The Shrine is not a part of regular Freemasonry; rather it is a concordant body of Freemasonry** where in order to be a Shriner, one must be a Master Mason**. Not every Freemason is a member of the Shrine as many are only Blue Lodge members.
Sounds contradictory to me.
Interestingly enough, in my Lodge, there are no Shrine Members; only Blue Lodge members. The lodge is composed of approx 40% Catholics, including one who is also a Grand Knight of the local Chapter of the K of C. I asked him if he was aware that the church might consider this a conflict and he told me that its not that much of a big deal these days so perhaps the church is easing up on the restrictions.
That is interesting. Did you swear an oath to Allah on the Koran when you became a Shriner?
If your Catholic friend is in any way involed in freemasonry he should be aware of the following:
The Catholic Church, through its Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, has formally declared that Catholics who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
This is the
current teaching of the Church. He may want the Church to relax it, but that is because he wants to do as he pleases not as the Church teaches.
Masons conspicuously avoid using their rituals to defend the Lodge against Christian opposition. T
his is because the rituals’ teachings concerning God, salvation by works alone, resurrection and eternal life in the celestial lodge above are indefensible from a Christian perspective.
The Mason’s avoidance of using Masonic ritual to defend his craft becomes evident very quickly when one views the many Masonic web sites that have been created by Masons to defend Freemasonry.
Moreover, of the many hundreds of books written about Freemasonry, there is not a single book that provides a Christian defense of the Lodge by addressing the errors of indifferentism, syncretism and immoral oaths.
Instead, the Masonic apologist generally uses an “ad hominem” argument to defend the Lodge. An ad hominem argument is an argument that attacks an opponent’s character rather than answering his contentions.
Because most of the information about Freemasonry comes from men who have left the lodge, Masons avoid addressing the rituals and instead focus entirely on attacking the former Mason’s credibility and character.
As Christians, we do not judge individual Masons or attack their character. In fact, most Masons are good and virtuous men. Instead, we judge the teachings of Masonic ritual in light of the teachings of Jesus Christ and His Church. We hope that Christian Masons will open up to us by using their Masonic rituals to explain and defend the teachings of the Lodge in the light of Christian faith.
