By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, Dec 18 (IPS) - A group of women are looking forward to founding
the first women's Masonic Lodge in Cuba next year, and so put an end to
their traditional exclusion from Freemasonry, an esoteric society which
is based on the ideals of liberty, equality and fraternity.
They are being helped in this endeavour by the Women's Grand Lodge of
Chile, which will send a delegation to Cuba in mid-2008 to initiate
several dozen women in Havana and Pinar del Río, 157 kilometres west of
the Cuban capital, the head of the Working Committee on Women's Masonic
Lodges in Cuba, Digna Gisela Medina, told IPS.
According to Medina, women have been interested in Freemasonry for
centuries, but it is only recently that women's Lodges have come into being.
"As women achieved their goals and their active participation in society
grew, women's Lodges started to be formed in many countries of the
world," she said.
This has already happened in France, Belgium, Spain, the United Kingdom,
Chile, Argentina, Mexico, Uruguay, and other countries. "It seems to be
an irreversible process, and we think that sooner rather than later,
women Masons will be internationally accepted by the Regular Grand
Lodges," she added.
Masonry is self-described as a progressive, philanthropic institution
made up of free-thinking persons of good character who seek
self-improvement. People of different religious creeds and atheists
coexist within it, as do Masons of different political and philosophical
persuasions.
But one of the ancient fundamental precepts of the United Grand Lodge of
England, which sponsors Regular Lodges all over the world, is to exclude
women from the brotherhood. Initiation of women Masons, therefore, would
appear to be irregular and problematic.
However, José Manuel Collera, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba
from 2000 to 2003, says that "like many other Masons," he thinks this
rule is now outmoded and should be revoked. "Personally, I have always
defended the inclusion of women in Freemasonry," he told IPS.
In his view, excluding women has caused the order to lose its appeal in
the modern world. "Women are the most important element in society; they
constitute half of humanity, and they are mothers of the other half.
There is no doctrinal, philosophical, esoteric or initiatory reason to
prevent a woman from becoming a Mason," he argued.
Collera acknowledged, however, that Cuban women have had to overcome
several hurdles in their quest, especially among some of the most
conservative male Masons. "But these are only conflicting currents of
thought, not an official position of Freemasonry as a whole," he said.
In any event, sponsorship by the Women's Grand Lodge of Chile removes
any risk of the male Grand Lodge of Cuba losing its regularity and the
recognition of the other Grand Lodges it is in amity with, by
transgressing the ancient boundaries and accepting women among its numbers.
Women's Masonry uses the Scottish rite, also practised by the male Cuban
Lodges, so the symbols, rituals and initiations will be the same for men
and women, said Medina, 46, who is a specialist in maxillofacial surgery
at the Calixto García teaching hospital in Havana.
Among the groups of Masonic aspirants, aged 18 to 60, there are
professional women and homemakers, Catholics and state employees. "The
important qualities are that they should be virtuous, discreet,
hardworking, and of course keen to join the Masons," said Medina, whose
father and husband are Freemasons.
Political activism or belonging to other social organisations are no bar
to becoming a Mason, Collera and Medina said.
The Working Committee led by Medina was formed two years ago in Havana,
and is made up of about 30 women. In Pinar del Río there are 32 women
aspirants, and interest has spread to Caibarién, a town on the north
coast of the province of Villa Clara, 268 kilometres from Havana, where
a new group of women is getting under way.
There are plans for another Working Committee to be set up in Santiago
de Cuba, the country's second-largest city, which is 847 kilometres
southeast of Havana. "We are not interested so much in quantity as in
quality," Medina said.
Statistics from 2004 indicate that there are 29,000 Masons in Cuba,
organised in over 300 Lodges. The governing body of the order is the
Grand Lodge of Cuba, and both the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, as
well as the York Rite, are practised.
According to experts, throughout the history of Cuban Masonry women have
always been associated with its activities, lending external support,
but until now the felt need of women to enter the inner sanctum of its
mysteries has gone unrecognised. (END/2007)
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