Venezuelan masons will slightly open the doors to their temples
April 25, 2005
The new, recently elected leaders of the lodge decided not stay aside from the reformist processes the country is passing through now. From 2005 to 2007 the lodge will be headed by Great maestro Aurelio Briseno. He called upon his mason-brethren to maintain unity, fight for prosperity, security, health and proper education for all the Venezuelans. This, by the way, has very much in common with tasks and goals of the Bolivarian revolution, whose great authorities were F.Miranda, S.Bolivar and other founding fathers of Venezuela. All of them were masons.
General secretary of the Great lodge Edgar Ramirez declared, that the masons, who traditionally have been freedom-fighters should strengthen the moral base of the society, stand for equality, tolerance, reign of justice in relations without discrimination on political, racial or social sign.
Now the doors of mason temples shall slightly be opened for all interested in more information on this traditionally “classified” order. (The Chilean masons were the first to carry out such “open houses” in South America about 9 – 10 years ago). In particular, it is planned to hold cultural and social events, pay more attention to working with the youth as the problem of reinforcing the lodges becomes more acute.
Being anxious about the unity of society, the Venezuelan masons, however, until present are unable to overcome the split in its own ranks! In 1956 at the time when the new masonic constitution was adopted in place of a “desperately obsolete” old one of 1824, a large number of masons did not desire to reject “traditions of the past”. So the split has become visible. In April 2004 the compromise decision in favor of movement for “renewal” was taken. However, conflicts between the two groupings remain.
Won't the masons, who have always been the masters of compromise, fail to agree and give the example of solidarity?