Masonic Europeanism

Published on by Kathy Clubb

FROM: Corrispondenza Romana by Fr Paolo Maria Siano, published February 17, 2021

Professor Gianmario Cazzaniga, a scholar appreciated by the Grand Orient of Italy (see here) explains how the idea of a Universal Republic was prepared between the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries through a Republic of Letters and Sciences, that is, a cultural network of writers, nobles, writers, publishers, antique dealers, scientists, promoted by Huguenot circles, by Protestant and non-Protestant finance (Geneva, Amsterdam, London), and by the Masonry Lodges of 1717. 1

The French scholar Yves Hivert-Messeca also states that in the eighteenth century Masons dreamt of a trans-national and trans-confessional society/fraternity, that is, a new Europe. 2

It is logical to deduce that the realization of a European or Universal Republic according to Masonic principles, was the plan, or at least the hope, of obtaining the socio-cultural transformation (according to Masonic principles of secularism and anti-dogmatism) and/or the revolution and political-military demolition of Catholic confessional monarchies (e.g. , that of the Habsburgs) and the Papal States of the time.

In 1868 the first issue of the newspaper Les Etats-Unis d’Europe was printed: an organ of the League of Peace and Freedom based in Bern (Switzerland) and with branches in France, Belgium, Italy, Germany, England. In issue 1 of January 5, 1868, it was announced that the Mason Giuseppe Garibaldi was its honorary president (p. 1). In issue 47 of 22 November 1868, Freemasonry was praised (pp. 187-188).

In 1889 the Austrian Catholics gathered in Katholikentag accused Freemasons of wanting the destruction of Catholic Austria: Delenda est Austria. 3

An international Masonic congress was held in Paris from 31 August to 2 September 1900 under the auspices of the Grand Orient of France (GOdF). The Grand Master of the Alpine Swiss Grand Lodge, Edouard Quartier-la-Tente (1855-1925), hoped for the coalition of all universal Masonic powers to achieve Masonic ideals and to found the Universal Republic: “pour la foundation de la République Universelle”. 4 The Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France, Louis Lucipia (1843-1904), exalted the French Revolution, criticizing clericalism and the Catholic “theocracy ” (pp. 73-74). Various Freemasons said in that congress: “The République universelle lives!” (pp. 124, 128, 134, 156-160).

In 1902, about 16 years before the fall of the Habsburg Empire, the Magazine of Italian Freemasonry of the Grand Orient of Italy published an article by Freemason Emilio Bossi (1870-1920) which he wrote from Lugano (Switzerland): “It is Freemasonry that should give rise to international arbitration, preparation for the future Federation of the United States of Europe, this same prelude to the United States of the World”. 5

A meeting of French and German Masons was held from 3 to 5 July 1909 in Baden-Baden (Germany). The high dignitary of the Grand Orient of France Charles Bernardin toasted the United States of Europe and Universal Freemasonry. 6

Hungarian Jewish historian François Fejtö (1909-2008) also explains that the eighteenth-nineteenth-century Masonic project of the United States of Europe and the Universal Republic implied the destruction of the Catholic monarchy of Austria-Hungary and in this, Freemasons and Freemasonry, especially the Grand Orient of France, played a great role. 7

Indeed, with the end of the Empire, Freemasonry was able to return to Austrian soil and in particular to Vienna. In 1918 the Grand Lodge of Vienna was founded. In 1922, in Vienna, Count Richard Nikolaus Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894-1972) was initiated as a Freemason in the Humanitas Lodge and then in the “Mozart Chapter ” of the 18 ° degree Prince Rose-Cross of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite. Kalergi founded the Pan-Europe Movement supported from the outset by the Grand Lodge of Vienna. 8

In the book Praktische Idealismus. Adel – Technik – Pazifismus, 9 the Mason Kalergi equates the European Spirit with Lucifer-Prometheus, that is “the Bearer of Light carrying the divine spark on earth, the prince of this Earth and father of struggle, technique, enlightenment.” 10

According to Kalergi “the Spirit of Europe” breaks political despotism and only with the emancipation from Christianity would Europe find itself (cf. pp. 83-85).

Also in the second half of the twentieth century in environments of the Grand Orient of Italy and its Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the “United States of Europe” 11 or “United Europe” is praised, 12, as seen for example in the monthly magazine of Masonic and secular culture The Meeting of People directed since 1960 by the Mason Elvio Sciubba 33 ° (1915-2001).

In a 2010 book, Freemasons Alain Bauer (former Grand Master of the Grand Orient of France) and Jean-Claude Rochigneux (formerly Councilor GOdF) quote the Contrat Maçonnique Européen of the Grand Orient of France (Strasbourg, 5 June 1993) which states, among other things:

  • Freemasonry defends secularism therefore the separation between church and the state, because only secularism defends absolute freedom of conscience and worship
  • Freemasonry carries within itself the European idea inserted in universalism
  • Freemasonry wants a Masonic Europe that contributes to the construction of a cultural Europe 13
  • Masonic Europe desired by the Grand Orient of France consists both in the union of European Freemasonry and in a Europe built culturally, politically and socially according to the principles of Freemasonry, including secularism (pp.70-76), that is, the exclusion from society of any influence of the Catholic Church.

