‘Where there is darkness, light’

    

The Catholic Store

The inkling for this Magpie post has been rolling around the cavern of my skull for years but, as today is the Feast Day of St. Francis of Assisi, it occurs to me to type it up.

Aside from Grotto once yearly, it’s been more than two decades since I’ve truly filled any chaplaincy role in Freemasonry—I was working my way East in the local Rose Croix chapter, and I must say I was good at it—but my thinking here concerns adapting what is known as the Prayer of St. Francis for Masonic use.

One English translation of the original:

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:

where there is hatred, let me sow love;

where there is injury, pardon;

where there is doubt, faith;

where there is despair, hope;

where there is darkness, light;

where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console,

to be understood as to understand,

to be loved as to love.

For it is in giving that we receive,

it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,

and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.

It really fits. So, if you happen to be a chaplain or grand chaplain somewhere, maybe this idea could work for you in certain circumstances. Customize as needed.

N.B.  There is nothing historical that actually connects the prayer to St. Francis. The Franciscan Order does not include it among the prayers attributed to its founder, for example.

     

‘Our “cult of the Enlightenment”’

    

Historia Ecclesiastica

Can you imagine going through life thinking the Enlightenment was a period of darkness? That must be like having a perpetual headache. I picture a Gumby from Monty Python. Yet this is the psychology revealed, without any hesitation, mental reservation, etc. on YouTube’s Historia Ecclesiastica channel, which lately has been commenting on Freemasonry in the same exasperating way and manner we would expect from those blinded by their dogma.

Python (Monty) Pictures

From the podcast’s name, we can deduce Historia Ecclesiastica purports to present the history of the Roman Catholic Church (I’ll guess the title comes from Eusebius), but without watching all of its videos, I am going to surmise that it, in fact, does not candidly explore the entire history of the Church. And I’ll let that go at that.

Historia Ecclesiastica

On Freemasonry, the allegations in one slog of a video are formed by the usual sloppy errors and ignorance, but with this difference: Supposedly there is something called “The Alta Vendita” that host Daniel Sute claims is some kind of movement of Freemasons working toward “the final destruction of Catholicism and even of the Christian idea.” Have you ever heard of this? I’ve never heard of it, and I’ve been reading and writing about Freemasonry with some regularity for more than a quarter of a century. That doesn’t mean I know everything about Freemasonry, but if there existed a Masonic plot to destroy Catholicism and all Christianity, I think I might have heard of it by now. Yes, I checked my spam folder. Besides, there are fewer than two million Freemasons in the world versus one billion Catholics, so I think they’re safe. (You neo-Templars out there should pay attention to this.)

Here are several of the lame mistakes Sute provides his gullible audience:

✔︎ He thinks stonemason guilds of medieval times were bricklayers. He has no understanding of ashlar masonry and consequently does not know Freemasonry’s moral building metaphor based on the squaring of stones. Without this most basic grasp of what Freemasonry is about, he is unqualified to run his mouth about us.

✔︎ He repeatedly says Freemasonry is a religion. He ignores the overall purpose of post-1717 Freemasonry is to unite men of all kinds of religious backgrounds which, in 1717, was a completely new idea in the West. And everywhere else.

✔︎ He can’t even pronounce “Augustine,” mistakenly saying it the way one gives the name of the Florida city! He cannot pronounce “Desaguliers,” but I’ll grant him that.

✔︎ He mistakes “affront” for “a front.”

✔︎ In discussing “Jewish world domination,” which he graciously concedes is without evidence, he gives the title of the notorious book as “Protocols of the Elder Zion.”

William Blake’s The Ancient of Days is the frontispiece of his book Europe, a Prophecy from 1794. The British Museum says it depicts ‘a bearded nude male (probably Urizen) crouching in a heavenly sphere, its light partially covered by clouds; his left arm holding a pair of compasses and reaching down with them, measuring the surrounding darkness.’

✔︎ Very stupidly, he displays William Blake’s The Ancient of Days, and says it is “kind of a disturbing image—a weird image—this is a Masonic depiction of their vision of god.”

✔︎ He thinks Albert Mackey’s name is “Mackley” and Manly Hall’s name is “Manley.”

✔︎ He says “lodges typically have thirty-three degrees.” He calls the Royal Arch Degree the “Royal Arch Decree.”

