Tag: Featured

Hungarian Bishop: Masons & Moslems are working together to destroy Christianity

Published on by Kathy Clubb1 Comment

This article comes from the Hungarian outlet Magyar Jelen. interview by Tamás Horváth. English translation by Google translate.

On the occasion of Christmas, we made a big interview with Dr. Gyula Márfi, archbishop emeritus of Veszprém, who – since he was forced to leave the city of the kings in August – spends the holidays in Szombathely again after many years. Among other things, the 79-year-old retired bishop talks about the mission of the Hungarians; about the European Union denying its Christian roots; on migration; on the cooperation of Freemasons and Muslims; about the Kalergi plan; on the unconstitutional Hungarian abortion law; he talked about LGBTQ and how what is going on in the German Catholic Church is practically anti-Christ. He also expressed his opinion on the renovation of the cathedral in Veszprém; he recalled the Christmases of his childhood; and he also told me when he decided to enter the church. The big interview of Tamás Horváth.

– After how many years do you spend Christmas again in Szombathely?

“ Twenty-seven. ” In 1995 I moved from Szombathely to Eger, where I was an auxiliary bishop for two years, and in 1997 I was appointed Archbishop of Veszprém by Saint II. Pope John Paul. I retired in 2019, but as archbishop emeritus I continued to live in the city of queens – until this August, when I unfortunately had to leave for known reasons.

But I’m not complaining, I have a very good place in Szombathely. Bishop Székely welcomed me with friendship.

– What does Christmas mean to you? What childhood memories do you have, how did you and your family celebrate the birth of Christ?

– I come from a religious family, we lived in a small village in Zala County, Pördefölde. As far as I know, it currently has 81 inhabitants, at that time it was not much more. The nearest church was in the neighboring settlement, Páka – five kilometers as the crow flies – but we still went to mass every Sunday.

However – perhaps for understandable reasons – we did not go to Advent morning mass, so I only attended rorata for the first time when I was in the seventh grade, when I moved to Páka to complete the last two classes of elementary school.

Anyway, I have very good and defining memories of Christmas, I think back with a warm heart to the times when my parents and brother and I celebrated as a family.

– How was it different to experience Christmas under socialism than later, after the system change?

– The intensity of the celebration did not change much after 1989, because even then Christmas was very important to us. We knew that the state did not sympathize with the churches, if it could, it would eliminate all religions. Because of this, my parents insisted even more on Christianity and its holidays. My brother and I were raised to do the same, which resulted in:

we both lived the Catholic faith wholeheartedly.

However, later, when I was in the seventh or eighth grade, when I started to grow up, the question arose in me, whether the atheists are right?

I didn’t dare to bring up these fears to my parents – who were smart but uneducated peasants – and not to the priests either, so I started formulating various arguments about God. I tried to prove that Jesus is not just a holy idea, but a tangible reality. It is not just a myth as atheists teach.

Perhaps this is precisely why I developed a kind of creativity that would not have happened if there were people around me who would answer all my questions. And let’s not forget that we lived in an atheistic system, so as Christians we had to look behind things and think. There is good in every bad, as they say.

– When did you first realize that you wanted to be a priest?

“ About when I was in seventh or eighth grade. ” As I listened to the sermons of the spiritual fathers, I wondered if I could speak like that, could I also say Mass so beautifully? After that, my profession gradually developed.

In a strange way, the problem was that my brother also became a priest, and at one time I felt that I had no vocation of my own, that I was following my brother because I was independent.

Then when it dawned on me that there were also relatives among Jesus’ apostles – Peter and András, James and John must have been close brothers; and the younger Jakab and Tádé Júdás are probably brothers or cousins ​​- then I was reassured that I could have the same profession as my brother.

Why God chooses two is his secret.

“ Was there a time when he wavered?”

“ Not really. ” It can be said that, apart from the aforementioned adolescent uncertainty and doubts, my path was a straight line, a steady path to the altar. There were no deviations in it.

The possibility of leaving the seminary never occurred to me. I went to high school in Pannonhalma, and my profession only got stronger there.

“ Let’s go back to Christmas a bit. ” In his previous writings and interviews, he quite often criticized the current European Union and the zeitgeist prevailing in the Western world. How do you see Christmas in Europe in 2022?

“  I can’t judge this exactly, because I don’t know the conditions that well.” However, from what I hear and read, the situation seems catastrophic. In many places, they try to make people forget the word Christmas itself, and they only talk about holidays.

The Christmas tree was already removed from the Brussels City Hall 8-10 years ago, on the grounds that they did not want to offend the sensibilities of Muslims.

