The John-Henry Westen Show - Everything you need to know about Freemasonry

00:00:00.000 The Freemasons in 1917 celebrated their bicentennial by marching in front of St. Peter's Square

00:00:06.980 in the Vatican, with banners declaring, and I quote,

00:00:10.320 Satan must reign in the Vatican, the Pope will be his slave, end quote.

00:00:17.260 Many people think that Freemasonry is a well-intentioned economic institution,

00:00:23.280 sort of necessary to join in order to climb the corporate ladder while supporting charitable

00:00:28.360 works, of course, that kind of relieve poverty and help society progress toward a more humane

00:00:35.080 tolerance of our fellow men. It's in the spirit of liberty, equality, and fraternity, after all.

00:00:41.620 So then, what are all those people concerned about? About Freemasonry and Masonic lodges? Are

00:00:49.840 they all conspiracy nuts? Is there no basis for any concern? So why would the Catholic Church,

00:00:56.480 until recently, of course, be concerned about Freemasonry and belonging to their lodges?

00:01:04.220 Well, that's our topic on this episode of The John Henry Weston Show. Stay tuned.

00:01:08.180 Before we begin, let me remind you that applications for

00:01:37.620 LifeSite Internships are now open. If you're ready for the adventure of a lifetime to fight for

00:01:44.460 life, faith, family, and freedom, join us today at LifeSiteInterns.com. That's LifeSiteInterns.com.

00:01:52.160 The bulk of what I've got to say today is from a series of articles at LifeSite News by Raymond

00:01:59.800 Maria. You got to check this out. It's going to answer many of the questions you have about

00:02:04.220 Freemasonry. So if you want to know more, go to LifeSiteInterns.com and look up the author,

00:02:08.680 Raymond Maria. So according to the 1723 document, which is actually considered by the Masons themselves

00:02:16.620 to be one of their founding and governing documents, it's called the Anderson's Constitution.

00:02:23.500 So they say Freemasonry is supposed to be, and I'll quote it for you, that religion in which all

00:02:30.040 men agree, leaving aside their particular concerns to themselves. And it goes on to say that it is the

00:02:38.380 center of union. So in other words, the Masonic claim is that the Lodge is a universal brotherhood,

00:02:46.340 and that's why it is precisely a claim that it is a universal religion. Freemasonry's theological

00:02:53.720 doctrine is that from its earliest documents, Masonry claims the prerogative of being a universal

00:03:01.040 religion above every particular sect, denomination, or personal persuasion. Now the Constitution actually

00:03:10.000 calls Freemasonry a religion itself. That reference is actually found in a prohibition against internal

00:03:17.220 quarrels. You can read it in Anderson's Constitution in Article 6, Number 2, and it says, and I'll quote it

00:03:24.000 for you, no private peaks or quarrels must be brought within the door of the Lodge about religion or

00:03:31.280 nations or state policy, we being only as Masons of the universal religion above mentioned, and so on.

00:03:41.260 Now they say that, that's a direct quote again. So there's a Masonic insistence that whatever the names

00:03:49.440 for God, by which members are accustomed to address him in whatever denomination of Christianity or

00:03:55.840 whatever they were part of, that in their own religion, in the Lodge, God is to be called by this

00:04:02.800 name, and I quote, the grand architect of the universe, end quote. According to the testimony of

00:04:09.000 David Gray, who's a Catholic convert from Freemasonry, he actually rose to the sublime degree of Master

00:04:16.300 Mason. He held the office of, and I quote again, high priest of a royal arch chapter. According to Gray,

00:04:23.940 the sacraments of Freemasonry are the three degrees of entered apprenticeship, fellow craft, and Master

00:04:31.740 Mason. Gray actually reveals that in Masonry, a, and I quote, white lambskin apron represents purity of

00:04:41.060 life and rectitude of conduct that is essential and necessary to gain admittance into the celestial

00:04:48.100 lodge on high where the supreme architect of the universe forever presides, end quote. So upon the conferral of

