"A Eucharistic Butchery!" -- Don Ricotta Dismissed in Palermo by Bergoglian Archbishop

Don Leonardo Ricotta, the deposed pastor of Sant'Agata di Villabate (Archdiocese of Palermo)

Edit: you might remember him calling upon us to reject the Virus Mass.

(Rome) Constantly new arbitrary and even sacrilegious measures by bishops, which are enacted to curb the spread of Coronavirus, are incomprehensible and cause absurd reactions to the point of horror missae and dramatic interventions such as the removal of a pastor in the Archdiocese of Palermo shows.

Many priests are outraged, some refuse to do so without publicly announcing it, but at the risk of being denounced by the faithful. This also happens because the irresponsible extent of the scaremongering, as it was carried out by politicians, government advisers and the media, can trigger irrational reactions among anxious people and can cloud common sense in some. Since May 18th, public worship has been allowed in Italy again, if only under strict conditions enacted by the Italian government and the Italian Bishops' Conference on May 7th. Yesterday, May 24th, the first Sunday services were held after twelve weeks. The requirements imposed on the priests include wearing a face mask and disposable gloves when giving communion.

A priest who expressed his outrage loudly and clearly has now become the victim of punitive measures by his bishop, a bonified Bergoglian. The serious incident occurred in the Archdiocese of Palermo in Sicily.

Germany is three times more affected by Corona than Sicily

While some areas of northern Italy were severely affected by the corona virus, the situation in southern Italy and on the islands remained surprisingly relaxed. In Sicily, with its five and a half million inhabitants, 20 percent fewer people were tested corona-positive than in tiny Luxembourg, which has only a tenth of its inhabitants.

The numbers are to be questioned overall. The completely unusual and constantly widespread total number of corona positives at some point is ultimately irrelevant, since 90 percent of those affected show no or at least no noteworthy symptoms, but above all there is no risk from those who have recovered. So what would count are the fatalities, but they are even more dubious, as new cases of vertiginous counting confirm. A number of credible indications suggest that since the first corona death in Europe, that was the Italian Adriano Trevisan, who died on February 21, as many corona deaths as possible should be "produced", mostly afterwards by a corresponding note on the death certificate and through the reports to the central corona detection points. Why doctors, including pathologists, are involved is one of the many open corona questions. It is reasonable to assume that these are economic interests, whether direct or indirect.

It should also be mentioned that almost three months after his death it turned out that Adriano Trevisan is not a corona-dead person at all, but has succumbed to serious preexisting illnesses. The Padua public prosecutor's office had forced the autopsy. Trevisan, who became the fan of unprecedented fear-mongering across Europe, now symbolizes the doubtfulness of the way the Corona dead have been counted and, overall, the government's Corona measure. This also includes the fact that although he was reported to be the first Corona dead across Europe, the correction of this false report based on the autopsy results is being kept secret.

Why, despite the small number of cases, Sicily has more than twice as many corona deaths as Luxembourg, namely 268, is one of the numerous corona puzzles that seem less to do with the corona virus and more to do with forces that work under the Corona pretext to take you for a ride. All in all (the paradox in the paradox?) There were 9.2 percent fewer deaths in the province of Palermo, which is specifically concerned, according to the Italian statistics office and the National Health Institute ISS in the first third of 2020 (January 1 to April 30) than last year - despite Covid-19.

The situation in Sicily is always relaxed, after all, the lowest level of Corona warnings in Italy applies to the island. To establish a relationship: According to WHO figures, the Federal Republic of Germany and Austria were three times more affected by the Corona virus than the Mediterranean island.

Don Leonardo Ricotta celebrates Mass ad orientem. In his sermon of May 18th, he explained the priest's finger position as soon as they touch the body of Christ.

The pastor's indignation over latex gloves

However, the Italian Bishops' Conference prescribed uniform provisions for the whole of Italy, the same for acute areas as for hardly affected areas. The priest Leonardo Ricotta, pastor of Sant'Agata in Villabate in the Archdiocese of Palermo, was dismissed on May 21. The city of 20,000 inhabitants is nine kilometers from the Archbishop's Palace. The reason: The pastor refused to handle the body of Christ with disposable gloves and said so out loud.

The archbishopric's press office published a statement on this, which does not disclose the facts and begins with a defense of its own actions. Rumors are false that the priest has been dismissed by the archbishop. Don Ricotta himself has given up his office. The Motu proprio Summorum Pontificum by Pope Benedict XVI. causes the priest to celebrate Holy Mass in the traditional Rite, which he has been doing on three working days since then. He also celebrated the parish service ad orientem in the Novus Ordo.

At best, what the matter is about can be guessed from the archiepiscopal statement. The point of contention is presented as follows:

"The practice of distributing hand Communion is in conformity with the norms issued by the ecclesiastical Magisterium, to which every Catholic Christian owes religious obedience and that of the intellect."

Reference is made to the instruction of Redemptionis Sacramentum of the Roman Congregation of Worship in 2004. Paragraph 92 states accordingly: If a believer in a country in which the Bishops' Conference has allowed hand communion with confirmation of the Holy See wishes it, he should give him Communion be distributed like this. The instruction is the preliminary conclusion of a long process by which the misuse of the distribution of Communion by Rome, which was supported by Dutch and then German bishops, was subsequently recognized. The Italian Bishops' Conference issued a dispensation for hand Communion in 1989. In the Catholic countries, oral Communion is still widespread today. The bishops' Corona measures are the most radical global intervention against Communion on the tongue and for hand Communion since Pope Paul VI. 1969 buckled before German blackmail and gave the bishops' conferences the opportunity to allow hand Communion as an exception.