However, this is a lie: Christmas trees are also erected in Istanbul and in other parts of the Islamic world. Jesus as a prophet is also respected by Muslims, and according to Islam, it is not a sin to celebrate someone’s birthday.

One of the most striking signs of the European Union’s anti-Christianity is that its constitution did not mention Europe’s Christian roots. They write about Greco-Roman traditions and the Enlightenment, but not about Christianity. Yet ancient culture and art survived thanks to Christians: the writings of Virgil, Tacitus, Homer and others were copied by monks in the depths of their cells.

Without Christianity, we would not be able to read many ancient authors today.

But we can also talk about the fact that the European Commission published a calendar in 2016 in which the holidays of the world’s major religions were entered – even the Sikh religion, which is a relatively small community, a mixed religion between Hinduism and Islam. However, if you turn to December 25, what do you find? Practically nothing. That’s all it says: “A good friend shares your joys and your preoccupations.” I don’t know what this means exactly, but I do know that Christmas was deliberately left out of the significant days.

Let me mention two more examples. A few years ago, in England – which is no longer the EU, but undoubtedly part of the Christian European cultural circle – the Anglican Church wanted to sell a short film of a few minutes promoting Christianity to the national TV channels. None of them accepted.

XVI. At that time, Pope Benedict was not allowed to perform at the State University of Rome, saying that it was not a church, but a secular institution.

So what? I ask. If we were to think like that, then no one would be able to enter St. Peter’s Basilica, only those who can prove that they have been baptized and confirmed.

– Do you think it is conscious that in Europe they want to push Christianity into the background, ad absurdum to destroy it?

“ He’s conscious. ” The goal of the Freemasons is to “liberate” Europe from Christianity. To achieve this, they are willing to use all means, using their lobbying power they have also wormed their way into the leaders of the union.

In my opinion, Muslims are also being called in to remove Christ and Christianity from Europe. In doing so, however, they ultimately destroy themselves, because Islam will never accept their liberal principles.

It is practically the same situation as it was in the Savior’s time, when the scribes and Pharisees collaborated with their mortal enemy, Pontius Pilate, to get Jesus out of the way.

Today, Freemasons and Muslims are joining forces to make Christianity disappear from Europe.

But this is not a finished game yet, I hope that their plan will not be successful.

– What can we Hungarians do to protect Christianity?

“ We have to hold on to our faith very strongly. ” Padre Pio has a prediction that Hungary is a cage from which a beautiful bird will fly out, bringing blessings to the whole world.

I don’t think it’s out of the question that this will happen.

Not because we Hungarians are better than everyone else, but because God often chooses the little ones to accomplish something big through them.

See, the Guadeloupe seer Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin was also a simple Indian peasant. He was baptized with his wife only four years before he had his vision. At first the bishop didn’t believe him either, saying that Our Lady would certainly not appear to such an unfortunate shepherd, but at least to a nun. ( laughs )

And in Fatima and Lourdes, small children had visions of the Virgin Mary, so it cannot be ruled out that we, Hungarians, will also have a role in preserving Christianity in Europe. But for this we have to take faith seriously, because it is possible to become unworthy of any mission.

– Christian Europe can also be protected with physical means, for example by not allowing those who come to our borders illegally. When, during the migration crisis of 2015, the Hungarian government started to build the border fence (which László Toroczkai – then as the mayor of Ásotthalom – had advocated years earlier), both domestic and foreign liberals shouted that building walls was not humane, and anyway a self-professed Christian accepts everyone. What does an archbishop say about this?

– At the time, I had a rather harsh sentence for this: we must love wolves too – since they too were created by the Good Lord – but not in sheep’s clothing.

The same is true for Muslims. We love them and support their countries as much as we can.

However, this does not mean that we should invite them into Europe and let them Islamize the continent.

They were here in Hungary for 150 years, we know how much destruction they caused. We Hungarians still carry the memory of this in our genes to some extent.

–  In your opinion, what poses a greater threat to Europe and Hungary at the moment: Islamization and immigration, or LGBTQ and woke?

– This is difficult to decide, but if a sequence must be established, it is the latter. This loose understanding brackets the foundations of Catholic morality.

And although as Christians we should not condemn homosexuals, lesbians, bisexuals, or transgender people,

creating a cult for them is a mortal sin, which also goes against the laws of nature.

The legalization of same-sex “marriage” is also considered a capital crime, and I regret to see that it has already happened in most European countries.

