The following exhortation was posted on Sept. 26, 2012 on the blog maintained by CBCP Media Office on behalf of Most Rev. Patricio Alo, D.D., Bishop of the Diocese of Mati in Davao Oriental. I've put some sentences in bold in order to highlight the bishop's plain speaking regarding Freemasonry:
There are societies in this world that have evil plans against the Church and society but the only way we can beware of them is by following Jesus’ warning who said in the gospels (Mt. 7:15), “Beware of false prophets who come to you disguised as sheep but underneath are ravenous wolves. You will be able to tell them by their fruits.” Yes you know the false prophets or false friends because of their evil deeds, which are already known from past events and happenings in history. In the gospel of Jn. 8:44 Jesus tells that the devil is a liar and the father of lies.
Jesus called hypocrites those who pretended to be good and religious people but were really greedy and ambitious ones. That’s what the insincere people pretend to be while inside they secretly plan to do harm to the neighbor. God wants us to have a simple and open life, after all He knows our deepest secrets which we cannot hide from Him. “Do not be afraid of them therefore, for everything that is now covered will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. What I say to you in the dark, tell in the daylight; what you hear in whispers proclaim from the housetops” (Mt. 10:26-27). Yes, open and fearless speech, not hidden agenda.
God wants us to be simple and sincere unlike the nature of snakes which are deceitful, hidden and cunning. As Jesus warns in the cited text: “You will know the false prophets by their deeds as you know the tree by its fruit” (Mt. 7:15). You can know that studying the history, of peoples and events, God wants us to be true to ourselves in all we say or do. Do not pretend to be what you are not. Say what you mean, and mean what you say. In all things be true to God, yourself and your neighbor. The proverb is ever true: Truth will out. (One way or another, in spite of all efforts to conceal it, the truth will come to be known.) Even the famous poet William Shakespeare talks about this in Hamlet Act I, sc. 3: “This above all—to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.”
In particular I am talking about Freemasonry or other societies of the same sort, which plot against the Church or against legitimate civil authority. The Catholic Church, under penalty of excommunication, forbids Catholics from joining above-mentioned secret societies which normally operate with strict secrecy.
In 2005, this same bishop had forbidden Freemasons from even entering Catholic churches in his diocese: Bishop bans Masons from entering church in Mati.
Image of Bishop Alo from Mati - A Place Like No Other
The picture of Freemasonic regalia is taken from this page and is not part of the original article from Bishop Alo.
The picture of Freemasonic regalia is taken from this page and is not part of the original article from Bishop Alo.
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