00:04:56.020 a Masonic degree, among other things, the ritual consists in assumption of the obligations pertaining to that

00:05:03.020 degree, and a blood oath of secrecy made to God before a candlelit altar, with the stonemason's square

00:05:11.560 and compass set upon an open Bible. Now, as Gray points out, in spite of differences that exist between

00:05:19.660 various Masonic lodges and their, you know, whatever rituals they may have in their customs, he says, and I quote,

00:05:26.320 The fact of the matter is that all Freemasonry shares the same principles. It is those principles

00:05:33.480 that plot against the church. Whether some Freemasons express those principles in the public sphere,

00:05:41.180 and other Freemasons express them only in their private relationships, is only a distance in the

00:05:47.840 accidents of the articulation, but not in the substance. The Freemasons are all about plotting against

00:05:55.360 the church, at least according to Gray. Moreover, Masons firmly deny original sin and all supernatural

00:06:02.840 divine revelation. Instead, they follow the rationalist philosophers of the Enlightenment, and

00:06:08.480 the Masons hold that human reason alone is an ultimate judge of all things, and that human nature is

00:06:16.740 neither inclined to sin nor in need of the redeeming grace of Christ. So it's very much opposed

00:06:24.460 to what the Catholic Church teaches, but why is the Catholic Church traditionally taken up the Masons

00:06:31.000 even with more vigor than false religions? How is the church traditionally actually addressed Freemasonry?

00:06:39.940 You'll see it's pretty severe, more severe than dealing with other religions. So why is that? Well,

00:06:46.500 it's because of what Gray said already, and we just heard, that they are actively opposed to the

00:06:52.500 Church. They're fighting the Catholic Church particularly. So in Rome's first response to the rise of the

00:06:59.680 Masonic lodges, Clement XII, in 1738, in a papal bull called Eminenti, judged Freemasonry so serious a matter,

00:07:10.200 and membership in it so dangerous, that he imposed an automatic excommunication on any Catholic who joined

00:07:18.160 the Freemasons. The lifting of this excommunication was reserved or could only be done by the Vatican

00:07:25.400 itself, by the Holy See, and later popes who required the Catholic who had joined the Lodge to make known

00:07:33.800 to his bishop the names of any other Catholics whom he knew also to be Freemasons.

00:07:40.620 Just a quick note before we return. If you would like to stay up to date on LifeSite's coverage of

00:07:47.560 the latest life, family, and culture news, subscribe to one of our many newsletters by

00:07:51.940 going to lifesitenews.com slash subscribe. And if you'd like to help us bring our truth-telling

00:07:57.720 coverage to millions around the world, please consider making a one-time or monthly donation

00:08:02.300 at give.lifesitenews.com. And now, back to the video.

00:08:08.380 So Clement XII's sentence of excommunication was expressly renewed by successive popes many times,

00:08:16.060 and it was also incorporated into the 1917 Code of Canon Law. And although not explicitly mentioned

00:08:23.260 in the 1983 Code of Canon Law, there was a special intervention also in 1983 from the Congregation for

00:08:29.800 the Doctrine of Faith, while Ratzinger was in charge of it, that basically stated that the rules and

00:08:36.300 penalties are still in place, as from the 1917 Code. So in the encyclical Humanum Genus, Leo XIII laid out

00:08:46.960 several fundamental reasons why Freemasonry has been condemned as irreconcilable with Christianity.

00:08:54.220 But I want to take a look just at three of them. First, all members of the Freemasons

00:08:59.500 are bound by an oath of secrecy. Now, in warning Catholics against joining the Masons,

00:09:06.680 Leo XIII pointed to the severity of the Masonic secrecy as the first indication of a more criminal

00:09:13.960 intent behind the facade of brotherhood. He said, and I quote it for you,

00:09:18.560 Candidates are generally commanded to promise, nay, with a special oath, to swear that they will never,

00:09:25.160 refer to any person at any time or in any way, make known the members, the passes, or the subjects

00:09:30.960 discussed, end quote. Not only does the Masonic Lodge bind all members by an oath of secrecy, but it

00:09:36.900 actually hides many things from lower members that are known and planned by those of a higher rank.