In relation to the LGBTQ issue, we cannot forget the rights of children either. On the one hand, they should not be allowed to be confused about their gender identity and orientation through the media, advertising and education, and on the other hand, they have the right to a mother and a father.

– According to Catholic teaching, abortion is also a mortal sin, and although the Basic Law in Hungary already protects the fetus from conception, our abortion law is considered liberal even in European terms. Don’t you think this is controversial?

“ Of course. “

The current abortion law is unconstitutional, but the Constitutional Court has not yet dared to say so.

The problem is that the majority of the Hungarian people are pro-abortion, so if the government tightened it, it would lose the election.

However, it is welcome that mothers now have to listen to their child’s heartbeat. The ultra-liberals protested vehemently against this as well, so the government is not in an easy situation.

– On the other hand, I see that the heart rate regulation was relatively easily “swallowed” by people. It is true that there was a little excitement, but it did not start a serious avalanche. Is it not possible that after a while the Hungarian society would come to terms with the tightening of abortion?

“ It’s possible that he would come to terms with time, yes. ” I pray that it will be so. Also, for my part, I also offer the crosses of old age. I know many of my colleagues do the same.

– You obviously represent the teachings of the Catholic Church in the social topics we have discussed so far. How is it possible that, say, the German Catholic Church, which also belongs to the Pope of Rome, preaches the exact opposite of the ideas you express, for example, on the issue of LGBTQ?

“ I don’t understand that either, it can’t be proven. “

Five or six years before that, I said three masses in Hungarian for Hungarians in and around Stuttgart. I explained the arguments that prove the resurrection of Jesus, and I talked a little about heaven and the similes found in the Bible. After one of the Masses, Father Tempfli, the then Hungarian pastor in Stuttgart, came to me and thanked me for touching on these topics, saying that no one in Germany talks about them anymore.

The situation of the German church is truly catastrophic. According to them, it is not important whether Jesus was really born or not, the point is that “he should be born in you!”. Don’t ask if he rose from the dead or not, “may he rise in you!”. Don’t care if there is heaven or not, the point is “create it around you!”

This is all absurd.

A significant number of German Catholic priests now bless same-sex marriages as well as cohabitation and cohabitation relationships.

This is no longer Christianity, it is anti-Christ.

Three years ago, Rome finally ruled that Catholic priests are forbidden to bless homosexual couples. At that time, I was still visited by a German newspaper, so I learned about the protest that the decision had caused among German Catholics.

It is very sad what is happening in Germany. I don’t want to hurt them, but somehow they always fall from one side of the horse to the other. They went from Hitler and National Socialism to cosmopolitan globalism. No more German, French, Hungarian, Italian, only European.

– If the national question has already been mentioned: it is an eternal dilemma, which is more important, national or religious affiliation?

– I am primarily a Catholic, but I also stick to my Hungarianness, without being a chauvinist.

I am Hungarian, but I also respect other peoples. In Europe, diversity is needed in addition to unity, but there is no need for multiculturalism!

They talk about mixing the different species according to the Kalergi plan. But I ask, what comes out of this? A mass of no color at most.

My painter friend Győző Somogyi – I am hitting my belly now – has twenty-five different colors and shades of paint. If you mix them all up, you won’t be able to paint a colorful picture.

In a multicultural, mixed society, the individual loses his own identity, sense of identity, culture, faith, language, practically everything. It becomes easy to manipulate, which is ideal for the big capitalists of the world, who want to turn the whole Earth into a huge collective farm, where there are no ethnic, national and religious identities, only obedient workers and consumers manufactured according to standards.

– We started our interview with the fact that you are spending Christmas again in Szombathely after twenty-seven years. The main reason for this was that he was critical of the renovation plans of the Veszprém cathedral, which is why he had to leave the city of the queens. How do you see the situation in Veszprém afterwards?

–  I can only pray for the Diocese of Veszprém, for some kind of consensus to be formed between the faithful and the archbishop, for peace to be restored. I don’t hold grudges against anyone in my heart, but I would regret it if the stained glass window of St. Michael – which was made by Bertalan Badalik, the bishop exiled by the communists – disappeared from the cathedral in Veszprém.

Otherwise, I’ll say it again, I feel very comfortable in Szombathely, I previously worked in the bishop’s office here for seventeen years. I have good experiences with the city, but of course I won’t forget the ones in Veszprém either.

– What is your message to the Hungarians on the occasion of Christmas?

–  I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a blessed New Year! I pray especially for our uncertain compatriots, for those who have not yet decided what to believe. I wish them to approach Christ and Christianity.

May God’s blessing help all Hungarians!

