Pope Francis said Friday that Catholics should look to their own consciences more than Vatican rules to negotiate the complexities of sex, marriage and family life, demanding the church shift its emphasis from doctrine to mercy in confronting some of the thorniest issues facing the faithful.”
“He said the church must no longer sit in judgment and “throw stones” at those who fail to live up to the Gospel’s ideals of marriage and family life.”
“On thorny issues such as contraception, Francis stressed that a couple’s individual conscience — not dogmatic rules imposed on them across the board — must guide their decisions and the church’s pastoral practice.”
“We have been called to form consciences, not replace to them,” he said.
“He insisted the church’s aim is to reintegrate and welcome all its members. He called for a new language to help Catholic families cope with today’s problems. And he said pastors must take into account mitigating factors — fear, ignorance, habits and duress — in counseling Catholics who simply aren’t perfect.”
“It can no longer simply be said that all those in any irregular situations are living in a state of mortal sin and are deprived of sanctifying grace,” he wrote. Even those in an “objective situation of sin” can be in a state of grace, and can even be more pleasing to God by trying to improve, he said.
Could it be that the many changes that Pope Francis has made to the Catholic Church pave the way for a reconsideration of its opposition to Freemasonry?
Ever since 1738 the Catholic Church has prohibited membership in Freemasonry. For a complete overview of the historical rulings by the Church see The Catholic Church and Freemasonry
Posted by Greg Stewart on Freemason Information.
Pope Francis
Looking at a Pope who has not been in office for a great length of time, you can see some far reaching reforms and adjustments that have already been made. Would it be a fantasy to surmise that somewhere down the line this Pope might relax the ban against the Craft?
The Church is not yet in the grip of a revolution. The limits, theological and practical, on papal power are still present, and the man who was Jorge Bergoglio has not done anything that explicitly puts them to the test. But his moves and choices (and the media coverage thereof) have generated a revolutionary atmosphere around Catholicism. For the moment, at least, there is a sense that a new springtime has arrived for the Church’s progressives. And among some conservative Catholics, there is a feeling of uncertainty absent since the often-chaotic aftermath of the Second Vatican Council, in the 1960s and ’70s.”
“That unease has coexisted with a tendency to deny that anything has really changed since the former cardinal and archbishop of Buenos Aires became pope. From the first unscripted shocker—his “Who am I to judge?” in response to a reporter’s question about gay priests—many conservative Catholics have argued that the press is seeing what it wants to see in the new pontiff.”
“Francis is clearly a less systematic thinker than either of his predecessors, and especially than the academic-minded Benedict. Whereas the previous pope defended popular piety against liberal critiques, Francis embodies a certain style of populist Catholicism—one that’s suspicious of overly academic faith in any form. He seems to have an affinity for the kind of Catholic culture in which Mass attendance might be spotty but the local saint’s processions are packed—a style of faith that’s fervent and supernaturalist but not particularly doctrinal. He also remains a Jesuit-formed leader, and Jesuits have traditionally combined missionary zeal with a certain conscious flexibility about doctrinal details that might impede their proselytizing work.”
Emblem of the Papacy
“But there are times when Francis himself seems to desire something more than just a change in emphasis. Even as he has officially reaffirmed Church teachings on sex and marriage, he has shown a persistent impatience—populist, Jesuit, or both—with the obstacles these teachings present to bringing some lapsed Catholics back to the Church. His frustration has emerged most clearly on the issue of divorce and remarriage: he has repeatedly shown what seems to be tacit support for the idea, long endorsed by Walter Kasper and other liberal cardinals, to allow Catholics in a second marriage to receive Communion even if their first marriage is still considered valid—that is, even if they are living in what the Church considers an adulterous relationship.”
“The problem for Francis is that Kasper’s argument is not particularly persuasive. Describing Communion for the remarried as merely a pastoral change ignores its inevitable doctrinal implications. If people who are living as adulterers can receive Communion, if the Church can recognize their state of life as nonideal but somehow tolerable, then either the Church’s sacramental theology or its definition of sin has been effectively rewritten. And the ramifications of such a change are potentially sweeping. If ongoing adultery is forgivable, then why not other forms of loving, long-standing sexual commitment?”
“This, then, is the place where Francis’s quest for balance could, through his own initiative, ultimately fall apart, bringing the very culture war he’s downplayed back to center stage. And it’s the place where his pontificate could become genuinely revolutionary. His other moves are changing the Church, but in gradual and reversible ways, leaving lines of conflict blurry and tensions bridgeable. But altering a teaching on sex and marriage that the Church has spent centuries insisting it simply cannot alter—a teaching on a question addressed directly (as, say, homosexuality is not) by Jesus himself—is a very different thing. It would suggest to the world, and to many Catholics, that Catholicism was formally capitulating to the sexual revolution. It would grant the Church’s progressives reasonable grounds for demanding room for further experiments. And it would make it impossible for many conservatives, lay and clerical, to avoid some kind of public opposition to the pope.