Don Leonardo Ricotta, with holy anger, took a stand against the decree to pick up and offer the body of Christ with disposable gloves. He criticized such a practice as "Eucharistic butchery".

Ideal dispensing of Communion donation according to TV2000, television station of the Italian Bishops' Conference: priests and believers with face masks, latex gloves and hand communion

Topsy-Turvy World in Reversed Roles

The well-known liturgist Don Nicola Bux also criticized the instructions of the bishops as "paradoxical", because if it were to be liturgical, it would have to be exactly the opposite. In the traditional rite, as it was celebrated until 1965/1970, the bishops wear gloves because their anointed hands should be clean so that they can touch the Eucharistic Lord with their bare hands. They are discarded from the offertory, to the ambo and the communio. With the Novus Ordo the gloves were discarded as obsolete, but now the bishops want to reintroduce them in a somewhat weird way, but upside down. Don Bux has assigned touching the body of Christ with disposable gloves as if He were a leper, and the episcopal compulsion that compelled this behavior on all priests to the area of the sacrileges.

Don Ricotta is not the only priest in Sicily to be appalled. However, he said it clearly and announced that he would only celebrate Holy Mass in the traditional rite that would not tolerate such a compulsory prescription. The archdiocese reacted and disclosed the archbishop's understanding of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass:

“The Eucharist exclusively with the Roman Rite as an extraordinary form according to the Missale Romanum by John XXIII. from 1962, which was introduced by the Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum, established in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI. would exclude that portion of God's people from participating in the Mass, in as much as the promulgated form of Paul VI's Missal currently used, who might be allowed active participation. This would seriously affect the rights and freedom of a large number of believers. ”

In conclusion, it is as succinct as it is contradictory:

“Personal beliefs, presented by individuals as authentic teaching, cannot be forced on believers. It is up to the bishop in the diocese to 'establish standards for the liturgy to which everyone is bound', 'to preserve the unity of the Church as a whole' and 'to promote the common order of the whole Church' (Congregation for Worship , Instruction Redemptionis Sacramentum, No. 176–177).“

Coercion can obviously be applied, but only in one direction, away from tradition.

Statement by the archiocesan press office

The letter from a lawyer

Roberto De Petro, a lawyer from Palermo and a traditional Catholic, wrote Archbishop Corrado Lorefice on May 20th. Lorefice, the "most progressive" candidate that Pope Francis could find for the Diocese of the Primate of Sicily, was appointed in the fall of 2015. In it he describes the traditional Rite as "safest in Corona times". Above all, he draws attention to the "invalidity" and "illogicality" of the joint protocol between the government and the episcopal conference of May 7th on the re-admission of public worship. De Petro documents in a knowledgeable and detailed manner that the protocol and the associated legislative decree (No. 33/2020) are unconstitutional. This already results from the lack of an "exceptional emergency", which the constitution requires for such a type of provision. This plight does not exist in Sicily and has never existed during the entire Corona period.

The protocol mentioned was also null and void because the government had no jurisdiction over Catholic issues and the representatives of the bishops' conference had no jurisdiction, neither over the bishops nor over the priests, nor about the faithful.

“Every bishop is sovereign in his dioceswe, but he cannot change what is specified in the Missal sections that have legal force for the whole Church. The headings of the Missale do not provide for the use of gloves when celebrating the Eucharist."

The lawyer also addresses the question of liturgical gloves, called Chirothecae, as they are used in the traditional rite:

“In the traditional rite, the bishop removes the chirotecae before he approaches the altar for the sacrifice, which means that he can only touch the consecrated host with his bare hands. (…) Indeed, after the change, the priest holds the fingertips of the thumb and forefinger together until the end of communion before cleaning them in the chalice.”

This was to prevent even a crumb from being lost from the Lord's body. But this is exactly what can't  be done with gloves, which is why they are removed in the traditional rite.

Therefore "the use of latex gloves is an aberration". The material is miserable and contradicts all liturgical provisions of the church. Above all, the gloves are simply thrown away afterwards. Corrupting the understanding of the Eucharist, whether intended or not, is devastating.

In a third point, the lawyer opposes the factual ban on oral Communion by forcing manual Communion. In contrast to hand Communion, oral Communion is the " much safer" form of receiving Communion. This has been confirmed by doctors specifically interviewed by the Portland diocese in the United States.

Finally, De Petro contradicts the references to Redemptionis Sacramentum and states that the provisions of the Bishops' Conference contradict and violate this instruction. In various parishes of the Archdiocese of Palermo, Communion kneeling and on the tongue was previously denied to believers. Archbishop Lorefice, although informed of this, did not respond to it.

De Petro calls on the archbishop to stop using the “humiliating” protocol and to promote the celebration of the traditional rite as a measure against the Coronavirus.

The archbishop's press office's statement the next day on Don Ricotta's case shows that Archbishop Lorefice is not considering implementing any of it.

