Good greetings to all here, frens, anons, patriots.
Fascinating conversation you all are having in these bridges & maps threads, would love to join you and expound philosophically.
For now, will add my two cents on a few things related to the Masons and the Knights of Columbus, just based on personal experience and observations (though I'm neither a Mason nor a Knight).
1.) Catholics are forbidden by the Church from joining the Masons.
" The Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was explicit in the 1917 code of canon law (canon 2335), and it is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374).
Because the revised code of canon law is not explicit on this point, some drew the mistaken conclusion that the Church’s prohibition of Freemasonry had been dropped. As a result of this confusion, shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983 and may be found in Origins 13/27 (Nov. 15, 1983), 450."
Sauce: https://www.catholic.com/qa/what-does-the-church-say-about-freemasonry
As a result, the Knights of Columbus was formed within the Catholic Church so that Catholic men would have an organization they could join for fraternal fellowship, since they could not join the Masons and simultaneously remain a practicing Catholic in good standing.
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I've read, or heard, somewhere that for every city or diocese where there's a Catholic Church, the Masons have set up a lodge. My surmisal would be, to counter the Church on a local level. (Sort of like a spiritual battle tit-for-tat.)
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Last year, I attended a historical re-enactment event sponsored by the National Rendezvous and Living History Foundation. (NRLHF). Wandering around camp among hundreds of primitive tents from colonial, pre-Civil War, and fur trade era times (the event was pretty wide open and featured portrayers of European traders/soldiers/etc., early American colonists, and Native Americans), I was surprised to see the Masonic square and compass symbol displayed outside one of the tents. At first I thought the people who had set up that campsite were breaking character, and then it dawned on me that the Masons were said to go way, way back in history. Walking around more, I saw that it was Several campsites decorated with the Masonic square and compass, and one of the re-enactors was wearing this symbol.
This was somewhat surprising to me, because I've attended historical re-enactment events many times over the years, but this was the first time at an event sponsored by this group, and the first time I'd ever come across Masonic re-enactors or seen the Masonic symbol at one of these events.