EQUINOX
OF AUTUMN
ROME - VILLA 'IL VASCELLO', 21 SEPTEMBER
1996
MAN IS ALL THE
EARTH
ADDRESS BY GRAND MASTER VIRGILIO GAITO
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen, Authorities, Dear Sisters,
Dear Brothers, Chers Frères, Lieber Brüder, Queridos
Hermanos, Queridus Irmãos, Dragii Fratii, Carissimi
Fratelli,
"Man is all the Earth" : this admirable
conjecture of Jean Paul Sartre opened the speech by the famous
Ecuadorian artist Oswaldo Guayasimin on the occasion of
the inauguration of the second Latin-American Conference
for the defence of human rights, held in Quito on 20th
August 1980.
According to the speaker, the words of Sartre concerned
the universal dignity of Man who, like the Earth, should
be almost reverently respected.
And this concept is also valid for us as Masons : Man is
that being created by divine inspiration that contains
both the micro and the macrocosm, the centre of positive
and negative energy, of ineffable but also disturbing
sensations, capable of sublime heights as well as fearful
abysses, artificer and, at the same time, destroyer of
his own destiny, inhabitant in a world that surrounds him
which he has conquered and which, in its evolution,
identifies itself in him.
The four seasons, which alternate depending on the
hemisphere, produce opposite and at the same time common
phenomena. They correspond perfectly to the different
ages of Man : spring as to childhood, summer as to youth,
autumn as to maturity and winter to old age.
In an initiatic sense, the seasons accompany Man's
journey towards his own elevation, from the perception of
the light that the initiation reveals to him, which can
be compared to the opening of the solstitial doors on the
threshold of spring, to the awareness of one's own
maturity obtained through the space of time covered by
the glowing star which in summer is bright and in autumn
is suffused in melancholy, which is the presage of the
inevitable end for those who allow themselves to be
enticed by the false hopes of profanity, the cold tomb of
dark winter.
As Masons, the Equinox of Autumn represents the moment of
full maturity, the conquest of wisdom symbolised by the
perfect equilibrium between day and night ; in our
northern hemisphere, it is the season to gather the
tastiest fruits of the earth.
And it is the moment to meditate, looking back into the
past from where we can gather auspices for the future.
A year ago, determined to win the no holds barred attack
by our old and new adversaries nourished by extremism and
bad faith, we solemnly celebrated the centenary of the
inauguration of the monument to Giuseppe Garibaldi on
Gianicolo hill - our extraordinary predecessor who held
the position of Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy
and who has become a universal symbol of liberty - in the
presence of numerous foreign and national Masonic
delegations and an enthusiastic crowd, in a blaze of
banners, flags and fanfare.
It was an event that marked the culmination of the strong
desire of the Grand Orient of Italy to claim its own role
as an indispensable moral force in a Nation that seems to
have forgotten its own past, by letting itself be snared
by perverse manipulators of information. They are
determined to charge Freemasonry, even the legitimate and
historically valid Masonry, with the misdeeds, failures, responsibilities
of a society that is in the midst of an identity crisis,
as it has strayed from the main road of fundamental
principles that have always been defended by true Masons.
Since then, our Brothers have once again savoured the
pride of their membership to an Institution that has
undeniably contributed with its best Men to the
unification of Italy, freeing it from national dictatorship
and from foreign invasion, to the construction and
strengthening of a State that is truly democratic and
defender of civil rights.
From the workshops throughout the Peninsula, one can hear
the echo of mallets and chisels of the many Workmen
intent on vigorously smoothing down the stones on which
to build the Temple of Virtue, of Peace, of Tolerance,
and of Universal Love, while from the profane world,
there is an ever increasing number of people who are
discovering the irreplaceable role of Freemasonry in the creation
of a society that is fairer and more respectful of the
duties and rights of the collective body as well as of
the individual. In the first semester of this year alone,
we received almost 1,300 requests for initiation from the
profane and re-admittance of Brothers who had resigned
following the negative events in the last few years and
the persecutions against our Institution.
In the historic Sala dei Cinquecento in Palazzo Vecchio,
on the 10th February last year, a standing ovation was
given to the memory of our outstanding Brother Lando
Conti - the most loved Lord Mayor of the Florentines who
was murdered by the Red Brigade because he was an
irreproachable exponent of a public authority that it
wanted to demolish - demonstrated the appreciation and
the sorrow for an Initiate who, nourished by the
principles of honesty, correctness, sense of Stateimproved
in the Lodge, bore witness with his life to the
contribution that any Free Mason is capable of offering
with purity of intent for the good and progress of
Mankind.