✔︎ He mispronounces “Weishaupt” as something like “wash up,” but I’ll grant him that one too.

✔︎ He—yawn—dredges up the old Pike/Lucifer thing.

Decades ago in journalism, I was told—and it was said only once—that if you cannot get names correct, then your reader has no reason to trust anything else you say. This is something Mr. Sute needs to understand. He is a fifth grade teacher at Our Lady of Sorrows Catholic School in Farmington, Michigan, and he probably should stick to that. He can propagandize ten-year-olds with impunity, but showing off to the public his ignorance and inability to undertake basic research does him no favors. Then again, reading the comments on this video reveals who his audience is.

His real failure is evident in “The Greatest Danger of the Freemasons,” where the biggest canard in a one-hour clown show is Sute’s citing of the Carbonari as a Masonic group. It is in the final minutes that Alta Vendita finally is addressed. What was the Carbonari? Writing in 1908 as chairman of the Grand Lodge of Canada in the Province of Ontario’s Correspondence Committee, MW Henry Robertson, who had served as Grand Master in 1886-88, explains:

While there is no doubt that societies of the same name existed in Europe in the eighteenth century, the Carbonari proper first came into prominence about the year 1808. The Carbonari (Italian: Carbonaro, charcoal maker) had no direct connection with Masonry, but a large number of its forms were borrowed from that source. It was in Italy, toward the close of the Napoleonic wars, that this society first began to assume importance. In 1808, the Republicans, disgusted alike with the Bourbons and Napoleonists, retired to the mountain resorts of the Abruzzi and Calabria. In this latter region, charcoal burning was the chief industry of the poorer classes, and these Republicans, forming themselves into a secret society, borrowed their phraseology in numerous instances. Thus a lodge was called a baracca (a hut), an ordinary meeting a vendita (or sale), while an important meeting was alta vendita, all well known terms in the charcoal burning industry. The Carbonari were Christian, but anti-Papal, and borrowed their rites from that religion; thus Christ the Lamb, as the victim of tyranny, put to death by the wolf, gave them their watchword. There were four grades of the Carbonari, with Alta Vendita at Naples and Salermo. These two latter lodges tried to exercise authority over the rest, but failed in their efforts.

Coaxed to join the Bourbons, the Carbonari were driven back to their mountain fastnesses by King Murat, and their leader, Capobianco, was treacherously betrayed and put to death. A few years later they helped to overthrow the French power in Naples, but Ferdinand, when once in power, proved false to them and refused them permission to establish their lodges in Naples, as they had previously done in Sicily under English supremacy. Enraged at this treachery, they conspired against the Bourbon Government, and rapidly formed lodges all over Italy. They were the prime movers in several rebellions that took place about this time. The Neapolitan revolution of 1820, the disturbances in the Papal States the same year, and the Piedmontese revolution in 1821 can all be traced to them. Originally composed of members of the lower classes, about this time they obtained thousands of recruits from all classes of society. Army officers, students, artists, and even priests flocked to their standard, and their numbers are said to have reached 700,000. So strong did they become that, at last, Austria became alarmed and the military power of this nation was called in to crush them. Though still remaining active until 1831, they never fully recovered from this setback, and most of their numbers were swallowed up by the society of “Young Italy,” founded by Mazzini.

In 1820, the Carbonari took root in France, where their organization was much more perfect. A Supreme Council, presided over by the great Lafayette, and a complete hierarchy of societies, by which the will of the Chief was handed on from the highest to the most remote lodge. Attempting to raise an insurrection in 1821 at Belfort, LaRochelle, and other places, they were promptly suppressed and suffered terribly, but owing to the wonderful fidelity of the members, only those immediately connected with the revolution could be punished. The Carbonari still continued to take an active part in all revolutionary matters till 1831, when, after helping in the July revolution of that year, the majority of its members associated themselves with the government of Louis Philippe. Dating from this time the society became practically extinct.

So you see why the Catholic Church wouldn’t like the Carbonari, but to claim the Carbonari is Freemasonry and to blame Freemasonry today for what the Carbonari thought, said, and did two centuries ago is a totalitarian method of accusing and convicting.

Python (Monty) Pictures

I guess we should expect the Spanish Inquisition.