Setting the Scene for Masonic Infiltration

Published on by Kathy ClubbLeave a comment

this article, by david l gray, is republished from one peter 5. While i don’t agree with the author’s conclusion (as reflected in my title), it does contain some relevant information for followers of ecclesiastical freemasonry.

There was such a dramatic change in the social and theological dispositions towards Freemasonry amongst many European, Argentinian, and North American Catholics immediately following the conclusion of the Second Vatican Council in 1965, that, at minimum, should have provoked a reasonable and rational concern amongst the faithful.

Some have argued that this divergence from the traditional teaching about Freemasonry was just the fruit of an infiltration of Freemasons that began with the Carbonari’s 1859 Alta Vendita plot. However, this analysis is too simplistic.

The Carbonari was an Italian political sect, whose membership was not exclusively composed of Freemasons. It was not a Masonic sect (i.e., beholden as an affiliate or appendant to the Grand Lodge). The fact the Catholic Church has never treated the Carbonari as a Masonic sect, but as a distinct secret society that plots against the Church, is affirmed by Pope Pius VII in his 1821 Ecclesiam a Jesu, and by Pope Leo XIII in his 1826 Quo Gaviora.

This is not the say that there have not been initiated Freemasons throughout the clergy, for that has certainly been true in the past and in the present. Rather, it is to say we can do better in analyzing and verifying those movements inside the Catholic Church which made it more friendly with Freemasons and more sympathetic toward some sects of Freemasonry. This first article will discuss some of the Masonic influences before Vatican II, stretching back some three hundred years. In the next article we will treat more specifically the claim of some to place the blame of infiltration solely on the plot of the Alta Vendita.

Vatican II Red Flags

Truly, smoke signals should have gone up in 1967 when the Scandinavian Bishop’s Conference (consisting of the countries of Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland), following a four-year study into Freemasonry in their dioceses, decided to permit Catholics in their dioceses to retain their Masonic membership, “but only with the specific permission of that person’s bishop.”[1] This deference to the local ordinary on a matter, heretofore, considered to be immutable, was the Scandinavian’s Bishops interpretation of Paul VI’s Apostolic Letter Moto Proprio, De Episcoporum Muneribus, which, itself is an interpretative reading of para. 27 of Lumen Gentium, gave bishops more authority to be the final arbiters of Canon Law.

Truly, alarm bells should have gone off on March 16, 1968, The Tablet (a progressive Catholic international weekly review published in London) reported in their ‘The Church in the World’ news and noted section:

Go-ahead for Catholic Masons: Vatican sources have recently been quoted as saying that Catholics are now free to join the Masons in the United States, Britain and most other countries of the world. However, the European Grand Orient Lodge of Masons, established primarily in Italy and France, is still considered anti-Catholic or, at least, atheistic.

Later that year, The Tablet would also take an Editorial stance in opposition to Pope Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae.

Truly, visible panic should have ensued on July 19, 1974, when Cardinal Franjo Seper, Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, wrote a letter, which was supposedly intended to be private correspondence, to Cardinal John Krol, the Archbishop of Philadelphia at the time, supporting the Scandinavian interpretation of De Episcoporum Muneribus concerning Canon Law No. 2335 (prohibiting membership into societies that plot against the Catholic Church), stating,

Many Bishops have asked this Sacred Congregation about the extent and interpretation of Canon 2335 of the Code of Canon Law which prohibits Catholics, under pain of excommunication, to join masonic associations, or similar associations… Taking particular cases into consideration, it is essential to remember that the penal law has to be interpreted in a restrictive sense. For this reason, one can certainly point out, and follow, the opinion of those writers who maintain that Canon 2335 affects only those Catholics who are members of associations which indeed conspire against the Church.

It was almost hilarious that men who were plotting against the Catholic Church themselves were then putting themselves in a position to tell us which sects of Freemasons were not plotting against the Catholic Church. But this was something that went back centuries.

Pre-Vatican II Efforts to Normalize Freemasonry

This scheme to differentiate the Anglo-sects of Freemasonry (those whose charters and warrants originate from the Mother Grand Lodges of England, Ireland, and Scotland) from the Continental-sects of Freemasonry (those whose constitutions and rites are based upon the Grand Orient Lodges of France and Italy) began in 1738, when on the eve of Pope Clement XII issuance of his Apostolic Constitution In Eminenti apostolatus specula (The High Watch) on April 28, 1738. This Pontiff in fact had to endure the efforts of his nephew, Neri Maria Cardinal Corsini, who attempted to prevail upon him that Freemasonry in England was merely an “innocent mirth.”[2]

Indeed, perhaps Cardinal Neri revealed himself as a Freemason with his choice of those descriptive words, which is, curiously, are the exact instruction given to Freemasons in Article VI of the 1723 Constitution of the Grand Lodge of England (so-called Anderson’s Constitution) concerning how Freemasons ought to behave amongst each other after the official meeting of the lodge has concluded and the brethren are not, yet, gone; “You may enjoy yourself with innocent Mirth . . .”