Could this mean that Catholic Freemasons might be granted the right to receive communion and hold positions of lay leadership in the Church? Certainly Freemasonry does not seem to be on Pope Francis’ top ten list of changes yet to come. But if the mood, the emphasis away from doctrinal purity, persists then perhaps some sort of reconciliation can take place between the Church and Freemasonry. And if that comes to past we will be in a new day of peace and harmony.
English: The 1919 Chicago White Sox Team Photo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There must be SOMETHING to hold American Grand Masters responsible and accountable to acceptable Masonic practices. Otherwise Freemasonry in the United States is whatever a Grand Master and a Grand Lodge says it is, and you end up with 51 versions of Freemasonry, and sometimes Freemasonry out of control. There is a difference between differences because of tradition and differences solely for the purpose of an agenda that ends up corrupting the Craft. There is an urgent need in the United States for an American Masonic identity that binds all states and all members of the Craft in one common purpose and outlook.
This need not be some cumbersome bureaucracy added onto American Freemasonry. It could be as simple as a national Constitution and Freemasonry in the United States could be overseen by existing Masonic apparatus – the Conference of Grand Masters and the Masonic Service Association of North America.
Let’s look at an analogy – professional Major League Baseball. In the 20s you had the Black Sox scandal precipitated by abuses of the owners. In addition team owners were doing whatever they wanted with no standardized practices. Finally baseball realized it could not operate this way anymore, that the total freedom and separateness was dooming the national pastime. So the owners got together and appointed a Commissioner of baseball that still exists today. It keeps all the teams operating under the same set of rules and practices thereby eliminating corrupt and hurtful practices.
Like baseball teams, American Grand Lodges should not be able to do whatever they want. Now we perhaps don’t want a Commissioner of Freemasonry but we could continue on with a National Constitution with any administering or adjudication performed by the Council of Grand Masters with the help of the MSANA. This solution is simple, not adding any bureaucracy and keeps the sovereignty of each state Grand Lodge.
Greg Stewart then said: “You make an interesting point, one I’d like to come back to someday.”
Well Greg today is the day.
I was prompted to remember all this by two stories that were prominent in the news today, December 23, 2014. The first story was that of Detroit center Dominic Raiola being suspended for stomping on Bears defensive tackle Ego Ferguson on Sunday. Who suspended him? Why the NFL League Office on orders from Football Commissioner Roger Goodell. This was Raiola’s sixth rules violation related to player safety.
Now each football team is like each Mainstream Grand Lodge in the United States, a sovereign entity all to itself. But each team must answer to a higher power so that they are all playing by the same set of rules and that infractions in code or conduct are disciplined.
The problem with American Freemasonry is that there is no check on abuses. While baseball, football, basketball and hockey all have National Commissioners overseeing fair play, Freemasonry does not. It is much easier in other countries that have only one Grand Lodge. There is no competition to muck up the works. But in the good old U.S.A. there are 51 Grand Lodges who go their own separate way without ever having to worry about being disciplined for any infractions they desire to make.
4) The ailment of excessive planning and functionalism: this is when the apostle plans everything in detail and believes that, by perfect planning things effectively progress, thus becoming a sort of accountant. … One falls prey to this sickness because it is easier and more convenient to settle into static and unchanging positions. Indeed, the Church shows herself to be faithful to the Holy Spirit to the extent that she does not seek to regulate or domesticate it. The Spirit is freshness, imagination and innovation
6) Spiritual Alzheimer’s disease, or rather forgetfulness of the history of Salvation, of the personal history with the Lord, of the ‘first love’: this is a progressive decline of spiritual faculties, that over a period of time causes serious handicaps, making one incapable of carrying out certain activities autonomously, living in a state of absolute dependence on one’s own often imaginary views. We see this is those who have lost their recollection of their encounter with the Lord … in those who build walls around themselves and who increasingly transform into slaves to the idols they have sculpted with their own hands.
7) The ailment of rivalry and vainglory: when appearances, the colour of one’s robes, insignia and honours become the most important aim in life. … It is the disorder that leads us to become false men and women, living a false ‘mysticism’ and a false ‘quietism’.
8) Existential schizophrenia: the sickness of those who live a double life, fruit of the hypocrisy typical of the mediocre and the progressive spiritual emptiness that cannot be filled by degrees or academic honours. This ailment particularly afflicts those who, abandoning pastoral service, limit themselves to bureaucratic matters, thus losing contact with reality and with real people. They create a parallel world of their own, where they set aside everything they teach with severity to others and live a hidden, often dissolute life.
14) The ailment of closed circles: when belonging to a group becomes stronger than belonging to the Body and, in some situations, to Christ Himself. This sickness too may start from good intentions but, as time passes, enslaves members and becomes a ‘cancer’ that threatens the harmony of the Body and causes a great deal of harm – scandals – especially to our littlest brothers.
