Let no man deceive you by any means: ....and that man of sin be revealed,
the son of perdition;
2 Timothy 2:3
"......Freemasons had historically been looking for with regard to the Pope of the Catholic Church. In 1861, Jacques Crétinau-Joly published a book entitled L’Eglise en face de la revolution (The Church in the Face of Revolution). This French author first published the Alta Vendita of the Carbonari, which, according to specialist scholars on Freemasonry, was the de facto armed wing of Freemasonry; those given leadership positions within this secret group had to already be Masons, especially high-level Masons.
According to this and other Masonic documents that were seized by the papal police, the Masons were hoping for a pope according to their own needs, not a pope who is part of their “brotherhood,” but a pope who goes along with their mentality. The Alta Vendita calls for a pope who would — similar to Clement XIV — surrender hands and feet to the powers that be (out of fear) and to the
In an interview in 1999 and another in 2009, the lawyer Gustavo Raffi, Grand Master of the Lodge Grand Orient of Italy (1999-2014), said that he missed Pope Paul VI because (says Raffi) during his pontificate, “Freemasonry had a season of great dialogue with the Church, many of the clergy spoke about the end of the anti-Masonic censure and argued in favor of a compatibility between Church and Loggia.”
But then, with Pope John Paul II, there returned the anti-Masonic “frost”: in 1983, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), presided over by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, reiterated the incompatibility between the Church and Masonry. Pope Wojtyla approved that statement.
Since 1999, however, the Archbishop (later Cardinal) of Buenos Aires, Jorge Mario Bergoglio, has been an honorary member of the Rotary Club, which has ties to Freemasonry.
Pope John Paul II died. There followed the 2005 Conclave. Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini (a Jesuit) was among the eligible candidates; it was he who appealed most to the Masons. But it seems that at that conclave, the decisive choice swung between the Archbishop of Buenos Aires, Jorge Bergoglio (also a Jesuit), and Joseph Ratzinger. Ratzinger won (to the Freemasons’ disappointment) and became Benedict XVI, the Pope of Summorum Pontificum, a Pope widely seen as a champion of clear and strong protection of non-negotiable values.
Under the Ratzinger papacy, there were frequent media attacks against the person of the pope, in some cases daily, conspiracies of “spies,” leaked documents, criticisms of various theologians against the pope, and massive boycotts of the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum. It seems that among the boycotters, or at least among the non-excited observers of Summorum Pontificum, was one Jorge Mario Bergoglio, then-Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
On February 11, 2013, Benedict gave in to his concerns about his own ability to continue an effective pontificate and resigned. A new conclave was held. This time, when a new pope came out onto the
Some will no doubt say that this image of Francis in the media as one favored by Freemasonry is the result of Masonic exploitation and the pope himself has nothing to do with it. This may well be the case. But it is therefore important to ask why the Masons did not similarly exploit or praise Popes Pius IX, Pius X, Pius XI, and Pius XII.
Let us now examine the evidence, however, of their support for Pope Francis:
1) After his election, Pope Francis received congratulations and praise from B’nai B’rith, a kind of powerful para-Jewish Masonry for Jews only. B’nai B’rith (B.B.) contends that it is not Masonic, yet its assemblies are called “Loggia” and “Grand Lodge.” B’nai B’rith was founded in 1843 and has drawn its own various elements largely from Masonry. It seems that B’nai B’rith, as an organization, has little or nothing to do with esotericism.
2) On his election day, the information website Impulso Baires transmitted a release of the Gran Logia de la Argentina de Libres y Aceptados Masones; the Grand Master himself, Angel Jorge Clavero, greeted the new Pope Francis and former Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires.