Pius IX clearly taught in this 1873 Etsi Multa that Church teaching does not distinguish between sects of Freemasonry; “Teach them that these decrees refer not only to Masonic groups in Europe, but also those in America and in other regions of the world.” Nevertheless, Father John E. Burke of the Catholic Board of Negro Mission, reported to the United States Bishops the fact that one of the barriers in place that was preventing more Black Americans from becoming Catholic was that too many of them belonged to forbidden secret societies like the Freemasons. Therefore, he argued, permission should be obtained from the Holy See to allow prospective Black American converts to retain their membership in such societies for the sake of the financial benefits. Burke’s errant finding was that Black secret societies did not present the same threat to Catholics that the White societies did.[3]

The idea of their being a socially acceptable and theologically compatible version of Freemasonry is a myth. All sects of Freemasonry have always been prohibited because they all hold fast to the dogma of indifferentism and the belief that Freemasonry is man’s highest good (see my prior analysis here and here). Yet, to this day, this insane myth, first uttered by Cardinal Neri to Pope Clement XII, continues to be spread throughout the Catholic Church and made amazing strides in the neo-heterodox-praxis of the Catholic faith thanks to the liberal interpretation of para. 27 of Lumen Gentium that birthed De Episcoporum Muneribus in the wake of Vatican II.

Continue reading at One Peter 5

Sex-Abuser Rupnik’s Occult Art

Published on by Kathy Clubb1 Comment

It recently became known that the Vatican covered up for sex-abuser and Jesuit priest, Marko Rupnik. Apparently he was excommunicated in 2019 for serious abuse of the sacrament of Confession – absolving a woman with whom he had fornicated. This unfortunate woman was only one of at least nine with whom he undertook such relations, but it was all swept under the rug by the Jesuit-controlled CDF.

Our interest in this man is not so much for his despicable violations of his vow of chastity, but for his disturbing artwork. Rupnik is the man behind a couple of the Vatican’s very strange logos and also had a hand in the disturbing basilica at San Giovanni Rotondo – the newer version of St Pio’s pilgrimage site.

The logo for the Jubilee Year of Mercy:  “Christ sees with the eyes of Adam, and Adam with the eyes of Christ.”

Could be.

Or maybe this is a tribute to the Gnostic “third-eye” opening after ritual sodomy.

Rupnik’s logo for the 2022 World Meeting of Families, “This mystery is great”, says he. Well, it certainly is a mystery how an excommunicated priest came to design the official logo.

Interesting to see the third-eye symbolism recurring here; this time it is Our Lady and Jesus who share the third eye.

Some more of Rupnik’s talent can be seen in the Redemptoris Mater chapel in the Vatican. John Paul II had the chapel renamed in 1987 then refurbished in 1996. It was meant to be a tribute to his ecumaniacal obsession of uniting the Eastern and Western churches, but the artwork, mosaics completed in the style of Eastern iconography, appears to have an underlying anti-Christ theme to it.

One of the four walls was worked by Alexander Kornoukhov, a Russian Orthodox artist – this seems to be the wall directly behind the (rather bizarre) altar. Rupnik completed the other three walls, which show predominantly scenes from Scripture.

The Knights of Columbus loved the end result so much that in 2005, they paid for this panoramic online version to be set up so that interested parties could make a virtual pilgrimage. The images below are screenshots taken from that site. For a psychedelic taste of Rupnik’s work, you may wish to visit (or to avoid) the Aletti centre website.

It’s hard to know exactly what this depiction of the Annunciation is meant to represent. The scroll probably means that Our Lady was prophesied in the Old Testament, but by placing Her figure in such a way that She appears to be on the scroll itself reduces Her to a mere myth.

St Peter unlocks the door to his pawn-shop? Note the yin-yang style decoration of the circles.

Perhaps the strangest of the images is this one of Christ with his “as above, so below” gesture. Behind him, JPII looks on approvingly.

Interesting Masonic-style grip between Christ and the male figure to our left.

