Is being a Freemason compatible with one's duty to God as a practising Christian? That is the question which the Rev. Walton Hannah, then a Church of England clergyman (but later a Catholic priest), set himself to answer with the publication of his Darkness Visible in 1952. Over 45 years later, this classic is now in its 17th impression, and is as popular as ever.
Hannah wrote this book to prove his conviction that for a religious or quasi-religious organisation such as Freemasonry to offer prayers and worship to God from which the name of Jesus Christ has been deliberately excluded represents the abandonment of the Christian faith which many of its members nevertheless profess to uphold. No intelligent answer to his case has ever been made.
Below: Candidate for
Masonic Initiation
Ceremony
Darkness Visible has been continuously in print since 1952. It includes the entire and authentic texts of the Masonic ritual of the first three degrees and of the Royal Arch. The accuracy of these has never been questioned, and was confirmed to a special Working Group of the Synod of the Church of England in 1987 by Commander Higham, Grand Secretary of the United Grand Lodge of England.
In 1983 Stephen Knight's informative, wide-ranging and best-selling critique of Freemasonry, The Brotherhood, devoted a number of pages to Hannah's book which, he said, "alone deals conclusively with the matter of whether or not Masonry is a religion".
| Below: The Masons' 'mysterious name of God', which includes the name of the pagan god Baal. |
The issue posed by Hannah is one of continuing concern; every Christian denomination which has seriously studied Freemasonry has declared it incompatible with the Gospel - with the exception of the Church of England, which has still to pronounce on the issue. In the words of the review of the Church Times: "He asks why the Church of England has not done likewise … this is surely a question that deserves a very careful answer".
The Catholic Church's stance on Freemasonry remains unambiguous. Membership of a Masonic Lodge is mortally sinful and Catholics who practise Freemasonry may not receive Holy Communion. The Holy See has recently re-iterated this point, and it is not open to diocesan bishops to grant dispensations.
Father Walton Thompson Hannah was received into the Catholic Church and ordained a priest in Canada. For several years he worked full-time for the Archdiocese of Montreal's Catholic Enquiry Forum, and helped many people to the Catholic faith. He died in February 1966. Requiescat in pace.
DARKNESS VISIBLE, by Rev. Walton Hannah.
232 pages, paperback. ISBN 1 901157 70 9.
£12.95 ; $22.95 in the U.S.A.
Published by The Saint Austin Press.
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