ASK FATHER: My grandparents were Masons. Is there demonic attachment now for generations?

This is an oldie post, slightly edited.  I am prompted to repost it because I recently had the pleasure of meeting a friend for lunch who had been in the Masons for sometime before his conversion.

From a reader…

QUAERITUR:

Dear Fr Z – First, let me again express gratitude for your priesthood and the work you do. Your constant, faithful representation of the Faith and calm, stalwart encouragement are invaluable boons.

Second, I read this post from Dreher and have read other similar things in other places. My wife has (according to her grandparents) some high-degree Masons in her ancestry. She doesn’t exhibit any of these signs, though her family on that side is very troubled in many ways. How concerned should she/we be about demonic influence due to Masonic heritage?

Who might we talk to, since so few priests (at least nearby) seem to take such things seriously?

Since I don’t know where you are, I am not sure whom you should talk to locally.  However, I consulted a trusted exorcist about your question.

Our greatest concern should be ordinary, garden variety diabolical influence, namely, temptation.

Our own sins compromise our relationship with our Lord, not the sins of others.  Nor do extraordinary diabolical interventions such as infestations, oppressions, obsessions, and possessions.

That said, Freemasons take oaths that can incur curses unto the fourth generation.

The Devil respects and takes advantage of the natural authority structures God has given us through the family.  Just as there is the principle of redundancy in the order of grace (“grace flows downhill”), so does sin.

This works in natural authority structures such as the family. It also works – especially – within supernatural authority structures (Holy Church, the papacy, episcopate, presbyterate).   Yes… really… within the CHURCH.  So when Masons infiltrate the CHURCH, bad things can result.

The Devil is also a legalist.  If someone swears an oath, the Devil can claim a right.  That claim has to be broken.

Hence, when a Mason makes such oaths, his direct line can be compromised, susceptible, exposed.

What can one do?

After reaching age of reason and then our majority, each of us has increasing authority over ourselves.  This is especially the case after reaching our majority.  We can exercise that authority and renounce whatever Masonic baggage which was heaped on us by our forebears.

Here’s a formula in PDF format that can be used.  It is long and comprehensive and leaves little doubt as to what is going on.  HERE

There is a similar formula in Fr Ripperger’s book Prayers of Deliverance for use by Laity. US HERE – UK HERE

My recommendation before doing anything along these lines, is to GO TO CONFESSION, make a good Communion, fast, pray to Mary and your Angel for protection.  We don’t fool around when dealing with the Enemy.

And leave anything having to do with Masonry alone.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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15 Comments

  1. TheCavalierHatherly says:

    I’ve always struggled with the idea that we have to do something “extra” in order to remove ancestral errors.

    Wouldn’t baptism be more than sufficient to wash away any oath for both the the swearer and or their progeny? The power of the keys is THE power after all. I often wonder this, because, while extra prayers are salutary, shouldn’t we trust the efficacy of the Sacraments? It seems to me that not to do so leads to a kind of scrupulosity analogous to that which plagues penitents so much.

  2. Cy says:

    Father Z –

    Can you tell us more about “The Knights of Malta degree”?

    Is this something different from the Knights of Malta (Catholic) that we know or the same thing?

  3. “Knights of Malta degree”… I am not an expert on Masonry, but this is a Masonic degree and has nothing to do with the Catholic Order of Malta. Of course after the hostile take over the Order of Malta we shall see if it continues to have anything to do with the Church, but that’s a digression.

    If the Devil and fallen angels are the “apes of God”, then the masonic “Knight of Malta degree” is also the “ape of the Order”. And worse.

    If one wanted some evidence that Freemasonry is aligned with Hell, there is the “Knights of Malta degree”. Initiation into that degree… one already has to have been initiated into Freemasonry… involves making vows on a human skull and drinking from it in a kind of “communion” and as one text put it “the curse and death wish of Judas of having my head cut off and placed on top of a church spire”. All the degrees of this hellish cult have invocations of demons under “secret words”. Every degree initiation involves more demons and vile symbolic acts along with curses.

  4. Philmont237 says:

    My grandfather was a high-degree Freemason who (Deo gratias) converted and was baptized on his deathbed. However I sometimes feel like this Masonic influence has extended to my dad and I. It’s good that these renunciation formulas are out there. Thank for your posting them, Father.