Masonic Temple Discovery near Lourdes

Published on by Kathy ClubbLeave a comment

Republished from GLORIA TV:

Jo Urbex published a 27-minute video on December 4, featuring an abandoned building in Trébons, a few kilometres from Lourdes.

The current owner inherited it from her recently defunct father who was a freemason.

The house features an impressive basement with several big rooms where Masonic paraphernalia was found: an altar, animal horns, scalpels and syringes indicating ritual sacrifices, a brown box inscribed with the Masonic formula V.I.T.R.I.O.L, (Visita Interiora Terrae Rectificando Invenies Occultam Lapidem / Visit the Interior of the Earth and Rectifying You Will Find the Hidden Stone), above a sign ‘Perseverance and Vigilance’.

The video makers discovered a stone tomb with animal bones, symbols evoking a study, a room dedicated to meditation and an initiation ritual.

One room is decorated with Masonic symbols (compasses, etc.). Various papers lying around relate to lodges in Toulouse and Paris and detail Masonic ceremonies.

A skull and bones were laid out on the ground. They will be analysed by police.

Already in 1940, when the Vichy government seized Masonic temples, several human skeletons were discovered.

Full video here in French:

Sandro Magister’s take on the Jesuit-9

Published on by Kathy ClubbLeave a comment

Republished from L’Espresso, written by Sandro Magister.

Incredible but true. Just now now when in a few decades it has lost a good half of its forces, the Society of Jesus has surged to the heights of command of the Catholic Church as never before.