He calls on Freemasonry to end its secrecy by disclosing to the public all of its rituals and meeting minutes. Sure thing. Right after the Vatican does likewise.

Actually, Mr. Sute, I don’t like the idea of you teaching young children (or anyone else). You are an ignoramus, and your contrived libels against Freemasonry work only on your fellow idiots. I’d recommend authors like Joseph Fort Newton and Carl Claudy to you, but you wear blinders on your brain, which is what fanaticism is all about.

Historia Ecclesiastica

To his credit, Sute does state that Freemasonry is not Christian. Freemasonry is not aligned with any religion (except the Scandinavian grand lodges, which have a different idea).

His other videos include “How Modern Art Caused World War I” and “Mother Was a Red.”

     

‘Rhetoric and the Columbians’ historic membership growth’

    

The Knights of Columbus, the fraternal service order of the Roman Catholic Church, announced recent growth in membership that pushes its enrollment past 2.1 million worldwide, says its senior officer. If this is accurate, and if I’m not mistaken, they now are larger than all Masonic regular grand lodges combined, as the United States accounts for fewer than 900,000 Masons.

Patrick E. Kelly

At their 142nd Supreme Convention, held in Quebec last Tuesday, Supreme Knight Patrick Kelly said 92,000 men joined during the past year, making it “one of our best years of growth in a century,” according to La Croix International, a Catholic news source based in France. “In these challenging times, our mission matters. We must start by building up a new generation of Catholic men—men formed in faith and virtue; men prepared to be missionary disciples.”

And that is where it becomes impossible to contrast their gross gain to Freemasonry’s net losses, because the Columbians rally around their church and doctrine, while Freemasons consistently remain confused or uninformed of who they fundamentally are. However, those two states of consciousness produce dissimilar messaging which we can juxtapose:

Freemasonry: 2B1ASK1

Columbians: “Knights come from every stage of life, in countless corners of the world. Join us as we celebrate real role models in a world that needs men who lead, serve, protect, and defend.”

Freemasonry: We make good men better.

Columbians: “No matter what stage you are in your life, we are all on a journey together. Join us as role models in a world that needs men who lead, serve, protect, and defend.”

Freemasonry: Not just a man. A Mason.

Columbians: “You are a key part in bringing a culture of faith to life in your home, council, community, or parish. Let the Knights help you.”

Freemasonry: Where men build meaning.

Columbians: “There is nothing more effective at evangelizing the culture, than regular, everyday people choosing to live their faith in their homes, councils, community, and parish.”

Obviously, Freemasons cannot speak to any particular religious faith, because we are not a religion or an adjunct of any religion, but it is the pride that shines through the Knights’ words that grabs me. They sound assertive, specific, unflinching. We speak timidly in empty phrases from marketing consultants who have no understanding of who we are, because they’ve been hired by leaders who don’t know either.

Furthermore, Freemasonry is tongue tied by a misunderstanding of our own prohibitions of discussing religion and politics. We are enjoined from arguing over sectarian differences and partisan politics, but we can talk ideas. I’ll avoid the word philosophy, because that frightens some of the brethren, but we, as Free and Accepted Masons, may exchange views, impart wisdom, and uphold truth.

We speak of virtue and morality. We too can speak to leadership and service, to protecting and defending.

Coming next week.

The Lafayette bicentenary is upon us; the anniversary of his arrival in New York is days off. Freemasonry is commemorating this, but does anyone not named Chris Ruli know precisely what we’re celebrating?

The 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence is twenty-three months away. Are we preparing a jubilee for Americanism, a salute to the Freemasons, famous and obscure alike, who risked life and liberty to establish our country? Will we trumpet their ideas, or would doing so mean PoLiTics? 

At the rate I’m going, I can’t say when I’ll finish it, but for months I’ve been drafting a speech that borrows from Masonic oratory of previous generations to portray how Masons once viewed their fraternity, and thereby maybe help today’s brethren find the confidence to talk about the tenets of our Craft. Unlike the Knights of Columbus, Freemasonry cannot speak of any particular sectarian beliefs, but we do speak of God, and we should voice our universal message for free minds and free societies. Masonry has no canonized saints, but we do have our civic heroes who exemplified these concepts, as expressed in various speeches a hundred years ago:

▪︎ Freemasonry is a college of manhood.

