Source: EWTN News Nightly via YouTube.com

Reaction is pouring in after the Vatican’s release of a document this week on the faithful and Freemasons. The Holy See says Catholics are forbidden from becoming Freemasons. The document was in response to a question from a bishop in the Philippines. He says many faithful there are expressing an interest in joining Freemasons, the largest worldwide oath bound secret society. Father Thomas Petri joins to tell us more about Freemasons and why membership is not compatible with the Catholic faith. The Vatican’s statement in answer to the bishop from the Philippines did more than just say membership is forbidden. It also made a suggestion to Church leaders on handling this issue. Fr. Petri shares more about that and what he thought of the response overall. He discusses whether other religions or Christian denominations have a stance on membership in the Freemasons. If a Catholic is in the Freemasons and refuses to leave, Fr. Petri discusses whether he could be excommunicated. He explains how prevalent Freemasons are in the US and whether he has encountered them in his daily life.

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Excerpt 1: separate paragraph.
The Masons for years had been waging a relentless war on the Church in Italy, making use of such militant fanatics and revolutionaries as Socialists, Communists, and the Carbonari to do much of their evil handiwork for them. Veiling their insidious designs behind the subtle and elusive doctrine of Rationalism and Liberalism, they passed laws forbidding religious teaching in the schools. Charity was “laicized,” meaning state socialism or, more aptly, legal extortion. And, in short, everywhere and in all phases of life God and religion were being replaced by Naturalism and its unholy cult of worship called Reason.

Excerpts 2, 3, 4: later paragraphs in sequence.
The very worst of these elements later were welded into a much stronger, rigidly unified, and infinitely more ambitious force, thus producing the greatest menace of all time both to the Church and society. By its earliest identity, it was known as the Order of Illuminati (Enlightened Ones). It was founded on May 1, 1776 — the original May Day now celebrated as the central holiday of the Communist empire — by Adam Weishaupt, an apostate Catholic, whose genius for evil seems to have been inspired directly by the fallen Angel of Light himself, Lucifer. Weishaupt’s diabolical plan was to tear down all existing forms of government and order, to abolish all “religious superstition,” and to replace them with a universal tyranny he called the “New World Order”: “These powers [priests and princes] are despots, when they do not conduct themselves by its [the Order’s] principles; and it is our duty to surround them with its members….We must do our utmost to procure the advancement of Illuminati into all important offices.” And he added, “By this plan we shall direct all mankind. In this manner, and by the simplest of means, we shall set all in motion and in flames.”

Weishaupt never had any intention of competing with Masonry in that regard. On the contrary, because its secretive structure was tailor-made for his designs, he wanted to take it over. And that is exactly what he did, by infiltrating key influential positions of Masonic ranks with his own agents. Masonry by this time had spread like a vaporous plague across Europe and much of America. When its international convention, called the Congress of Wilhelmsbad, was held in 1782, “Illuminated Freemasonry” was unanimously acclaimed as the only “pure” Masonry. The Order of the Illuminati thereby took control of Masonic lodges and their associated secret societies through the western world, and used them as the principal means of advancing the Order’s conspiratorial network into every sphere and activity of life.

The undiminished ambitions and successes of this satanic force for over two centuries make for a horrifying study in themselves. We can catch some tiny glimpse of it, and at the same time shatter the fatal fantasy of Masonry’s being just another “benevolent fraternity,” through the incredibly bold and candid Letter to the Sovereign Pontiff, written in 1937 by Albert Lantoine, a thirty-third degree Mason who proposed a “truce,” if not a reconciliation, between the Church and Freemasonry. Here are some of his random remarks: “We are freethinkers–you are believers.” “Freemasonry seeks to exalt man; the Church to exalt God.” “We are the servants of Satan. [He later corrected himself: “I should have said; servants of Lucifer.’”] You, the guardians of truth, are the servants of God.” “…Your God cannot pardon the Rebellious Angel, and that Angel will never submit or renounce his dominion. But need we remain enemies?” [!] “Lenin has fulfilled the hope sown by the Son of Man.” [!!]

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