Francis’s story is well known. He is the first Jesuit pope in history: he who notwithstanding had more adversaries than friends in the Society and took care not to set foot in its general curia whenever he came to Rome as a cardinal.But the innovation is that in this last phase of his pontificate – declining in age but not in ambitions – Francis has equipped himself with a veteran attack team, all his own and made up entirely of Jesuits.The top man of this team is without a doubt Cardinal Jean-Claude Hollerich (pictured), archbishop of Luxembourg. Top man, in Jorge Mario Bergoglio’s plans, both for today and for tomorrow.For today, the task assigned to him by Francis is to steer, as relator general, the world synod that got underway in 2021 and will last at least until 2024, but in the pope’s mind even beyond, with the task of remodeling the Church under the banner of none other than a permanent “synodality.”While for tomorrow it is no mystery that Hollerich is also Francis’s candidate “in pectore” for his succession, on which the current synod will have decisive influence, effectively obliging the future pope – whoever he may be – to take delivery on and continue the “process,” a bit as happened to Paul VI with the Vatican Council II inherited from John XXIII.The general rehearsal of this world synod is the one underway in Germany, which is already infecting other national Churches without Francis’s opposing any effective restraint, with the inevitable litany of fashionable reforms, ranging from married priests to women priests, from new sexual and homosexual morality to the democratization of Church governance.It is impossible not to recall that some of these were the reforms that another great Jesuit, Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini (1927-2012), had included in the agenda of the future Church in a memorable 1999 speech. Martini is known to have had a negative view of Bergoglio, but the supporters of the current pontificate are having a field day making him the “prophet” of the reforms for which Francis is supposedly paving the way at last and of which Hollerich has already repeatedly said he is in favor.“L’Osservatore Romano” published last October 24 a comprehensive agenda-setting interview with this cultured Jesuit cardinal with twenty-seven years of mission in Japan behind him. And in it he once again expressed the hope for “a paradigm change” in the pastoral care and doctrine of the Church on homosexuality, because homosexuals too “are the fruit of creation” and therefore are not “rotten apples” but “something good.” Of course, there is no room – the cardinal added – for a sacramental marriage between persons of the same sex, because the procreative purpose that characterizes a marriage is lacking, “but this does not mean that their affective union has no value.”And to the editor of “L’Osservatore Romano” who brought up the fact that the bishops of Belgium have spoken out in favor of the blessing of homosexual unions, Hollerich replied: “Frankly, the question does not seem decisive to me. If we keep to the etymology of ‘bene-dire’ [bless, literally ‘well-speak,’ Tr.], do you think that God could ever ‘dire-male’ [‘speak ill,’ Tr.] of two persons who care about each other?”These words of Hollerich’s spontaneously bring up the question: but wasn’t it another high-ranking Jesuit at the Vatican, Cardinal Luis F. Ladaria, in his capacity as prefect of the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, who prohibited the blessing of homosexual unions in a “Responsum” made public on March 15 2021?And was it not Francis himself who had “given his consent” to the publication of this “Responsum,” after having been “informed” of it, as written at the bottom of the document?Just so. Except, however, to take note that the following Sunday, at the Angelus, the pope had made it clear that he had no liking at all for “theoretical condemnations” or “claims of legalism or clerical moralism” where what are needed instead are “gestures of love.” And “authoritative Vatican sources” had anonymously made it known that with this he was criticizing none other than the “Responsum” that prohibited the blessing of homosexual unions, which he had approved in words.In short, humiliated by his confrere the pope, the hapless Cardinal Ladaria is the exception that confirms the rule. He is the old school Jesuit whom Bergoglio keeps on the bench while waiting to send him into retirement, off his team. Requiring him in the meantime to answer “no” to those cardinals – and there have been some – who have asked him to call Hollerich back to respect for correct doctrine.But in addition to Hollerich, there are two other Jesuits whom Francis has recently made cardinals and has put on the team in important roles.The first is the Canadian Michael Czerny, for many years more a competitor than a coworker of the Ghanaian cardinal Peter K. A. Turkson, first at the pontifical council for justice and peace and then at the dicastery for promoting integral human development, of which he has now become prefect. Czerny was also the special secretary of the synod for the Amazon. From the defense of nature to migrants, to the “popular movements,” he is the man Bergoglio avails himself of in these fields he favors.The second is the Italian Gianfranco Ghirlanda, former rector of the Pontifical Gregorian University and a seasoned expert in canon law. Among his tasks is that of translating into juridical provisions the imperious acts that Francis carries out with the air of an absolute monarch. From Ghirlanda, for example, came the perfunctory conclusion of the longstanding theological dispute between powers of orders, those derived from episcopal ordination, and powers of jurisdiction, those conferred by a higher authority, opting for the latter in order to place some lay people as well, men or women, at the head of the Vatican curia, with the simple mandate of the pope. Again from Ghirlanda, in his role of juridical “factotum” at the service of Francis, came the dismantling and refounding imposed by the pope on the Order of Malta.But that’s not all. Also among Jesuits who are not cardinals there are some whom the pope has placed in key roles, at his service.In the general secretariat of the synod of bishops there is a consultant who is in fact the associate closest to Cardinal Hollerich. It is Fr. Giacomo Costa, former editor of the magazine “Aggiornamenti Sociali” of the Milan Jesuits and vice-president of the Fondazione Carlo Maria Martini.Not to mention Fr. Antonio Spadaro, editor of “La Civiltà Cattolica” and very close to Francis since his election as pope, he too very active and urgent in promoting the world synod on synodality and in particular in involving in the adventure – with important help from his predecessor at “La Civiltà Cattolica,” Bartolomeo Sorge (1929-2020) – the Italian episcopal conference, initially very distrustful.And then there is the chapter of the Vatican finances, where Francis has appointed the Spanish Jesuit Juan Antonio Guerrero Alves as prefect of the secretariat for the economy, the office that oversees the entire sector.Moreover, for a couple of years there has also been a Jesuit at St. Peter’s Basilica, alongside the cardinal archpriest Mauro Gambetti, the pope’s vicar general for Vatican City. It is Francesco Occhetta, secretary general of the “Fratelli tutti” foundation and until 2020 political columnist for “La Civiltà Cattolica.”And there is also a Jesuit among the auxiliary bishops of the diocese of Rome of which the pope is bishop: Daniele Libanori, who is entrusted with the pastoral care of the city center.With the pope the names listed make nine. And with Sorge and the “prophet” Martini eleven, naturally without counting Cardinal Ladaria. Such a team, entirely of Jesuits, had never been seen in command of the Church.

Ghana’s Bishop opposes Freemasonry

Published on by Kathy Clubb2 Comments

After a Ghanian MP publicly stated that he was a Catholic and a Freemason, Bishop Joseph Osei-Bonsu went public to clarify the Church’s stance.

The MP, Alexander Afenyo-Markin, said that he hadn’t been sanctioned by the Church and that the President of Ghana is also a Catholic and a Mason. said “Freemasonry is a fraternal society that believes in God Almighty, and follows certain principles that guide a man’s life, and it does not run counter with my beliefs as a Catholic.”

In response, Bishop Osei-Bonsu told the Catholic Standard that it was unfortunate Afenyo-Markin “does not know the teaching of his Church on this matter.” God bless this man!

INTRODUCTION
Many people regard Freemasonry as a benevolent and charitable organization, somehow similar to the Rotary and Lions Clubs, the Knights of Marshall, the Knights of St. John International or the Knights of Columbus. Undoubtedly, it is for this reason that some Catholics join this fraternity.