3) On March 15, 2013, the website of the Virtual Grand Lodge of Italy, GLVDI, published a statement (though dated March 13, 2013) of Grand Master Luciano Nistri concerning the election of the new pope:
The Catholic Church has chosen as Pope the Jesuit Jorge Mario Bergoglio who assumed the name of Francis. A clear-cut choice, away from the logic of the Roman
Curia and of the temporal power. From the first moment on, Pope Francis, a man who comes “nearly from the end of the world,” rejecting the ermine robe and gold cross and replacing it with an iron cross, made his first tangible act. In his first words of greeting he fostered a desire for dialogue with the world and with mankind, nurturing the vivid hope for laymen and nonbelievers that change is underway. Maybe this is really what the world expects and what it expected. A new Church that knows how to reconnect love with truth in a confrontation among institutions not entrenched in the defense of their own power. It is that same hope for which the world — and especially Latin America, where the Masons Simon Bolivar, Salvador Allende and the same Giuseppe Garibaldi [especially while in Brazil] among the many who have given liberty to those peoples — has always longed for.
4) On 14 March 2013, Gustavo Raffi, the Grand Master of the Grand Orient Lodge of Italy — one of the most important lodges in the world — saluted and praised the new Pontiff. Raffi said, possibly prophetically: “Perhaps in the Church nothing will be as before.”
5-6-7) The Masonic site Fenix News, directed by the Peruvian Mason Mario Rolleri 33° (Lodge Luis Heysen Inchaustegui, Lima, Peru), published on 15 March 2013 a statement from the United Grand Lodge of Lebanon. The Grand Master Rami Haddad and the Sovereign Grand Commander Jamil Saade sent their congratulations to Argentina, to the women of the Female Grand Lodge of
In this one statement, we see the support of Peruvian Freemasons (5), Lebanese Freemasons (6) and Argentine Freemasons (7), who were all pleased with the election of Bergoglio.
In contrast, Pius IX, a Pius X, or a Pius XII, when newly elected, did not receive praise and greetings from either Italian or international Freemasonry. Those “pious” pontificates have never been friendly with the Masons. (Is it a coincidence that the causes for the canonization of Pius IX and Pius XII have been stalled?)
8) A few weeks after the March 2013 election of Pope Francis, in the April 2013 issue of the Canadian Masonic Newsletter The Watermark, we read that the new Pope is in the Internet, and was even referred to as a Freemason who uses Masonic signs… The Masonic author is confident that the new Pope, despite his “conservatism,” will be willing to build a better relationship between Catholicism and Masonry.
9) In a letter to his progressive friend, Massimo Teodori, on 20 June 2013, the Grand Master Raffi showed himself to be still full of zeal and enthusiasm for the acts and words of Pope Francis. Raffi advocated a deep “reform” of the Church, of course according to the designs of Masonic and secularist thought. Raffi praised, as “a profound theologian,” Karl Rahner (a Jesuit) and his theory of the “anonymous Christians.” Raffi opposed “the ancient liturgies of privileges and sinecures.”
10) In favor of Pope Bergoglio was also the Brazilian Masonic magazine O Malhete. In the article (“Uma lição do Papa“), on p. 7, the Bishop of Rome was being exalted. The author was Derildo Martins Da Costa, Worshipful Master of the Lodge “Luz do Planalto,” East of Serra-Grande Oriente do Brasil. Martins Da Costa writes: “O Pope Francisco, antes de exortar os outros to fazerem,
(A small side remark: Cardinal João Braz de Aviz, now Prefect of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, participated in 2006 as Archbishop of Brasília (Brazil) in a “spiritual” forum. At that forum, there were also present representatives of theosophy, spiritualism, and of Brazilian Freemasonry (Grand Orient of Brazil). Braz had a dialogue with them and with liberal American nuns, but not so much with the monks and nuns of the Franciscans of the Immaculate of Fr. Stefano Maria Manelli.).
11) In the issue 1-2 /2013 (on pages 65-66) of the magazine L’Acacia of the Italian Grand Lodge for the Symbolic Rite, the chief editor Moreno Neri hopes that Pope Francis, a Jesuit, can really reform the Church (“no one else but a Jesuit might be suitable to take up the challenge of the changes that await the Church”), and commends Cardinal Martini.