"Padre Pio called this butchery"

Don Ricotta said on May 18:

“When my bishop tells me that I have to be a pastor somewhere that I don't like, I go and obey. But if he forces me to act against belief or step on the Consecrated Host, I cannot obey. Obedience applies to the lawful, not the unlawful, that is the great teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas. What you're doing here is an act of Eucharistic butchery. Father Pio called this butchery. "

Vaticanist Marco Tosatti commented on the Don Ricotta case:

"And lo and behold, Don Ricotta was dismissed without notice, and in the merciful Lorefice of Palermo, we wonder how much credibility can be given to the declaration of the diocese ..." when it says that the priest has voluntarily renounced his parish.

The Archdiocese of Palermo was previously the scene of a violent conflict between a diocesan priest and the archbishop. Don Alessandro Minutella , pastor of a suburban parish in the Sicilian capital, criticized Pope Francis' line. He was then given an ultimatum. When he did not respond in the desired form, he was suspended and effectively excommunicated. Don Ricotta is also a priest who speaks his mind even when it concerns the Pope - albeit more moderately than Don Minutella. You don't make friends with them in Bergoglian ordinaries, not even in a moderate tone. Whoever celebrates in the traditional Rite and is connected to tradition has to dress twice as warmly.

The Don Ricotta case shows how great and varied the damage that is currently being done, not by the corona virus, but by the corona measures.

Text: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Cooperatores Veritatis / Archdiocese of Palermo / TV2000 (screenshots)

Trans: Tancred vekron99@hotmail.com

AMDG

Did Minnesota Archbishop Blink?

Edit: the Archdiocese has said that it is opening up public Masses at the end of the month. Governor Walz and Archbishop Hebda have made an agreement, but we’re not sure what that means. Here’s the Archbishop’s statement. Its hard to say what he’s planning on doing, but it sounds like the churches will be open on the 27th and only for 250 people. 

(FOX 9) - Places of worship in Minneapolis and St. Paul will continue to hold services remotely, according to a joint statement from the cities’ mayors.

Just hours after Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order loosening restrictions on in-person worship services, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and St. Paul Mayor Melvin Carter released a joint statement saying the congregations in the Twin Cities will continue to operate remotely.

The statement said the mayors discussed the issue with faith leaders and heard “loud and clear” that they are unified in continuing to hold services remotely.

“Any large in-person gathering amid this pandemic puts people at risk,” the statement reads. “Regardless of your faith and beliefs, we all have a common obligation to our respective communities and congregations. Let’s put their health and safety first.”

Here is the full statement from Frey and Carter: 

We’ve spoken with faith leaders [It doesn’t exactly conjure up Saint John Fischer]  from across our Twin Cities, and what we’ve heard loud and clear is a strong, unified commitment to protecting the health of their congregations and continuing to hold services remotely. Any large in-person gathering amid this pandemic puts people at risk. Regardless of your faith and beliefs, we all have a common obligation to our respective communities and congregations. Let’s put their health and safety first. [Let the soul be damned, I reckon] 

AMDG

David Duke is Catholic Now

Edit: you may have read the book Ethnos Needs Logos: Why I Spent Three Days in Guadalajara Trying to Persuade David Duke to Become Catholic.   Perhaps you also remember when Bill Donahue of the Catholic League made his reductio, "I'm a good Catholic and I agree with David Duke?" Well, Doctor David Duke is Catholic now.  I just received a nice e-mail from Doctor Jones and he confirmed that David Duke told Eric Gajewski when he thought the mike was dead on his show that he was  Catholic.

They have interviewed each other on a number of occasions, but the show in question is here., which is behind a paywall. 

We take a moment to welcome David Duke to the altar and the Church of our ancestors, both spiritual and fleshly.

Maybe the Judaizers over at Patheos will become Episcopagans in protest?


AMDG

"Lucifer" For Austria's Freemasons

"The Lucifer Method" - The veneration of Lucifer in Austria's regular Freemasonry based on three examples.

By P. Paolo M. Siano *


[Katholisches] After my article on the book "God without Church" (2003) I learned that the Freemason Peter Stiegnitz had also written a book that I did not know before and that does not appear on Wikipedia or the Freemason Wiki.

Stiegnitz was initiated in 1970 as a Freemason in the Vienna Lodge Humanitas [1] of the Grand Lodge of Austria (GLvÖ). He belonged to other lodges of the GLvÖ and held various offices and functions at the level of the grand lodge. In civil life he was a university professor in Budapest and an official of the Austrian Federal Chancellery. On his 80th birthday (2016) Stiegnitz received the Merit Award from the GLvÖ through its grandmaster Georg Semler, who described him the year after (at the funeral speech) as "a great man in our covenant."

In this article I turn to this book by the Masonic brother Stiegnitz “The Lucifer Method. Spirit from Contradiction” (Edition Va Bene, Vienna – Klosterneuburg 2009), which is a single praise to LUZIFER.

The book was "printed with the support of the Federal Ministry of Science and Research in Vienna and the cultural department of the City of Vienna, science and research funding" (p. 4). [2] The same cultural department of the City of Vienna (MA7) also supported the recently published pro-Masonic book by Monsignor Michael H. Weninger "Lodge und Altar" (Löcker Verlag, Vienna 2020, see there p. 4).

I present some points from Stiegnitz "The Lucifer Method", which thanks Lucifer:

“Thanks to Lucifer, the lightbringer. [...] Lucifer, God's adversary [...]. This book should lead through his life ”(p.11).