In recent times, the Member of Parliament for Effutu in the Central Region, Hon. Alexander Afenyo-Markin, on a live radio interview stated that he is a proud member of the Lodge, and his church, the Catholic Church, does not frown on its members joining the Brotherhood. He added, “I am a mason and I have not been sanctioned by the Catholic Church. Freemasonry is a fraternal society that believes in God Almighty and follows certain principles that guide a man’s life and it does not run counter with my beliefs as a Catholic” (https://newsghana.com.gh/is-afenyo-markin-a-true-catholic/)

It is unfortunate that the Honourable Member of Parliament does not know the teaching of his Church on this matter. Contrary to what Honourable Alexander Afenyo Markin believes, Freemasonry is not approved by the Catholic Church. Indeed, Catholics are forbidden to become Freemasons.

FREEMASONRY AND THE CATHOLIC CHURCH
The Catholic Church has opposed the Lodge nearly since the birth of modern
Freemasonry in 1717. Since the founding of the Grand Lodge of England, eleven
popes have explicitly condemned Freemasonry or Masonic principles. These popes are: Pope Clement XII (28 April 1738); Pope Benedict XIV (18 May, 1751); Pius VII (13 September 1821); Pope Leo XII (13 March 1825); Pope Pius VIII (24 May 1829); Pope Gregory XVI (15 August 1832); Pius IX (between 1846 and 1873); Leo XIII (15 February 1882; 20 April 1884; 1887; 15 October 1890; 18 December 1892; 20 June 1894); Pope Pius IX (1907); Pope Pius X (1907); Pope Pius XI (1924).

A recent condemnation of Freemasonry is contained in the “Declaration on
Masonic Associations” issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on 26 November 1983, declared that Masonic principles are irreconcilable with the doctrine of Church, and that Catholic membership in Freemasonry remains forbidden.

The Church’s position is that Freemasonry is a religion in its own right with its own doctrines, which are not compatible with Christian beliefs. For this reason, one
cannot simultaneously be a Christian and be a Freemason. What it teaches about the following cannot be reconciled with Christian beliefs, i.e., God, Christ, the denial of the role of grace and Christ in salvation, morality, its attitude towards the Bible, eschatology, the masonic oaths and the notion of rebirth and enlightenment. For this reason, one cannot simultaneously be a Catholic and a Freemason, just as one cannot be a Catholic and be Muslim, a Hindu, a Shintoist or a practitioner of African Traditional Religion. One will have to make a choice between Catholicism and Freemasonry.

CONCLUSION
Let me conclude by drawing attention to the DECLARATION OF THE GHANA CATHOLIC BISHOPS’ CONFERENCE ON SANCTIONS FOR CATHOLICS WHO JOIN MASONIC ASSOCIATIONS, issued on 7 May 2009. Among other things, it says:

1) Any Catholic who is a member of any Masonic Association and participates in its programmes, or promotes its views, or holds any office therein, and refuses to renounce such membership despite at least one warning (cf. Canon 1347) is to be punished with an interdict (cf. Canon 1347), that is:

a. He is not allowed to receive Holy Communion and other sacraments (cf. Canon 1332).

b. He is prohibited to act as sponsor in Baptism and Confirmation.

c. He is not to be admitted as a member of parish or diocesan structures.

d. He is to be denied funeral rites, unless he shows some signs of repentance before death (Canon 1184 §1, no. 3).

e. Where funeral rites are allowed by the bishop, no Masonic service shall be allowed in the Church or cemetery immediately before or after the Church rites in order to avoid public scandal (cf. Canon 1184, §1, no. 3, and Canon 1374)

Any Catholic who is a convinced member of a Masonic Association and notoriously adheres to the Masonic vision is already considered to have incurred automatic excommunication (cf. Canon 1364). This means that the censures described in Canon 1331 automatically take full effect on this person. According to Canon 1331 §1, an excommunicated person is forbidden:
I. To have any ministerial participation in the celebration of the Eucharist or in any other ceremonies whatsoever of public worship.

II. To celebrate the sacraments and sacramentals and to receive the sacraments.

III. To discharge any ecclesiastical offices, ministries, or functions whatsoever, or to place acts of governance.

It is possible that some Catholics joined Freemasonry without knowing that it is forbidden to Catholics. Such people are advised to see their priests or their bishops who will assist them to renounce Freemasonry and avoid incurring the sanctions that will be imposed on them if they do not renounce Freemasonry.

EXCERPTS FROM CAN A CATHOLIC BE A FREEMASON BY MOST REV. JOSEPH OSEI-BONSU BISHOP OF KONONGO-MAMPONG