The following is a commentary by Fr. Alain Lorans (SSPX).
All united in this gesture of “harmony,” in the words of the Grand Master, are the president of the College of Venerable Masters of Umbria, and that of the Council of Venerable Masters of Terni. The bishop smiles, applauds, then enters the Masonic House which has two temples within it.
It is a “fraternal” visit, with the prefect, the deputy, and the mayor of Terni. Everyone welcomes this initiative, which will promote dialogue and confront differences by overcoming prejudices.
One wonders why this bishop so much wanted to be in the front row? He says to himself that he is part of the “outgoing Church,” promoted by Francis, and that he is going to “the peripheries.” But it is especially reminiscent of Mr. Seguin's goat, which no longer wants to be attached to the stake of rigid dogma, because it aspires to creative freedom.
At his side, the Grand Master’s smile reassures and whispers: “Why would you fear me? You know I don't exist.”
From the 18th century until Leo XIII, no less than 20 Roman documents condemned Freemasonry. And in 1983, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith recalled that the “negative judgment of the Church on Masonic associations” remained “unchanged, because their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church.”
Stating, in 1985, that “only Jesus Christ is the Master of Truth, and it is only in Him that Christians can find the light and the strength to live according to God's plan, working for the true good of their brothers.”
But it is difficult to follow this teaching, when - two weeks before - the pope himself went to Astana, in Kazakhstan, where stands a “pyramid of peace and harmony,” a symbol of the “unity of religions,” emblem of the search for “common human points of reference in world and traditional religions,” and a monumental figure of the “UN of religions.”
What was the Pope doing at a congress that was working to realize this old Masonic dream? In reality, the inauguration ribbon cut in Terni started in Astana. And even from Abu Dhabi where in 2019 Francis signed, with the Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, the document “On Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together.”
How is all of this likely to end? “Enormous, motionless, seated on his tail, he was looking at the little white goat and smacking his lips in advance. As he knew very well he should eat her up, the wolf was not in a hurry.” [Alphonse Daudet, “Mr. Seguin’s Goat,” (Mr. Seguin’s Goat), in Letters from My Mill, Little Brown, 1890]