According to Stiegnitz, Lucifer, Devil, Morning Star and Light Bringer was his mother's favorite character (“my mother's favorite figure”, (. 12). According to Stiegnitz, Lucifer is the youngest son of the devil and the brother of "Beelzebub". While Beelzebub directs evil, Lucifer, by order of God, is the diffuser of light and knowledge among men (see p. 16). In addition, Stiegnitz says that Beelzebub is male, whereas Lucifer is "versatile" (p. 18): "He is as beautiful as a woman, but at least like a homoerotic Greek youth," p.18). According to Stiegnitz, "the dull Satanists" have nothing in common with Lucifer (see p. 18). Humans have demonized Lucifer instead of seeing him as an instrument of God. They saw him as the prince of darkness instead of light, the light of God and light of knowledge. Lucifer worships God, says Stiegnitz, he loves man and teaches his method, which is duality, i.e. the need for opposites that enable knowledge and development (see p. 19). The opposites, that is: light – darkness, good – evil, man – woman etc. (see p. 20).

Peter Stiegnitz (left) and Richard Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi, both members of the Masonic Lodge Humanitas in Vienna and high degree freemasons

For Stiegnitz "Lucifer, the light-bearer and motivator of knowledge", p. 24). He, who identifies himself as a Freemason (cf. p. 25), claims that light and darkness need each other (cf. p. 26). Thanks to Lucifer, man had gained knowledge at the behest of God (see p. 82, p. 114). Stiegnitz praises Giordano Bruno's pantheistic thinking and says that the heretic friar was one of Lucifer's favorites, a martyr, a shining spirit (cf. pp. 116-117). Stiegnitz explains that Lucifer is not the prince of darkness, but: "As his name already says, a figure of the spirit that gives people pleasure and light," p. 164). According to Stiegnitz, it was Aaron who invented the story of the serpent of Genesis to demonize the Canaanite god, so the biblical god had nothing to do with it. In this way, Stiegnitz tries to rehabilitate both Lucifer and God (see p. 166–167).

On the one hand, Stiegnitz does not want to identify Lucifer with Satan, but on the other hand he says that Lucifer is the devil (see p. 59) and that the devil is Satan (see p. 167).

The Freemason Stiegnitz believes that religion is a purely human work and that monotheistic religions would fear Lucifer (see p. 175). He complains that not only in Islam, but also in Christianity, especially in Catholicism, there is an "absurd prejudice against the 'devil worshipers'" and also Lucifer (cf. 180). In this context, Stiegnitz says that the “bolted” Freemason Leo Taxil accused the Freemasons in 1886 of “being devil worshipers, so-called Luciferians (…), who declared Satan to be the true god of light (see p. 180). Br. ·. Stiegnitz admits, however, that Taxil was “not so wrong”, since Freemasons and Lucifer “have many similarities” (see p. 180-181)!

Stiegnitz complains that for Pope Leo XIII. not Lucifer,  the Church is the "model of light", and therefore free thinkers are considered agents of darkness (see p. 181). According to the Freemason Stiegnitz, the Church, civilization and progress need Lucifer the “light-bearer” (see p. 182).

It is good to know that the intellectual Luciferism of Br. Stiegnitz is not an isolated case in Austrian Freemasonry, but is a kind of initiation tradition that appears from time to time in Masonic publications. We can already praise Lucifer in Der Zirkel (No. 13–14 from July 1, 1875), the journal of the Loge Humanitas in Vienna, where Freemason  Br. ·. Dr. Jos [eph] Wagner accused the Jesuits of being enemies of reason, enemies of light and knowledge. Then Br. Wagner wrote: "(...) is Lucifer, their main enemy, whom they have always cursed into the abyss of Hell", p. 100). Wagner defined the Freemasons as "children of light", ibid).

Journal of the Vienna Loge Humanitas (July 1, 1875), in which the Viennese doctor and Freemason Joseph Wagner praised "Lucifer" as "light bearer".

In 1922 the famous Richard Nikolaus Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi (1894–1972) was initiated in the same Loge Humanitas in Vienna and also joined the Capitoline Lodge Mozart of the Old and Recognized Scottish Rite (cf. E. Semrau, Enlightenment and Delusion, Innsbruck 2012, p 95). The Austrian philosopher and politician Coudenhove-Kalergi launched the idea "Paneuropa - a proposal" a few months later and founded the Paneuropa Movement in 1923, which was supported by the Freemasons from the beginning, including the Grand Secretary of the Grand Lodge of Vienna Vladimir Misar (cf. Zuber, Richard Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi, as Freemason, in: Yearbook of the research Lodge Quatuor Coronati, No. 32, Bayreuth 1995). Coudenhove-Kalergi hoped for the realization of the United States of Europe.

In his book “Practical Idealism. Aristocracy - Technology - Pacifism ”(Pan-Europa Verlag, Vienna-Leipzig 1925), the Freemason Kalergi writes:

"In the Jewish mythology the European spirit corresponds to Lucifer - in the Greek Prometheus: the bringer of light that carries the divine spark to the earth, [...] the father of struggle, technology, enlightenment and progress" (p.83).

“The spirit of Europe” broke political despotism and the rule of natural forces (see p. 83). According to Coudenhove-Kalergi, Europe only found itself through emancipation from Christianity (see p. 84–85).

I have given only three examples here in which Luzifer or Lucifer is praised by philanthropic and pro-European Austrian Freemasons. The Stiegnitz case, dignitary of the regular Austrian Freemasonry, also confirms the incompatibility between the Church and the Lodge.