12) In 2013. the Italian journalists Giacomo Galeazzi and Ferruccio Pinotti publish the book Masonic Vatican. Galeazzi is a big “fan” of Pope Francis, as is Andrea Tornielli, Vatican correspondent and colleague of Galeazzi in the newspaper La Stampa in Turin. Galeazzi-Pinotti wrote:
In the last 30-35 years, several Jesuits were in a positive way interested in Freemasonry; they took part in public debates, at conferences organized by the Grand Orient of Italy, have written articles and books on philosophical thought on the history of Freemasonry — in other words, they were ecclesiastical ones who, in spite of the anathemas and the various excommunications of the Church of Rome issued toward the Masonic institution, tried to understand, and then very often ended up sharing the philosophical approach.
13) In July 2013, commemorating his friend and late Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, the Grand Master
Humanity today is poorer and poorer, as is also the Catholic Church. But the one of Pope Francis is a church that promises to be respectful of the otherness and to share the idea that the secular state promotes peace and coexistence of different religions.
14) In a two-page letter, dated September 9, 2013, Gian Franco Pilloni, Serene Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Italy — U.M.S.O.I. addressed Pope Francis (one can see that also Pilloni knows that with Francis, the “air has changed” in the Vatican) begging him to work “toward an end of the divisions that exist in the relations between the Catholic Church and Freemasonry.” Pilloni would have us believe that Freemasonry is not an adversary of the Catholic Church, but that it walks on “parallel streets.” Pilloni praises Pope Francis, saying “The Catholic Church is being worthily represented by you,” adding “I appeal to
15) On September 21, 2013, moreover, during the celebrations by the Freemasonry of the Grand Orient of Italy on the occasion of the recurrence of the 20th of September and of the Fall Equinox, the Grand Master Gustavo Raffi stated, inter alia:
Pope Francis launches messages of humanity that are in tune with what we have been saying for years. He also invites people to come out of the catacombs and not to withdraw but to witness among the different peoples to one’s own values [sic], in speaking to society. The reflections should not be limited to today but should build the future. This is a living Masonry, talking to people [in a dialogue].
[…] Fortunately, Roman Catholics now have a leader in Pope Francis who believes that all religions and brotherhood associations that believe in God should be respected and not condemned to eternal damnation. We as Christians should heed his call for religious tolerance and for genuine Ecumenism.
17) On Saturday, March 2, 2013, Mario Rolleri 33° (thirty-third degree) published on the Spanish-language Masonic news site, Fenixnews, a couple of sentences in defense of human rights, as they were made by the then-Cardinal Bergoglio, in 2009 and 2012. The title of the article is “Bergoglio: The Pope in 02 Phrases” (“Bergoglio: el Papa en 02 frases”). And you see the photo of Pope Francis. But what is strange: the article is dated March 2, 2013 — while on the other hand Bergoglio was elected Pope only 11 days later, i.e., on March 13, 2013! Is it the wrong date on which the article was posted (02 March 2013), or was the name of the future pope already known before his official election? In this regard it is impressive what our colleague Sandro Magister noted in his recent article which is entitled “The Man Who Had to Be Elected Pope.”
18) The Peruvian Mason Mario Rolleri 33° must have been so excited about the election of Papa Bergoglio that, on March 15, 2013, he posted on Fenixnews the first words of the new Pope. The article ends with the words of the crowd “Long Live the Pope!”