▪︎ Its lodges are moral republics and centers of law and order.

▪︎ We offer a sanctuary of friendship and a school for liberty.

▪︎ Masonry is a voluntary league for the promotion of freedom and virtue.

▪︎ We inculcate the principles of equality, the necessity of law, and the excellence of order in all things.

Sensible people who pay attention to life realize we are stumbling through frightening times. Historically, there always have been scary things happening, but today too many institutions we once trusted are corrupted and the social customs that guided us are perverted. We are eyewitnesses to reality being contorted and made nonsensical all day, every day.

‘Rhetoric,’ per the Grand Lodge of New York.

In his Daily Masonic Progress essay today on Substack, titled “Why Freemasons Must Study Rhetoric,” Bro. Darren Allatt writes:

Why does Freemasonry instruct us to study Rhetoric, one of the Seven Liberal Arts and Sciences? This ancient discipline, respected by great thinkers throughout history, holds the power to transform not only our communication but our very thought processes.

Click here.

As Masons, we are called to improve ourselves in all aspects of life. But how does mastering Rhetoric contribute to this journey and what wisdom can we uncover from this timeless art?

In today’s fast-paced world, the art of effective communication is more crucial than ever. Yet many of us, Masons included, often overlook the importance of Rhetoric in our personal and professional lives. This oversight leads to missed opportunities for growth, influence, and understanding. Without a grasp of Rhetoric, we may find ourselves struggling to express our ideas clearly, persuade others, or fully understand the messages around us.

Decent men are looking for stability, order, real equality, virtue, morality, freedom, and manhood. For everybody’s sake, Freemasons ought to be as unapologetically bold and clear in speaking the truth as are our neighbors in the Knights of Columbus. The kind of man we seek will respond.

     

‘Freemason-Vatican dialog begins’

    

Life Site News

“Meeting jaw to jaw is better than war.”

Winston Churchill

1954

Masonic and Vatican sources announced last week how a recent conference in Milan at the Ambrosianeum Cultural Foundation has led to a “mutual understanding” that may lead to future talks.

The February 16 meeting, organized by the Socio-Religious Research and Information Group, was attended by the grand masters of the Grand Orient of Italy, the Grand Lodge of Italy, and the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy; and by Vatican officials.

It was last November when the Vatican reaffirmed its centuries-long prohibition on Roman Catholics being Freemasons, prompted by queries from clergy in the Republic of the Philippines. That news made more headlines than this event, which was closed to journalists, and most of what’s available online so far is in Italian, but there are websites of varying tolerance to Freemasonry reporting it.

National Catholic Register offers what impresses me as a fair description.

Addressing the Milan meeting on the theme “The Catholic Church and Freemasonry,” Cardinal Francesco Coccopalmiero, 85, reportedly said he believed ‘an evolution in mutual understanding’ had taken place between Masonry and the Church over the past 50 years. ‘Things have moved on, and I hope these meetings don’t stop there,’ said the retired Italian prelate, according to Il Messaggero, quoting sources present at the meeting.

La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana which, fortunately, offers some of its content in English as the Daily Compass, gives the headline:

Freemasonry wants a ‘mea culpa,’

Catholic Church commits

examination of conscience

The story, by Editor in Chief Riccardo Cascioli, says our Masonic brethren “all defended the compatibility of Freemasonry with the Catholic faith: Bisi recounted how his growth in the Catholic sphere led him to join the Grand Orient; Romoli ranged from Sant’Anselmo to Cardinal Zuppi; Venzi stressed how English rituals have been Christian since their origins.”

About the other side of the table, Cascioli reports:

“In the face of these clear and well-considered presentations, the Catholic counterpart was disconcerting. In the collaborative atmosphere of the meeting, the intervention of poor Father Sucheki, who had prepared a learned report on the Church’s pronouncements against Freemasonry, appeared only as a due act, moreover also somewhat snubbed by Bishop Staglianò, who appeared intolerant of the reminders of doctrine. Archbishop Delpini, who, after imposing the date, time, and conditions of the meeting, showed up 45 minutes late. And Cardinal Coccopalmerio pretended to know nothing about Freemasonry, but in different words they said the same things, two in particular: satisfaction for this ‘meeting between people’ and not between opposing acronyms, and the need to continue and intensify these meetings, perhaps with a ‘permanent table,’ as Coccopalmerio pointed out.”