  5. TheBackPew says:

    In the interest of clarification and covering generations as needed – “That said, Freemasons take oaths that can incur curses unto the fourth generation.” Does that include the generation that took the oath? Example: My great-grandfather was a Mason as was his father. His wife was Eastern Star and it was all a big part of his life. My grandmother though never spoke of it nor did my father so as far as I know, it ended with Great Grandfather. Does that make me generation 3 or 4 in terms of the curses noted above? In other words, do I need my children to renounce their ancestors’ oaths (not that it wouldn’t be a bad idea regardless.)

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  7. The sad thing is that people of seeming good will are hoodwinked (to steal an image) of the lodge life: fellowship, charitable work, arcane humanistic ritual, etc. but are blinded to the guiding force and imagery behind it. Pledging your third degree in a Blue Lodge is professing an act of faith a fable; believing in the Gospel is an act of faith of divinely revealed truth. Hiram Abiff is fiction. Jesus Christ is real.

    Satan and his minions will allow good to happen if in the end it allows for the triumph of evil.

    I have acquaintances who are Masons, members of the Elks, and the random Odd Fellow. All good people to my knowledge, but in swearing allegiance to a lodge (no matter how benign) are we not diverting our spiritual energies away from the One in whom we SHOULD be focused to something a bit lower than what should be our goal?

  8. redneckpride4ever says:

    This makes me wonder if a Catholic who was adopted should dig into their biological ancestry.

    And no, I’m not adopted. I’m just curious as always.

  9. B says:

    The author of The Dictator Pope always post masonic stuff on his Twitter account. Is he a Mason or sympathetic to masonry?!?!

  10. JonPatrick says:

    @redneck I am sort of adopted – the man who raised me was not my biological father. His father was a 32nd degree Mason and was active in a lodge in Britain. I was told by a priest whose opinion on things I respected, that he not being my biological father that this should not be an issue for me or my children.

    Oddly enough the grandfather mentioned was married to a devout Catholic and I believe it was her influence that caused me to be baptized Catholic and put into a Catholic school at a young age thereby planting the seed for a later reversion back to the True Faith.

  11. Fr. Kelly says:

    @B Are you sure that he is using Masonic symbols?

    I don’t use the thing you mentioned (to me twitter is what little birds do)
    so I do not know what he has put up there, but given his connection with the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St John of Jerusalem of Rhodes and of Malta, I doubt that he would have anything to do with Freemasonry.
    Fr. Z addressed above the Freemasons attempt to denegrate the Oder of Malta with their ceremonies.

  12. sjoseph371 says:

    Fr. Z. – I understand what you mentioned about the devil “making good on his promises”, but how does this square for children paying for the sins of their fathers? In one of the Gospels, I thought Jesus dispels that logic when he was asked what sins of his parents a cripple was paying for. I can understand that the Devil may work hard to make good on his promises by trying to claim those souls, but I would also think that the descendants of those sinners wouldn’t be predestines to hell either.

  13. B says:

    Fr Z – he posts all sort of masonic related things. Things they have going on etc. Every day or two there is something. I find it quite odd as he never explains why he posts it. I always expect him to add something against it but is it is just posts about this event or that happening in UK masonic events

  14. B says:

    Sorry…meant Fr Kelly and not Fr Z in my post…

  15. Simon_GNR says:

    My late maternal grandfather was a freemason. He died when I was 7 years old. I hope he wasn’t under satanic influence, or that any of his descendants (three children, ten grandchildren and at least nine great-grandchildren) have been affected by this. I can’t say I’ve ever felt any demonic activity going on in my life other than the kind of normal temptation we are all afflicted by simply for being human.
    My wife’s late brother was also a freemason. He was a really nice guy who was kind and good-natured, and being a mason does not seem to have done him any harm.
    My late father, a committed Anglican all his life, was once asked if he’d like to be proposed for membership of the local masonic lodge, turned it down flat, believing freemasonry to be incompatible with Christianity, and that being a mason would involve spending time and money on the lodge’s activities that he should be devoting to his wife and children.

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