In Brussels on 15 October 2010 and 30 November 2011, the delegations of various European Freemasonry (including the Grand Orient of Italy and the United Grand Lodge of Germany) with their respective Grand Masters, and the representatives of liberal and humanist associations, met the leaders of the European Union (the President of the European Commission, the President of the European Parliament and the President of the European Government) to agree on a common plan for the promotion of “democratic ideals” and “libertarians”. 14

On March 02, 2012, the then vice-president of the European Parliament visited the headquarters of the Grand Orient of Italy and shared the Masonic commitment to secularism. 15

But in April 2011, the center-right majority of the Hungarian Parliament (262 Aye, 44 against) approved a Constitution (entered into force in early 2012) which speaks of God, Christian roots and the traditional family (man + woman). The Hungarian Constitution limits the powers of banks, defends human life from conception, does not recognize the “right ” to abortion or even homosexual unions. The European Union (EU) reacted by defending, among other things, the absolute independence of banks (ECB and IMF) and threatening economic retaliation. The British BBC also criticized Orban’s conservative “drift”. (see here; here; here;
here.)

Still in our day, the promoters of what Freemason Kalergi called “the Spirit of Europe” seek to limit the sovereignty of European states by imposing certain policies, for example in terms of homosexualism/gender or abortion, incompatible with the authentic Christian roots of true Europe. 
correspondenzaromana.it

  1. (cf. G.M. Cazzaniga, Freemasonry and Literature. Dalla République des Lettres to national literature, in G.M. Cazzaniga – G. Turkeys – R. Turks, The Muses in the Lodge. Freemasonry and literature in the eighteenth century, Unicopli Editions, Milan 2002, pp. 11-32). ↩︎
  2. (cf. Europe sous l’Acacia. Histoire des Francs-maçonneries européennes du XVIIIe siècle à nos jours. Tome 1: Le XVIIIe siècle. The âge d’or de la franc-maçonnerie en Europe. Le temps des Lumières et des obscurités. The rêve universel de fraternité et les limites de l’autre, Editions Dervy, Paris 2012, p. 305). ↩︎
  3. (Cf. G. Kuéss – B. Scheichelbauer, 200 Jahre Freimaurerei in Österreich. Zum 175. Geburtstag der Großloge, Verlag O. Kerry, Wien 1959, pp. 152-153). ↩︎
  4. (Grand Orient de France – Suprême Conseil pour la France et les Possessions françaises, Congrès Maç.·. International, Compte rendu des séances du congrès, le 31 Août, 1er, 2 September 1900, Secrétariat Général du Grand Orient de France, Paris 1901, pp. 38-39). ↩︎
  5. (E. Bossi, What is the essential mission of Freemasonry in the present era?, in Magazine of Italian Freemasonry, n ° 13-15, 15-31 July – 15 August 1902, Rome, p.232). ↩︎
  6. (Cf. Brüd.·. Zusammenkunft am 3.-5. Juli in Baden-Baden – Reunion des Francs-Maçons 3-5 Juillet à Baden-Baden 1909, p.18). ↩︎
  7. (Cf. Requiem pour un empire defunt. Histoire de la destruction de l’Autriche-Hongrie, Lieu Commun, (Paris) 1989, pp. 309-313, 337-349). ↩︎
  8. (cf. IS. Semrau, Erleuchtung und Verblendung, Studien Verlag, Innsbruck 2012, p. 95). ↩︎
  9. (Pan-Europa Verlag, Wien-Leipzig 1925) ↩︎
  10. (« In der jüdischen Mythologie entspricht der europäische Geist Luzifer – in der griechischen Prometheus: dem Lichtbringer, der den göttlichen Funken zur Erde t»: p.83). ↩︎
  11. (cf. Albert Tura, Europe divided, in The Meeting of People, Monthly of current events and culture, Year XV, nn. 7-8 (July-August 1975), Rome, pp. 8-9) ↩︎
  12. (cf. A Europe of Garibaldi, in The meeting of people, April-June 1979, Rome, p.11; cf. Elvio Sciubba, The Echo, in The meeting of people, July-September 1979, Rome, p.1) ↩︎
  13. (cf. TO. Bauer – J.-C. Rochigneux, The relations internationales de la franc-maçonnerie française, Armand Colin, Paris 2010, pp. 50-53). ↩︎
  14. (cf. Antonio Panaino, Freemasonry protagonist of the social and moral life of Europe, in News Erasmus, Information Bulletin of the Grand Orient of Italy, N ° 18, 30 October 2010, Rome, pp. 1-2; Cf. News Erasmus, n ° 20, 30 November 2011, pp. 1-5). ↩︎
  15. (cf. The Vice-President of the European Parliament Pittella visits the Grand Orient, in Erasmus news, n ° 4-5, 15 March 2012, p.6). ↩︎

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