19) ...on the subject of the Pope Francis pontificate, we read in the Masonic Bulletin:
And this “leap forward of the Church in modern society” then and now pleases Freemasonry, which today just as during those hot years has again taken to follow with interest the changes that are outlined Oltretevere [in the Vatican]. […] Politi said that several prelates and scholars in recent years have proposed to hold a Vatican [Council] III, but perhaps, noted the journalist, there is not even a need for it. The season of the Church reforms is, in fact, now already open.20) To the journalist Andrea Scanzi of the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, in 2014, Michela Scolari (the sole custodian of the memories of the Mason Licio Gelli), declared that 6-7 years ago, Pope Francis (then Cardinal Bergoglio) visited Licio Gelli at the Villa Wanda in Arezzo. Gelli, head of the famous P2 Lodge, was a Mason with excellent connections with Freemasonry and the Argentine political class in the 1970s and 1980s. To Scolari, Gelli revealed that he knew Bergoglio since 1973.
21) In the issue of March 2014 of Alpina, the Swiss Masonic magazine, the Mason Pierre-Alexandre Joye writes that Church and Freemasonry are based on different traditions, but with Pope Francis’ election, the South American Jesuit, one can relaunch the Masonic-Catholic dialogue. The spiritualist forces should not be divided, but united for the sake of social justice, human rights, freedom. Church and Freemasonry must not stop at what divides but must aim at what unites.
22) In his last speech as Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy (in April of 2014), the lawyer Gustavo Raffi said, according to a report:
“The world is changing at a speed which, a few years ago, would have been completely unimaginable. This ‘liquid’ world — to use the term coined by Zigmunt Baumann — is
radically transforming all the ‘rigid’ structures which the sea of the past has deposited on the shores of the present,” said Raffi. “Just look back inside those walls that separate Italy from the Vatican to understand — he added — that something is changing. We observe with care and respect as this Pope is accelerating the timing of an epochal change within the horizon of structures traditionally reluctant to welcome the innovative ferment. And the reflections of his influence echo far beyond the borders of the sacristy. But it’s also up to us. It’s up to us to make the crossing of this liquid reality happen. It is also up to us to deal with the changing contemporary world. With the claim — never betrayed — to be always contemporary to posterity.” “That is what calls us to make our identity as Italians and Freemasons — he observed — and to set sail and navigate with confidence into the future, whatever it has in store for us.”
23) In 2014, on the occasion of the reunion of the Grand Lodge of Free & Accepted Masons of Florida (USA), the Grand Orator of the Grand Lodge, Gilbert Weisman, not only quoted enthusiastically the work “Morals & Dogma” by the Mason Albert Pike 33rd degree (an esoteric and occultist Mason), but also mentioned some words from the homily held by Pope Francis on 1 January 2014, in which the Pontiff stated that we are all children of the Heavenly
24) On September 4, 2015, Oscar Bartoli reported in the article, “This communist and anti-Catholic Pope (according to some),” that some of his own acquaintances (one of his friends, his former pastor, and an intimate friend of cardinals and curial members) see in Pope Francis a danger to the Catholic Faith and to society (e.g., too much “easiness” or “laxity” in the practice of the declaration of nullity of marriage, excessive openings toward the divorced and remarried and toward homosexuals, confusion among believers, a forced and indiscreet welcome of immigrants, too much sympathy shown to Fidel Castro, too much hostility shown to Trump and the Republicans, a philo-U.S. democratic attitude). At the end of the article, Mason Bartoli then commented as follows: “Pope Francis follows the example of the divine Poet: ‘Do not look back after them, but see and go on.’”
25) In the issue 4 (November-December 2015) of the magazine The Cabletow, the Mason Jesse D. Alto announced that the Grand Master in charge, Thomas Rentoy, had managed to obtain permission from the Philippine Catholic Church that a Catholic priest may celebrate Mass every Sunday at the headquarters of the Grand Lodge of the Philippines. Alto also wrote that, with this permitted event, centuries of erroneous beliefs, finally, were to be eradicated which had taught that the teachings of Freemasonry were contrary to those of the Catholic Church. Even more so, Alto further “perfumed with incense” Pope Francis himself by enthusiastically citing some passages from the pope’s Christmas homily. The Mason Alto thereby apparently wants to convince us that both Masons and Catholics together teach that man is a spiritual being."
From Catholic OnePeterFive