Part of the Masonic presentation entailed asking why Pope Francis’ famous “Who am I to judge?” statement in 2013, a conciliation to gay people and divorcees, could not have extended to Freemasons.

Bishop Antonio Staglianò is quoted in the Daily Compass(!) saying: “we need a healthy sapiential theology—a theology capable of thinking critically about everything, of responding also to the critical instances of universal reason, because we live in a world where if you do not dialogue you risk being absolutely out of the world. Sapiential means that it knows how to unite science and wisdom of life.”

“Isn’t that clear?,” Cascioli writes in conclusion. “It doesn’t matter, what one must understand is that in the end on the ‘wisdom of life,’ one can also collaborate with Freemasons, in good works and for the common good. Mercy rains down on everyone anyway.”

     

‘Tommaso Crudeli: Masonic martyr’

    

The plaque reads:

TOMMASO CRUDELI
(1702-1745) Florence, Italy
FIRST MARTYR OF
UNIVERSAL FREEMASONRY
Presented by the President
of HSTCI of America
MWGM KENNETH S. WYVILL Jr of GL of MD
MMXV

I wish I could have copyedited that.

Born on this date* in 1702 was Bro. Tommaso Crudeli.

That’s a new name to me, having learned of him only last weekend. Taking in the many sights inside the Boston Masonic Building, home to the Grand Lodge of Masons in Massachusetts, on Saturday, I was drawn to this bust. The plaque on its pedestal is not the most informative inscription, but I shot a photo and looked up Bro. Crudeli later. There’s an amazing story.

From the Institute of Historical Studies Tommaso Crudeli:

Tommaso Baldasarre Crudeli (December 21, 1702-March 27, 1745) was a Tuscan free-thinker who was imprisoned by the Roman Inquisition in Florence. He was a poet, lawyer, champion of free thought, and is remembered as the First Martyr of Universal Freemasonry.... Tommaso was the seventh [Crudeli generation] to graduate from the University of Pisa [both canon and civil law, 1726]. His mentor was Bernardo Tanucci (Premier of Naples and Sicily Kingdom) during the preparation of studies and university years; in Pisa he had strong relationships with teachers and colleagues for cultural affinities Lucretian and above the nascent Enlightenment.

Tommaso moved to Venice at the family of the Counts Contarini and then he returned to Florence as professor of Italian for English Colony. For his lively intellect and his boldness, Tommaso was brought into the English Lodge, first Masonic Lodge in Italy and dependant from Grand Lodge of England, in which he was initiated on May 5, 1735. He became secretary, but also a scapegoat for a strong conflict between the Vatican and English Freemasonry, who began in Florence at the end of the long dynasty of the Medici trying to establish the Lorraine, titled dynastically, to change the political destiny of the Grand Duchy.

 

He was arrested for suspicion of heresy, or worse, to be the bearer of heresies, and was left in prison in total darkness and without air for three months. He was interrogated for days on “francmassonery,” but he did not cooperate and he would not sign the papers falsely noted his guilt so he was incarcerated again for another four months in inhumane conditions.

 

Questioned again about the aims of Freemasonry in Florence, members’ names, and Masonic rituals, he would not comply. He was sent back to jail even though his body was tried and he was vomiting blood. Meanwhile his father, Atto Crudeli, pleading the liberty for his child, sadly died of a broken heart for sorrow. Before Christmas, his brother Antonio clumsily attempted to free Tommaso, with a daring plan that ended before it was started. The Inquisitor interpreted the plan as proof of guilt and was convinced even more the need to pursue the prisoner. After another four months in prison, still in the darkness with sealed windows for fear of escape, he was questioned and charged with sins against religion whose list was irrelevant but that eventually concluded “and other serious facts known only to us.”

 

Subsequently, the inquisitors carried him, near death, to the prison at the Fortezza da Basso in Florence where he spent three months. In August 1740, in a church parade in black, they did ask him to recant, accepting his gasp as explicit consent. After the sentence came the partial grace that provided the compulsory residence in his home until the end of his life with a series of religious obligations that Tommaso never fulfilled.