* Father Paolo Maria Siano belongs to the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FFI); the church historian with a doctorate is considered one of the best Catholic experts in Freemasonry, to whom he has dedicated several standard works and numerous essays. Katholisches.info published by him:

The Freemason Lexicon by Eugen Lennhoff 33rd and Oskar Posner and the dialogue between Church and Freemasonry 1974–1980

Masonic Doctoral Thesis by Msgr. Weninger

Brothers.·. Peter Stiegnitz of the Grand Lodge of Austria (1936-2017)

The "Weninger case" - ex-diplomat, priest, curial, Freemason

Freemasonry Declared by a Grand Master

Initiation and Gnosis await the waiting party at the Masonic Association

Baron Yves Marsaudon - A high degree freemason in the Order of Malta

The Lodge Quatuor Coronati, the Grand Master and a Beggar Brother

“Catholic who joins lodge is excommunicated” - Church Historian Paolo M. Siano on Church and Freemasonry

Short answer to a grand master of Freemasonry

Was Karl Rahner a Freemason?

Translation / Note: Giuseppe Nardi
Image: Corrispondenza Romana / Freemason Wiki / Berlin State Library (screenshots)

The Vienna Loge Humanitas is considered in the so-called regular Freemasonry as the "mother of all Freemason lodges existing in Austria" (Der Zirkel, No. 13-14 of July 1, 1875). All three persons presented in this article: the doctor Joseph Wagner, the privateer, philosopher and politician Richard Graf Coudenhove-Kalergi and the ministerial official in the Federal Chancellery, Peter Stiegnitz belonged to Humanitas. Stiegnitz and Coudenhove-Kalergi were also high degree Freemasons of the York Rite and the Old and Accepted Scottish Rite. There is no information on Wagner in this regard.

Minister of Science and Research was Claudia Schmied (SPÖ) at the time of going to print, Vienna City Councilor for Culture and Science was Andreas Mailath-Pokorny (SPÖ).


AMDG

The Freemasonic Lexicon of Eugen Lennhoff 33. and Oskar Posner and the Dialogue Between Church and Freemasonry 1974–1980

The International Masonic Encyclopedia by Lennhoff and Posner: on the left the first edition in 1932, on the right the most recent reprint of the new edition from 2000, which Dieter Binder obtained.

By P. Paolo M. Siano *

display

[Katholisches] From 1974 to 1980 there was an official dialogue between representatives of the United Grand Lodge of Germany (VGLvD) and a commission of the German Bishops' Conference. In his article "Freemasonry and the German Bishops' Conference" (in Voices of the Times, No. 6/1981, pp. 409–422), Bishop Joseph Stimpfle (1916–1996), Bishop of Augsburg (1963–1992), Knight of the Holy Sepulcre (1970), president of the above-mentioned Catholic commission, that these Freemasons of the VGLvD presented the Freemasons' International Encyclopedia (abbreviation: IFL) of the Freemasons Eugen Lennhoff and Oskar Posner as "qualified sources" to learn more about Masonic thinking. The IFL (first published in Vienna 1932) is the subject of reprints (1975ff) and a new edition in 2000, the sixth edition of which dates from 2011.

Eugen Lennhoff (1891–1944), a Jewish journalist from Basel, has been a Freemason at the Grand Lodge of Vienna since 1920, and he becomes its grand secretary. He is the editor-in-chief of the Wiener Freimaurer-Zeitung (1923-1933). Raised to the 33rd degree of the Old and Recognized Scottish Rite (AASR), he became the founder and from 1925 to 1931 the Sovereign Grand Commander of the first Supreme Council of the AASR of Austria.

Eugen Lennhoff (Source: Freemason Wiki)

Oskar Posner (1878-1932), doctor in Karlsbad (from 1918 Czechoslovak Republic), has been a Freemason since 1910, first in a Lodge in Breslau (Silesia), then in Karlsbad and finally in Saaz (both German Bohemia). He is co-founder and assigned grand master of the Grand Lodge "Lessing to the three rings" of Czechoslovakia. He wrote the rituals of this grand lodge and a guide for lodge apprentices. From 1924, he headed the lodge magazine The Three Rings, published in Reichenberg in Bohemia. At his suggestion, the Prague research lodge Quatuor Coronati Amicorum Historiae et Philosophiae Artis Regiae Liberorum Muratorum Pragensis was founded in 1927. [1]

In the 1980 declaration of the German bishops on the incompatibility between church and lodge (cf. La Civiltà Cattolica, 1980, III, pp. 487–495), the IFL is mentioned with regard to Masonic relativism. In his doctoral thesis (PUG 2019) discussed here, Msgr. Michael H. Weninger criticizes this declaration and defends German-speaking Freemasonry. In reality, in addition to relativism, we find in the IFL much deeper reasons for the incompatibility between Church and Freemasonry, which were not dealt with by the German bishops: esotericism, magic and occultism.

Now I'll go into the IFL (edition from 1932 in unchanged reprint from 1975) and give the terms in brackets with the respective column number.

1. Anti-dogmatic and relativistic thinking

Obituary notice for Oskar Posner in the Prague daily newspaper


The spirit of enlightenment, which has existed in the roots of Freemasonry since the 18th century, is praised. The Enlightenment fights against the obscurantism of dogma (cf. Enlightenment, 105-106). Freemasonry adopts tolerance from deism (natural religion, without dogmas) (Deism, 329). Freemasonry rejects dogma, any dogma, so it is hostile to the Catholic Church (cf. Dogma, 374). The starting point of Freemasonry is not God as dogma (cf. criticism, 881–882). Masonic ethics is secular, humanitarian, not religious or dogmatic (cf. secularism, 898). Freemasonry has a relativistic understanding of the truth (see Philosophy, 1207; Truth, 1666). Relativism, aptly expressed by the Protagora's sentence “Man is the measure of all things”, is the standpoint of Freemasonry (cf. relativism, 1300–1301). Masonic tolerance is hostile to dogmas (cf. Tolerance, 1585).