15) The disease of worldly profit and exhibitionism: when the apostle transforms his service into power, and his power into goods to obtain worldly profits or more power. This is the disease of those who seek insatiably to multiply their power and are therefore capable of slandering, defaming and discrediting others, even in newspapers and magazines, naturally in order to brag and to show they are more capable than others.
Now what this all illustrates is that large, unwieldy, bureaucratic Institutions become easily corruptible and that Freemasons can step over the line into the Dark Side just as the rest of the world can.
It also shows, in the case of the Roman Catholic Church, that large institutions can create a bureaucracy that insulates itself from accountability. And that, in this case, a top down rule and regulation has not worked well.
We are all sinners, as some clerics will say. Others might remark that some sin more often and more gravely than others. Whatever the case may be most of us do lock our houses and our vehicles, put firewalls and antivirus programs on our computers and are cautious when in strange environments. We do support a Police Force and The Military for good reason.
Yet we do not apply any of these safeguards to Freemasonry. Thus we have allowed Freemasonry to go unchecked, unpoliced and never to be held accountable for whatever it wants to do. The result is that some of Freemasonry has become tyrannical and abusive (notice I said some not all). We have one Grand Lodge that wrote a Landmark into its Constitution that stated whatever the Grand Master ruled was the law and was to be accepted without question. This Landmark overruled any and all other Landmarks. Now do you think any of the Sports Commissioners would allow a team to get away with that?
Perhaps if Freemasonry had policed itself the injustice that West Virginia perpetrated on PGM Frank Haas would never have been allowed. Perhaps the Grand Lodge of Arkansas would not have tried to expel Derek Gordon. Maybe the Grand Lodge of Georgia would not have tried to expel Victor Marshall or treated him so shabbily. Perhaps the Grand Lodge of Florida would not have threatened to expel Corey Bryson and Duke Bass for non Christian religious beliefs to the point that they resigned. And we could go on and on and on.
So what’s the answer? I have no definitive answer except that Mainstream Masonry must try somehow to police itself. Maybe the Conference of Grand Masters could form a Supreme Court among itself and only meet when some event requires a ruling. Thus it would not be a permanent bureaucracy. One thing is for sure, the Catholic Church model doesn’t work well either.
United States Mainstream Freemasonry has been in need of an American identity for years instead of a “states rights’ mentality. Mainstream’s father, the Grand Lodge of England (now UGLE) did not operate this way. There is one Grand Lodge and therefore a strong English Masonic identity. I realize that many other nations have multiple Grand Lodges but how many have as many as 51? If you can get your mind into thinking American not Californian or Texan or Virginian then maybe you can see some sort of cohesiveness to American Freemasonry where we all play by the same rules and we all accept the same foundation. Couple that with some kind of National policing mechanism and American Mainstream Freemasonry might actually grow.
But there is no panacea here. Look at the failures in the Catholic Church. Look at the shortcomings of Roger Goodell in the Ray Rice and Adrian Peterson affairs. It seems as if corruption is always with us. Is it human nature? I don’t know. I’m not here to pass judgment but to help think of solutions. The one thing I do know is that if Dominic Raiola can be disciplined for stomping on another player, Mainstream Masonry can do the same to Grand Masters and Grand Lodge officers who stomp on their members.
French Roman Catholic priest Father Pascal Vesin had served his parish in Sainte-Anne d’Arly Montjoie in the Alpine resort of Megéve since 2004, almost 10 years. That is until this spring when the Church discovered that he is a Freemason. Father Vesin is a member of the Grand Orient de France’ That watchdog of the church, The Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith asked for his resignation in March. Three members of the diocese of Annecy then met with him but Father Vesin said he would not leave the Lodge.
Father Pascal Vesin is seen outside his church in Megeve
So in May Vesin was removed of all Priestly duties by his Bishop. He appealed for a hearing with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, but was turned down. He wrote to the Pope saying that he was “wounded by the injustice’ and requested a reversal of the decision. To no avail. Not willing to give up Vesin set out on foot leaving the town in the Haute Savoie region of France on July 14th for a hike through the Alps – final destination, The Vatican in Rome, Italy. Before leaving he blogged to his congregation, “This adventure is a step towards openness, dialogue and debate.” Bringing nothing but a knapsack, his journey took 39 days before arriving in St. Peter’s Square where he hoped for an audience with the Pope.
“I hope I am received by Pope Francis or one of his secretaries” a very tired Vesin said when he got there.
“I feel my initiative is in synch with what this new pope is preaching and seems to be starting.”
Conservative Sectarian Christianity’s main criticism of Freemasonry is that it’s a false religion. But Vesin belongs to The Grand Orient of France where there is no test for a belief in Deity. Funny looking religion that doesn’t require a belief in God. But there always seems to be another charge that authorities can levy.