Historic Origins of Modern Masonry

Modern Masonry was founded in London in 1717 when four small Masonic lodges united to become the Grand Lodge of England. Subsequently, in 1736, the first Masonic Lodge in Europe, the Grand Orient Lodge in Paris, was founded.

With the founding of the Grand Lodge of England, Freemasonry, known also as the Craft or the Brotherhood, was no longer a guild of operative stone masons who had built Europe's great Catholic cathedral. It had become a collection of intellectuals who out of pride valued reason over faith which in turn led to a descent into the spiritual darkness of self-deification.

In Defense of Christianity

	The Masonic Symbol

Since 1738, the Popes have warned of the intrinsic deceitfulness of Freemasonry and similar secret societies because of their rejection of Jesus Christ as the Saviour and Redeemer.

The intrinsic evil of Masonry, which embraces organised naturalism and denies the divinity of Christ, was already so evident by 1738 that Pope Clement XII in an encyclical binding to the entire Christian Church admonished the faithful to avoid membership in and association with Freemasonry: "All the faithful of Christ of whatever state, grade, condition or order, we ordain stringently and in virtue of holy obedience, that they shall not under any pretext enter, propagate or support the aforesaid societies, known as Freemasons, or otherwise named, that the faithful shall not be enrolled in them, or take part in their proceedings, assist them, or afford them in any way counsel, and, or favour, publicly or privately, directly or indirectly, by themselves or by others in any way whatever under pain of excommunication to be incurred by the very act without further declaration…" Absolution from this most grievous offence against God was only obtainable from the successor to St Peter, the Pope himself.

Clement’s condemnation was absolute "…because of the wickedness and perversion of Masonry and their ability to deceive".

In 1829, Pope Pius XIII stated, "Lying is their rule, Satan is their God, and shameful deeds their sacrifice". And in 1885, Pope Pius IX told the Archbishop of Paris that Masonic secret sects formed "The Synagogue of Satan".

Pope Leo XIII, in Humanum Genus, labelled Freemasonry "this foul plague [with]a fraudulent external appearance," and proclaimed, "we wish it to be your rule first of all to tear away the mask from Freemasonry and let it be seen for what it really is; and my sermons and pastoral letters to instruct the people as to the artifices used by societies of this kind in seducing men."

On December 5, 1983, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith notified the hierarchy "The Church’s negative judgement remains unchanged. The faithful who enrol in Masonic Associations are in a state of grave sin…" adding that local Ordinaries did not have the authority to abrogate this decision.

Masonic Black Masses

In a 1991 interview Cardinal Eduard Gagnon, member of the Church’s Curia, said he knew from his personal experience in Canada, that Masons stole the Consecrated Hosts to be used in the celebration of Masonic black masses. The Cardinal stated further that Masons had made repeated efforts to influence the Vatican to lift all prohibitions against Catholic membership.

Masonic Wars and Assassinations

The Masonic lodges, together with the Jacobins and the Illuminati, masterminded the bloody French Revolution to overthrow the Catholic monarchy and the Catholic Church so as to install a Masonic republic. Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette were beheaded; the Catholic clergy were either murdered or forced to hide; a Masonic black Mass desecrated the high altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris and Masonic governments have ruled France for most of the past two centuries. In 1914, World War I was precipitated by the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, heir apparent to the Hapsburg throne and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Gavrilo Princep, one of the assassins, testified that the Serbian Masonic Lodge had ordered the assassination – the goal was to destroy both the Hapsburg dynasty and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Kaiser Wilhelm II stated in his biography that the Masonic Grand Masters of Europe intended to destroy the Catholic Hapsburg dynasty, eliminate the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and destroy the Catholic Church. They were successful in two of the three goals!

	St. Maximilian Kolbe

In 1917, Maximilian Kolbe watched in horror as the Freemasons, celebrating their bicentennial, marched through the streets of Rome carrying banners depicting Satan defeating St Michael and declaring: "Satan will rule on Vatican Hill and the Pope will serve as his errand boy." Martyr and saint, Fr. Kolbe worked tirelessly against Masonry because he knew how this enemy of the Church insidiously effects revolutionary social changes by promoting spiritual paralysis, moral compromise, secular humanism, and the heresy of indifferentism.