I believe that with such an anthropocentric and relativistic basis, Masonic ritualism in itself is magic.

2. Esotericism, Masonic cult

The true teaching of Freemasonry is esoteric e.i.,. reserved for the initiated (cf. esoteric, exoteric, 450). Freemasonry is experience (consecration, initiation, rebirth), it cannot be explained in words (cf. experience, 446). The ritual Masonic works are: symbolic acts to build the Temple of Humanity; a cult without dogmas and a spiritual work in which a “fluid” unites the members (cf. Symbol, 1541–46). Despite statements to the contrary, the IFL makes clear the magical character of the ritual Masonic work (cf. Work as Mysterium, 85; Kultus, Kult, Masonic, 889–890).

2.1 Elements of alchemy, hermetics, kabbalah, magic

Masonic ritual, drawing by Oskar Posner

 Klattau 1927

The IFL makes clear the presence of elements of esoteric / occult sciences in the symbolic-ritual system of German-speaking Freemasonry, regardless of the claims of individual Freemasons. Alchemical elements and influences can be found in the rituals and symbols of Freemasonry, for example on the topic of death and rebirth (cf. Alchemy, 41; Hexagram, 695). Also elements of the Jewish Kabbalah (cf. Kabbalah, 806–809). All ritual works are magical. In Freemasonry we find elements of magic, including the symbolism of light (see Magic, 979; Word, The Lost, 1723; Tarot, 1555). Hermes Trismegistos is an important point of reference in alchemy, magic and Freemasonry (cf. Hermes Trismegistos, 689–690). The figure of King Solomon is important for Freemasons, combined with magical, alchemical, Kabbalistic traditions (cf. Solomon, King, 1373/74). Kabbalistic, alchemical and Gnostic elements can be found in the Masonic degrees (cf. degrees, 702; degrees Schotten, 1401–1402).

2.2 Old secrets, mysticism, initiation, death – rebirth

The IFL combines Freemasonry with the ancient pagan mysteries in relation to the Masonic ritual of symbolic and spiritual death and rebirth (cf. Mysteries, 1080–82; initiation rite, 741; rebirth, 1701). The Masonic initiation is indelible, you remain a Freemason forever see Character indelebilis, 265f). Freemasonry is a mystical art (cf. master commitment, 1020), which enables rites and symbols to unite with God (cf. mysticism, 1087f; Unio mystica, 1620; snake, mystical, 1394). The legend of Hiram, according to which every master mason is shaped, is reminiscent of the old human sacrifices made by Masons (cf. Bauopfer, 135f). The symbolic human sacrifice (“symbolic victim death”) of the new master takes place in the third degree (cf. Hiram, 700).


The Wiener Freimaurer-Zeitung was managed by Lennhoff from 1923 to 1933

2.3 Unification of opposites (light – darkness…), the “Lucifer”…

The IFL rejects the accusations of Luciferism against Freemasons as fantastic and lies, especially those of the 30th degree of the AASR, which are believed to be in contact with the angel of light "Lucifer" or "Eblis" (cf. Taxil, 1558-61; Luciferian Freemasonry, 962). The IFL teaches that the initiates seek the union of opposites, the reconciliation of the enemies: light – darkness, good – evil, life – death (cf. Light Symbolism, 934). In Freemasonry, the double triangle or hexagram represents the union of opposites, including the principle of the builder and the principle of destruction (see Triangle, 379). The old dualism teaches the existence of two principles: good and evil, God and the devil (see Dualism, 387). However, I note that the logic of initiation of the union of opposites can lead one to believe in the union of god and devil. In fact, the IFL also speaks of the Freemason Mario Rapisardi (1844–1912), who in his poem “Luzifero” sings the “final victory of truth and justice” (cf. Rapisardi, 1279) and praises Lucifer against God.

The 30th degree of the AASR, the New Templar, teaches "the victory of freedom of conscience" (cf. Ritter Kadosch, 1320) and includes the 28th degree, which contains elements of alchemy and the cult of light against dogmas (cf. Sun, 1318).

In the first three degrees, the chair master of the lodge represents the logos master builder of the world. He embodies the opposites, he is the son of the sun and the moon, male and female (cf. moon, 1053). The chair master, the 1st and 2nd supervisors of the lodge are connected to the three pillars of the box of wisdom-strength-beauty and are therefore the three small lights of the lodge, i.e. light bearers (see columns, 1382f). I note that the word light bearer literally means Lucifer.

The high degree freemasonry founded by Lennhoff in Austria. This double-headed eagle has been a Masonic symbolism of the 33rd degree since 1758

Finally, I discovered that the favorite text of the IFL about the connections between Freemasonry, ancient mysteries, magic and the union of opposites is the symbolism of the mystery associations (Berlin 1924; reprint, Schwarzenburg 1979) by Freemason August Horneffer (1875-1955), which is Freemasonry connects with magic, praises magic (p. 218), praises Goethe's fist, which closes the covenant "with the devil" (p. 220), and affirms the divinity of man as a gnostic and mystical teaching (p. 234f ).

