I have no intention of reading The Lost Symbol and no little about the Masons. But I do know a fair amount about the Catholic Church and I can say that the research behind The Da Vinci Code was wretched. The Council of Nicaea, for instance, did not establish what books of the Bible were canonical or not. The vote at the council as to whether Jesus was literally the son of God was not, as Brown insists, close. There were only two dissenting votes. English is not the European language with the fewest words of Latin origin. The international headquarters of Opus Dei are in Rome, not New York. Thirty-fourth Street in Manhattan is hardly a side street.
Though whatever about the literary and factual worth of Dan Brown, it is interesting that the Catholic Church and the Freemasons are generally diametrically opposed, with the Church tending to argues that Freemasonry's philosophy is anthithetical to Christian doctrine, and since the early 18th century, the Vatican has issued several papal bulls, banning membership of Catholics from Freemasonry under threat of excommunication - a penalty that still applies for all Catholics active in Freemasonry. Interesting for American Catholics what position this places them in relation to so many of the state presidents, declared by their Chrurch to be members of an organisation intrinsically inimical to Christianity - such as 32 nd Degree Mason FD Roosevelt & 33rd Degree Harry Truman, Grand Master of Wisconsin Freemasonry. Just look at any US paper currency and you will see it full of masonic symbolism, instigated uncoincidentally under Roosevelt. So every time a Catholic enacts US monetary transactions, one is placed in a rather odd position.
ReplyDeleteGiven that Jesus commands one not to swear oaths & Freemasonry demands the swearing of pretty sick oaths regarding secrecy, then this opposition of Christianity & Freemasonry is pretty unarguable.
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