Many other Masons have sacrificed their lives for their
Homeland during the Risorgimento wars and this century,
during the Resistance and under the Nazi oppression.
Eighteen of our Brothers, eight of whom belonged the
Obedience of Piazza del Gesù, now Palazzo Vitelleschi,
were massacred at the Fosse Ardeatine. We commemorated
them on 31st March last, together with all the victims of
the humanity, by raising a fierce cry of condemnation
against any type of violence and against war which represents
the most stupid, costly and unfit means to resolve
conflicts.
And so, as jealous guardians of the memory of many men
who have given their lives for this great Italian soil as
well as the best of their hopes, the warmth of their
enthusiasm, the scent of their ideals of liberty,
unification, brotherhood, progress, without asking
whether their neighbour were born in the North, South
East or West, we cannot tolerate that their refulgent
sacrifice is trampled on and made useless by the mounting
egoism of whoever decides to oppose the unstoppable
process of integration of all peoples in the name of arid
economic evaluations.
More than ever therefore, there is a need for
responsible, collective consideration on behalf of all
the cultural, political, religious, social economic
voluntary, women's, youth, Government and Parliamentary
bodies as well as those European community and
international organisations regarding the problems of our
South.
With the authority that derives from being absolutely
independent from any kind of conditioning except that of
a great love for this Country, we have therefore planned
to invite anyone in good faith and serious, who intends
to finally free himself from the pernicious
disintegration of the collective national tissue, to
search for the road to salvation, not only for the South
but for all the country.
It will also be the constructive and winning answer from
the healthy part of the Nation to the perverse challenge
given by the Mafia, the 'Ndrangheta, the Camorra and by
international criminality in the fiftieth year of the
proclamation of the Italian Republic, whose
Constitutional Charter - to which many illuminated Masons
gave their contribution such as Meuccio Ruini, President
of the Constituent Assembly, Mario Cevolotto, Ugo Della
Seta, our Deputy Grand Master, Giuseppe Chiostergi,
Roberto Bencivenga, Cipriano Facchinetti, Arturo
Labriola, Vittorio Emanuele Orlando - is amongst the most
modern in the world and has allowed the consolidation of
an united democratic spirit, a unfailing bulwark against
the repeated, bloody and subversive assaults.
This is one of the contributions that the Grand Orient if
Italy of Palazzo Giustiniani believes necessary to give
to our Homeland so that it can live a passionate rebirth,
united and unanimous in the observance of duties before
asserting rights, with the banishment of corruption,
inequality, abuse of power so that honesty, justice,
solidarity, culture, authenticity, the safeguarding of
dignity, respect and freedom for all are rewarded
instead.
It is an initiative that we will put into effect in the
following months in the context of a vast cultural programme
that, far from causing us to interfere in political
questions, that is absolutely forbidden to Freemasonry as
an Institution, will allow us to free ourselves once and
for all from the shadows of the past, that our
detractors, for want of proof, continue to hurl at us.
In fact we intend to take the leading role which belongs
to an Institution that has always been dedicated to the
spiritual elevation of Man, by spreading that particular
way of being that is peculiar to the Initiate who has
acquired knowledge through hard-fought inner searching,
throughout the profane world.
Along this cultural line, the convention Science, Ethics
and Communication organised by us last May in Milan at
the Società Umanitaria created great interest. Many
eminent speakers participated at this convention as well
as at another convention of ours held in June in
Selinunte regarding the esoteric subject ;
"Structure and Symbolism of the Classical temple.
The construction of the inner temple".
On 9th November this year at the Centro Congressi
Frentani in Rome, along with renowned scientists,
philosophers, writers, and men of the cloth, we shall
discuss the theme :Science's answer to the three
questions of Humanity : who are we, where are we from,
and where are we heading ?
By then, we shall be in a position to present the
guidelines of our Superuniversity set out on an integrated
and panoramic preparation theorised by the great
Pythagoras, to be situated in Crotone, where his famous
school once was, to prepare, professional people, public
and private administrators and managers which the Third
Millennium is greatly in need of, in the context of the Progetto
Uomo Vero (Project True Man).
It is a global project, once again precious for the
liberation of the South especially in the Mediterranean
Basin, and to which all the other Masonic Communions
committed to working together to build a future of peace,
harmony, healthy development and of real material and
moral progress for all Mankind whose problems are common
in any latitude, have shown a great interest.
This and other themes for the future of Freemasonry will
be discussed at the world Convention of Grand Masters to
be held in Lisbon from the 25th to 27th of September
which will end with our intervention.