* Father Paolo Maria Siano belongs to the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FFI); the church historian with a doctorate is considered one of the best Catholic experts in Freemasonry, to which he has dedicated several standard works and numerous essays. Katholisches.info publishes him

Translation / Note: Giuseppe Nardi
Picture: IFL / Corrispondenza Romana / Freimaurer-Wiki / AASR-Austria (screenshots)

[1] For those interested in history, a few additions from the translator (GN):

Like Lennhoff, Oskar Posner came from a Jewish family. Lennhoff came to Vienna in 1914 as a journalist, where he devoted himself to Freemasonry as a networker after the war. He also represented his grand lodge in the Association Maçonnique Internationale and from 1926 to 1930 headed the central office of the General Masonic League.

As a journalist, he initially worked for the left-liberal daily Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, which supported the Social Democratic Workers' Party of Austria (SDAP), and became its editor-in-chief in 1924/25. In 1933 he resigned as editor of the Wiener Freimaurer-Zeitung because he became the chief editor and special reporter for the foreign department of the Vienna daily newspaper Telegraf, which appeared from 1932–1938 until Austria joined the German Empire. His left-wing radical editor Siegfried Klausner brought him to the Telegraph. The editor, owner and most of the newspaper's journalists were of Jewish descent. The newspaper was a subsidiary of the left-wing radical daily Der Abend, which was founded in 1917 as a left-liberal newspaper and became radicalized in 1918. Both newspapers were made in tabloid style with lurid titles and a mouthpiece for Socialist and Communist positions as well as popular front theses. The mother paper was therefore officially discontinued after the armed attempted coup by the left-wing radicals in February 1934 and the ban on the SDAP. One of the main opponents of both papers was National Socialism. When the Austrian government imposed precensorship in 1933, Lennhoff was appointed to the editorial team. Overall, the Telegraph corrected its line to avoid a ban. The paper moderated the course from left-wing radicalism to a more neutral one and slowly approached the government of Engelbert Dollfuss and the so-called "patriotic direction", whereby it could continue to appear after the events of February 1934. The paper now emphasized above all the shared hostility of Christian Social and Social Democrats ("proletarian party") against National Socialism. This was fought as "fascism" and ridiculed with radical language. The National Socialists called the Telegraf editorial office a "Jewish booth" and said of Lennhoff: "The Jew and Freemason leader Eugen Lennhoff, the foreign politician Bondys and representative of the Telegraf journals at the League of Nations." The newspaper was the leading and most popular tabloid in Vienna. After Austria's annexation to the German Empire, Lennhoff fled to London with the owner of the Telegraph, Karl Franz Bondy, where he continued his journalistic work against National Socialism and died in 1944.

Siegfried Klausner, who went into hiding with the Communist partisans of Yugoslavia during the war, continued his journalistic work at the daily Volksstimme, the central organ of the Austrian Communist Party (KPÖ), after the war.

AMDG

Brother." Peter Stiegnitz of the Grand Lodge of Austria (1936-2017)

Peter Stiegnitz, Ministerial Officer of the Federal Press Office and High-Level Freemason. Two of his books.

By P. Paolo Maria Siano*

Peter Stiegnitz (Budapest 1936 – Vienna 2017), a Jew who survived the Nazi persecution and emigrated to Austria in 1956 in the wake of the Hungarian Uprising, was a writer, sociologist, ministerial official of the Federal Press Service in the Austrian Federal Chancellery and, finally, a visiting professor at the University of Budapest. In 1970, Stiegnitz was initiated as a Freemason in the Vienna Lodge Humanitas, which belongs to the Grand Lodge of Austria (GLvÖ). [Richard Nikolaus Eijiro, Count of Coudenhove-Kalergi belonged to that Lodge as well.]

He belongs to other lodges of the Grand Lodge, among them for 30 years the Wiener Lodge, Zum raue Stein. Stiegnitz also holds Masonic offices at the management level of the Grand Lodge. As Grand Chapter Master, he has been the head of the York Rite for 10 years, which, with the Old and Recognized Scottish Rite, is one of the high-grade systems of the Masonic Masters of the Grand Lodge. On February 2, 2017, the Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Austria, Georg Semler, stopped at the grave of "Brother" Stiegnitz, in the presence of numerous Freemasons, gave a funeral speech in which he described Stiegnitz as "a great of our covenant," as reported by the very well-informed Masonic website Freemason-Wiki.

Grand Master Semler is the same one who, together with Monsignor Michael Heinrich Weninger, priest of the Archdiocese of Vienna and member of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue, presented his book in Vienna, which was approved as a doctoral thesis at the Pontifical Gregorian University. In it, Weninger expresses the hope for a reconciliation between the Church and Freemasonry. As I wrote on this page on February 27, 2020, Monsignor Weninger belongs to the regular Austrian Freemasonry, which is connected with the English Freemasonry of the United Grand Lodge of England (UGLE).

Now I would like to draw attention to a book that allows us to explore the nature of today's Austrian Freemasonry: "God without Church: Religion and Freemasonry", Edition Va Bene, Vienna-Klosterneuburg 2003. The author of the book is Peter Stiegnitz.

