americano y Escoces. Es importante señalar que el Rito de York originalmente solo comprende 7 grados, los cuales siguen siendo practicados ademas de la version "Americana".

Aprovecho este Post para recordar que la Masonería tiene 3 Grados "Universales" dado que todos los ritos los presentan en sus estructuras. Estos 3 grados son llamados "Simbólicos" y son encontrados o practicados en lo que llamamos Logias "Azules" o "Simbólicas". Estos Grados son reconocidos por todas las Obediencias. El Mason que alcance el Sublime Grado de Maestro Mason puede continuar su perfeccionamiento por diferentes "caminos" que son los Ritos.

Lo importante de este diagrama es que muestra claramente que sea cual sea el camino tomado en la Masonería todo converge a un solo punto: el G:.A:.D:.U:. .

Es realmente lamentable que algunos credos consideren a la Orden Masonica como incompatible u opuesta a ellos. En repetidas ocaciones me han peguntado si un Mason podia profesar alguna religion, a lo cual siempre he respondido positivamente. Probablemente sea el hecho que la Masoneria es adogmatica lo que puede ser considerado como "negativo" por muchas religiones ... pero eso es tema para otro Post de este Blog. ¿Y tu H o estimado lector, que opinion tienes?

(click on image)

Pentacles, Wiccans and Masonry

A question that pops up from time to time on Masonic forums and in lodge has to do with the requirement of a petitioner to believe in a "supreme being" and whether Wicca qualifies as such a belief. Undoubtedly, part of the trepidation by some Masons to accept Wicca as a religion has to do with seeing inverted pentacles drawn on floors by hooded devil-worshippers in too many old Night Gallery reruns. Curiously, these same brethren generally have no problem with the inverted pentacle of the Order of the Eastern Star.

Perhaps some calm may be brought to the discussion by the news today that the Veteran's Administration has agreed to allow the Wiccan pentacle on the gravestones of fallen soldiers. The pentacle joins the list of 38 accepted religious symbols approved for headstones.

The pentacle, pentalpha or five pointed star, in truth, had no connotations of "good" or "evil" until the defrocked French abbé Eliphas Levi gave it such distinctions in the late 1800s. The pentagram first appeared more than 5,000 years ago, in Mesopotamian writings and drawings. The Babylonians used it as an astrological diagram to represent the five known planets, —Mercury, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn, with Venus, the Queen of Heaven, at the top point of the star, as the Queen of Heaven. The Pythagorean Greeks used an inverted pentacle's five points to represent the Classical elements of fire, water, air, earth and idea – (or more properly, Hieron, a word meaning “divine thing.”). Modern day Wiccans and Neopagans similarly use the symbol in this a similar manner, to represent the four earthbound elements air, earth, fire, water and the “spirit.” Depending on the variety of Wicca, the symbol may appear with the point up or down.

Five has been a sacred number is a variety of religions, and the pentacle has long been a handy shorthand for those many meanings. Humans have five fingers or toes on each limb. We have five senses. Early Christians used the pentacle to describe a very wide range of concepts. Over time they have been used by Christians to describe, from the five senses and to the five wounds of Christ on the cross. Catholics have used it to describe symbolize the five “virtues of Mary” (Annunciation, Nativity, Resurrection, Ascension and the Assumption). In the 14th 14th-century Arthurian tale of Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, it appears on Sir Gawain’s shield to delineate the five virtues of knighthood: fellowship, purity, frankness, courtesy and compassion. And Islam has its five pillars of faith.

The pentacle has occasionally appeared in the symbolism of Freemasonry in a couple of references. It’s most prominent appearance today isly as the symbol of the Order of the Eastern Star. The Order of the Eastern Star is, part of the Masonic family of related groups known as the appendant bodies. It was created in the 1850s by Freemason Rob Morris and his wife as a group that allowed both men and women to mix in a lodge-like setting. Men who are Masons may join, as well as women who are married or otherwise related to a Masons. Morris was, an inveterate lover of Masonic ritual, and so he created a ritual ceremony that was initiatory like as in Freemasonry, but was dissimilar enough that so he couldn’t be accused by Grand Lodges of making women into Masons.
He based his ritual on biblical sources. The degree ceremonies of the Order of the Eastern Star tell stories about five heroines of the Bible: Adah, Jephthah’s daughter from the Book of Judges; Ruth, the daughter-in-law of Naomi; Esther, the brave Hebrew wife of Xerxes; Martha, Lazarus’ sister, from the Gospel of John; and Electa, the “elect lady” mentioned in II John.

The pentacle as it is used in the Order of the Eastern Star represents the Star of Bethlehem, and the points of the star refer to the biblical heroines. Chapter rooms are traditionally laid out with a large floor cloth or carpet representing the pentagram and its star points. At the center of the symbol stands an altar with an open Bible open upon it.

Apart from its use in the Order of the Eastern Star, the pentacle – right-side- up or inverted – does not officially appear in Masonic ritual or symbolism – at least not in the U.S. Some “tracing boards” appeared in the early 1800s that contained five-pointed stars with a “G” in the center as a symbol of both God and of the knowledge of geometry. Other researchers have suggested that it may have represented a portion of the Master Mason degree ritual, the “Five Points of Fellowship.” But it was not a common symbol and has not survived in widespread use.

www.religioustolerance.org