In July 1992, Mexico’s Masonic Grand Master, Francisco Valle Guzman condemned the Catholic Church as "the most powerful and ruthless enemy of science, civilisation, fraternity and love. Any reconciliation between us is impossible." He then added that Masonry’s "duty" is to be the "gravediggers" of the Catholic Church.

In the spring of 1993, Mexican Cardinal Posadas Ocampo stated, "the principles and traditional philosophy of the Freemasons makes it clear that they don’t act in our favour," adding that the 1994 presidential elections "would be an appropriate occasion for change."

In May 1993, the Cardinal was gunned down in the Guardalajara Airport. Although circumstantial evidence points to a Masonic assassination, Mexico’s Masonic government continues to declare that the murder was an accident.

Warning

At each degree of initiation, Masons take a deadly oath, and swear allegiance to Masonry above God and country. Under pain of death, they swear never to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry - not even to their wives. Therefore, no matter what Masons claim about their good works or intentions, they cannot be believed. They are the Church's diabolical enemy.

Root Causes of the Great Apostasy

St Paul in his second letter to the Thessalonians foretold events which must take place before the second coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ.

"Let no one deceive you in any way, for the day of the Lord will not come unless the apostasy comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and is exalted above all that is called God, all that is worshipped, so that he sits in the temple of God and gives himself out as if he were God." (2 Thess. 2: 3,4)

St Paul’s letter explicitly prophesises that the great apostasy and the advent of the Antichrist must precede the second coming. Is it possible for the faithful to recognise the era of the great apostasy or will they be deceived by the lying wonders of the son of perdition, the marks of which, according to St Paul are "lying wonders and with all wicked deception"?

Our Lord Jesus Christ established His Church to be His teaching authority on earth and He chose St Peter as the first pope. It was Pope Pius XII, one of St Peter’s successors, at a pastoral conference on May 23, 1958, while warning the faithful of the great apostasy also identified the causes of the great apostasy: "the roots of modern apostasy lay in scientific atheism, dialectic materialism, rationalism, illuminism, laicism, and freemasonry which is the mother of all of them."

Papal Encyclicals/Vatican Documents In Condemnation of Freemasonry

Clement XII, 1738 In Eminente
- automatic excommunication of Catholic Masons
Benedict XIV, 1751 Providas
- condemned Masonry for five reasons: secrecy, oaths, Indifferentism, anti-Catholic, immoral
Clement XIII, 1766 Christianae Republicae
- Masonry duplicates Manichean and Gnostic heresies
Pius VI, 1775 Inscrutabili Diviniae Sapientiae
- Masonry man is subject to no authority
Pius VII, 1821 Ecclesiam a Jesu-Cristo
- Masonry is a counter-church
Leo XII, 1825 Quo Graviora
- Masonry denies the divinity of Christ
Pius VIII, 1829 Traditae Humilitati Nostrae
- Masonry’s God is Satan
- Bishops must oppose all secret societies
Gregory XVI, 1832 Miari Vos
- Masonic philosophy has penetrated the Church
Pius IX, 1873 Etsi Multa
- American Masonry is as evil as European Masonry
Leo XIII, 1884 Humanum Genus
- Masonic mask of deception must be torn away
Pius X, 1911 Iamdudum
- condemns Masonic separation of Church and state
Benedict XV, 1917 Code of Canon Law
- reconfirms excommunication of Catholic Masons
Pius XII, 1958 Pastoral Letter
- Masonry is "mother root" of modern apostasy
John Paul II, 1983 Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith
- Catholics prohibited from being Masons

Prayer to St Michael, the Archangel

Holy Michael, the Archangel, defend us in this day of battle. Be our safeguard against the wickedness and snares of the devil. May God rebuke him, we humbly pray, and do thou, O Prince of the Heavenly Host, by the Power of God, cast into hell Satan and all the other evil spirits who prowl through the world seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.