Peter Stiegnitz: God without Church. Religion and Freemasonry

In the foreword, Michael Kraus, the grand master of the Grand Lodge of Austria, praises the book in Masonic terms and defines it as "an important and important building block" (p. 9). Kraus enthusiastically mentions the post-conciliar dialogue between Cardinal König and the deputy grandmaster (later honorary grandmaster) of the Grand Lodge, Kurt Baresch (1921-2011). Masonic Wiki informs that Baresch was a former SS officer, psychologist (from 1948) and Freemason (from 1961).

It is a strange union of opposites: in the same grand lodge we find a Jew and a former SS officer. Reconciliation and forgiveness?

Let us return to Grand Master Kraus, who admits that there is the Cantic Enlightenment in Freemasonic thought (p. 10). Kraus declares that he belongs to a Catholic family and expresses the hope for cooperation and harmony between Freemasonry and the Church. He also believes that Stiegnitz's book will help Freemasons and "Profanes" to free the way from of the ballast (p. 11). As we shall see, the "ballast" which Stiegnitz casts away, of which it is necessary to free himself, is unfortunately the entire Christian dogma!

Stiegnitz praises the Enlightenment (p. 18), accuses religious monotheism of intolerance towards polytheistic cults (p. 19) and attributes a human and psychological origin to religion, including the Christian Catholic: it is only a human self-liberation from those needs that cannot be accomplished on its own (p. 32-33).

For Freemasons, the Bible is an ethical symbol. It is not history, but an allegory. Stiegnitz says that pantheism offers the "laicist" Freemasons the way to an acceptable religiosity ... Religiosity is only self-therapy and the Great Builder of the Universe is a symbol of the psycho-spiritual hierarchy (p. 34). Stiegnitz explains that the religious world of Freemasonry, in contrast to religions, is "on the other side" (p. 42-43). Stiegnitz shows sympathy for cantic thinking (p. 50). Stiegnitz also states with regard to the "Christian" or Templar high degrees that the Masonic symbols have no religious but an ethical meaning (p. 57). Stiegnitz clearly writes that the god of monotheistic religions is not good, does not forgive (literally he "is not kind"), since he above all likes to punish. Stiegnitz cites the case "Sodom and Gomorrah" (p. 72) as proof of these statements. Stiegnitz, on the other hand, praises Heraclitus's philosophy that God is harmony of all opposites ("without war there is no peace, without night there is no day ..."). Heraclitus also calls God logos or universal reason. "In Masonic philosophy, the heraclitarian unity of opposites is understood as totality" (p. 81).

Stiegnitz also likes Spinoza's thinking. Stiegnitz knows that Spinoza is a pantheist who believes that nature is divine and identifies God with nature. Stiegnitz explains that the Masonic religiosity and Spinoza's philosophy have in common the connection – or invocation – to an impersonal divinity ("Here we already experience decisive approaches of masonry religiosity: invocation of an unpersonified God," p. 97) Like Freemasonry, Spinoza also attaches great importance to ethics. Stiegnitz states that Spinoza thought like the Freemasons and the Freemasons think like Spinoza ("Spinoza thought Freemasonic, Freemasons think spinocaic", p. 97).

Stiegnitz also expresses sympathy for the thinking of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872), a Hegelian, atheist and materialist. Stiegnitz writes: "The religious (self-) understanding of Freemasonry is reflected above all in the cross-connection of theology to philosophy in the sense of Ludwig Feuerbach (1804-1872)," (p. 118). Even for Feuerbach, the philosophy of religion has no place in heaven, but down here, here it is theology of the senses (p. 118). In Freemasonry, religious and Christian ties (e.g. "Christian" high degrees) are neither dogmatic nor confessional. Stiegnitz presents Feuerbach as a "brother without an apron" or as a man who was not initiated into Freemasonry, but thought like a Freemason.

Fundamentals of Masonic Thinking: Heraclitus, Baruch Spinoza and Ludwig Feuerbach

According to Stiegnitz, Feuerbach is also close to Freemasonry when he separates Christianity from the Pauline "Jesuism" (Jesus) and presents humanity from down here (p. 118-119). Feuerbach cannot bear the institutional and dogmatic religion. Later Sigmund Freud will also say that religion is the illusion of man (p. 119). According to Stiegnitz, it follows that atheism (especially Marxist) does not arise in opposition to religion, but in contrast to clericalism.

To prove this, Stiegnitz says that there is no atheism in oriental beliefs such as Buddhism and Hinduism (p. 129). The young Feuerbach had represented a religion without theology, an intimate and religious need for something, without being bound by confessional teachings. Thus Stiegnitz shows that he prefers this anthropocentric "path" to the Divine without popes and without priests. This religiosity without theology and without dogmas is the way that characterizes the attitude of Freemasonry towards religion (p. 144). Stiegnitz describes Feuerbach's attitude to religion as "early Freemasonry" (p. 144).

In summary, we can also take account of the clear anthropocentrism and immanentism in the thinking of "Br." Stiegnitz (head of the Austrian "Christian" or "Templar" Freemasonry of the York Rite), whose book was praised by the then Grand Master of the Grand Lodge Michael Kraus, does not share the optimism of the current Grand Master Semler and Monsignor Weninger regarding a real reconciliation between the Church and the Austrian Freemasonry (GLvÖ) associated with the UGLE.

* Father Paolo Maria Siano is a member of the Order of the Franciscans of the Immaculate (FFI); the doctor of the Church is considered one of the best Catholic connoisseurs of Freemasonry, to which he has dedicated several standard works and numerous essays.

Translation/footnotes: Giuseppe Nardi
Picture: Wikicommons