00:09:43.580 Moreover, to be enrolled, it is necessary that the candidates promise to undertake to be

00:09:49.760 thenceforward strictly obedient to their leaders and masters with the utmost submission and fidelity,

00:09:57.500 and to be in readiness to do their bidding upon the slightest expression of their will, or,

00:10:04.340 if disobedient, to submit to the direst penalties and death itself, end quote. Pope Leo continued,

00:10:14.060 as a fact, if any are judged to have betrayed the doings of the sect or to have resisted commands given,

00:10:21.360 punishment is inflicted on them, not infrequently, and with so much audacity and dexterity that the

00:10:29.220 assassin very often escapes the detection and penalty of his crime, end quote. Well, so much for the

00:10:35.940 Mason's freedom, equality, and brotherhood slogan. In 1884, referring to the involvement of the Freemasons

00:10:45.060 in toppling the papal states and their work to remove all influence of the Catholic Church and civil

00:10:51.100 society with the goal of finally destroying the papacy itself, Leo XIII wrote, quote,

00:10:58.280 But against the apostolic see and the Roman pontiff, the contention of these enemies has

00:11:06.140 been for a long time directed. They especially desire to assail the Church with irreconcilable

00:11:12.840 hostility, and that they will never rest until they have destroyed whatever the Supreme Pontiff

00:11:19.340 has established for the sake of religion, end quote. Please, again, go to LifeSite News. Raymond Maria

00:11:26.640 is the author of all this material. I'm just bringing it to you so you can go check it out.

00:11:31.100 But it's a whole series on Freemasons, and it's going to be continuing. This is the kind of hatred

00:11:36.720 for the Sea of Rome or for the Vatican, for the Catholic Church, that showed itself even publicly by

00:11:45.100 the Masons in 1917. The Freemasons in 1917 celebrated their bicentennial by marching in front of St. Peter's

00:11:53.660 Square in the Vatican with banners declaring, and I quote, Satan must reign in the Vatican, the Pope

00:12:00.120 will be his slave, end quote. The event was actually witnessed in person by St. Maximilian Kolbe,

00:12:07.680 who subsequently founded the Militia Immaculata to counter the efforts of the Masons against the Church

00:12:15.600 and to work for their conversion. So amazing to see St. Peter Pio involved in this fight.

00:12:24.360 So Leo XIII, at the end of Humanus Genus, said these words, and I quote again,

00:12:31.560 Let no man think that he may, for any reason whatsoever, join the Masonic sect.

00:12:37.780 If he values his Catholic name and his eternal salvation as he ought to, let no one be deceived

00:12:47.100 by a pretense of honesty. It may seem to some that Freemasons demand nothing that is openly

00:12:54.000 contradictory to religion and morality. But, as the whole principle and object of the sect lies in

00:13:01.740 what is vicious and criminal, to join with these men, or in any way to help them, cannot be lawful.

00:13:09.000 That's all for this episode, but be sure to check out the full series on Freemasons by

00:13:14.180 Raymond Maria at LifeSiteNews.com. And until next time, may God bless you.

00:13:19.220 Hi, everyone. This is John Henry Weston. We hope you enjoyed this video. And to see more like this,

00:13:26.720 be sure to hit the subscribe button below to get all the latest content from LifeSiteNews.

00:13:31.920 So check out our links in the description to read more, sign up for our newsletter,

00:13:36.220 and connect with us on social media so that you can stay up to date with all of the latest life,

00:13:41.780 family, and culture news. Thanks for watching, and may God bless you.

00:13:49.220 Bye.

The John-Henry Westen Show - September 07, 2022

Everything you need to know about Freemasonry

Summary

Transcript