 

CORRECTION: Apparently, I saw a copy of the bust at the George Washington Masonic National Memorial during a visit in November 2022.

Meanwhile all of Florence was in turmoil and especially the Governor, the Prime Minister, the Minister of Justice, and brothers of the lodge. Even the Grand Lodge of England mobilized, giving the King these facts, among others, that touched British interests in the dynastic succession in Europe. The Grand Duke of Tuscany (also a Mason) asked for a report from Tommaso. Because he had some bed rest, but was still sick and dying, Tommaso was able to dictate a detailed report which was why Francis Stephen of Lorraine, husband of Maria Theresa of Austria in 1742 closed the Inquisition Tribunal forever (next to the Basilica of Santa Croce), and after five years had it demolished.

 

Meanwhile Tommaso died in his bed because of the after-effects of imprisonment on March 27, 1745. He did have the satisfaction of seeing the Inquisition abolished by the secular power, the first in the Catholic world. The “Antica Condanna” which in fact was the first conviction by the Papal Bull of April 1738, was heard for many decades in which the writings and poems of Tommaso Crudeli were scattered, as it was altered many times [and] on the basis of which the Grand Duke did close the Inquisition Tribunal.

A brief video from 2008 when the Grand Lodge of New York memorialized Bro. Tommaso Crudeli.

*They used another calendar back then, so just play along.

     

‘Vatican reaffirms its ban on Freemasonry’

    

Vatican News

In a document published Monday, the Vatican reaffirms its ban on Freemasonry for Roman Catholics.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, responding to concerns of bishops in the Republic of the Philippines, issued its recommendations as approved by Pope Francis. Nearly 80 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholic. (I was going to write about the Philippines situation a week ago, but mistakenly figured it wasn’t a big deal.) Excerpted:

Membership in Freemasonry is very significant in the Philippines; it involves not only those who are formally enrolled in Masonic Lodges but, more generally, a large number of sympathizers and associates who are personally convinced that there is no opposition between membership in the Catholic Church and in Masonic Lodges.

Cardinal Víctor Fernández
Prefect of the Dicastery

To address this issue appropriately, it was decided that the Dicastery would respond by involving the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines itself, notifying the Conference that it would be necessary to put in place a coordinated strategy among the individual Bishops that envisions two approaches:

(a) On the doctrinal level, it should be remembered that active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is forbidden because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry (cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Declaration on Masonic Associations” [1983], and the guidelines published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in 2003). Therefore, those who are formally and knowingly enrolled in Masonic Lodges and have embraced Masonic principles fall under the provisions in the above-mentioned Declaration. These measures also apply to any clerics enrolled in Freemasonry.

(b) On the pastoral level, the Dicastery proposes that the Philippine Bishops conduct catechesis accessible to the people and in all parishes regarding the reasons for the irreconcilability between the Catholic Faith and Freemasonry.

Finally, the Philippine Bishops are invited to consider whether they should make a public pronouncement on the matter.

     

‘Italian Freemasons support Catholic-Muslim signed accord’

     

The Grand Orient of Italy reportedly has endorsed a breakthrough document signed last year by the head of the Catholic Church and the grand imam of Al-Azhar University.

Meeting in Abu Dhabi last February, Pope Francis and Ahmad Al-Tayyeb added their signatures to “Human Fraternity for World Peace and Living Together,” a brief document that affirms, among other things, a “closeness between East and West, between North and South, and between all who believe that God has created us to understand one another, cooperate with one another, and live as brothers and sisters who love one another.”

This accord reportedly is hailed by the Grand Orient in its magazine, New Hiram. The current issue is not yet available on the GOI’s website, but National Catholic Register quotes it, saying the signed document “is ‘innovative’ and a ‘slow-release drug’ that could herald a ‘new era’ and represent a ‘turning point for a new civilization.’ ”

Read the entire “Human Fraternity” here.

In the sometimes impenetrable world of Masonic politics and recognition, it is with the Grand Orient of Italy that we Americans have relations, but the United Grand Lodge of England does not. (As it does in France, the UGLE does not recognize the oldest and largest jurisdiction in Italy, but instead has relations with the group that it itself established, but that’s a whole other story.)