As our welcome guests here today, to help us celebrate
the splendid Feast of the Equinox of Autumn, we have dear
Brothers Glenn Capps, General Grand High Priest of the
General Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons International,
Herald Weiland, Vice Chairman of the Recognition Commission
of the Assembly of Grand Masters of North America, Sergio
Muniz Gianordoli, Past Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Espirito Santo, Claudio Aponte Rojas e Alonso Aguirre Ramos
rispectively Grand Chancellor and Chairman of the
Commission of Honour of the Grand Lodge of Valle de
Mexico, Marcio Barbosa Carneiro, Senior Grand Warden of
the Grand Lodge of Minas Gerais, Gary Henningsen, Grand
Secretary of the Grand Lodge of the State of New York, Farrokh
Samii, Assistant to the Grand Master of the Regular Grand
Lodge of Portugal, Francisco Silveira Mello, Grand
Secretary for Foreign Relations of the Grand Lodge of Sao
Paulo with the executive Grand Secretary Salim Zugaib and
the District Delegate of Grand Master Giulio Cesare Cortese,
George Stallone, Grand Representative of the Grand Orient
of Italy at the Grand Lodge of New Jersey, Roberto
Innocenti, Grand Representative of the United Grand
Lodges of Germany at the Grand Orient of Italy, Fabio
Giuli, Grand Representative of the Grand Orient of Italy
at the Grand Lodge of Austria, Lamberto Scalabrino, Grand
Representative of the Grand Lodge of Austria at the Grand
Orient of Italy, Michael Spagnuolo, of the "G.
Garibaldi" Lodge of New York.
We would also like to give our fraternal welcome to the
foreign Grand Masters present, some of whom will also
participate next week at the Convention of Lisbon and to
whom I wish to give my warmest greetings as well as those
of the Grand Orient of Italy of Palazzo Giustiniani, to
the eminent Brothers : José Abelardo Lunardelli, General
Secretary of the Conference of the Brazilian Symbolic Masonry,
José Amerigo Merlo, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
the State of Espirito Santo, Ramon Sifri Jimenez, Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of the Valle del Messico, Celso
Sergeio Ferreira, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of
Minas Gerais, Earle J. Hino, Grand Master of the Grand
Lodge of the State of New York, with his delegation,
Sever Frentiu, Grand Master of the National Grand Lodge
of Romania with his delegation, Wilson Filomeno, Grand
Master of the Grand Lodge of the Brazilian State of Santa
Catarina with his delegation.
These Brothers live in quite a different reality, as
Freemasonry is among the most respected and highly
regarded Institutions in their Countries. We witnessed an
example of this esteem on 17th July this year in
Montevideo, when the President of the Republic, Julio
Maria Sanguineti, on the occasion of the celebration of
the 140th anniversary of the foundation of the Grand
Lodge of Uruguay, gave a stirring speech of tribute and
exaltation of the role carried out by Freemasons in his
Country and in the world, and then remained for some time
with us to discuss the great figure of Giuseppe
Garibaldi.
For all of these Brothers it is offensive and
inconceivable that Freemasonry is subjected to such heavy
and illegitimate discriminations and persecutions in
Italy, while it professes the same principles and pursues
the same cultural and solidarity objectives of other
world Obediences.
The presence of many of them today also to bears witness
to their unconditioned solidarity for the difficult
battle of freedom that we are conducting and the great
appreciation for initiatives we have programmed and put
into effect, that are exclusively in the field of culture
and solidarity.
We recently met some of these Brothers in Central and
South America. and we were able to ascertain that we
shared the same views about the necessity that Masons
from all over the world need to gather all their
energies, resources, minds, and above all their hearts
together, to be at the service of a Humanity that needs
to be saved from individuals or groups thirsty for power.
The universalistic spirit that pervades Freemasonry
allows us to face the problems of our Nation with a
panoramic vision, the only one suitable to definitively
resolve them with the spirit of tolerance and reciprocal
comprehension.
In this day and age, we live in a world without
frontiers, in a global village in which it is no longer possible
to ignore the reality of one's fellow man only because he
lives a thousand kilometres away : the existential
problem concerns each and every one of us and must be
faced and resolved in a universal dimension in order to
be valid.
Otherwise we risk finding only partial solutions, that
are often contradictory and more often than not harmful,
as well as sources of devastating conflicts for the world
economy and for the moral and material growth of peoples
and individuals.
For this reason the young are in our thoughts ; they need
to be protected in their innocence, defended in every way
from exploitation, helped to develop their best qualities
in healthy and serene environments, educated to respect
themselves and others, to understand the cult of truth,
beauty and good, to be the protagonists of a different
world where brotherhood, equality, and above all freedom
and dignity must be the necessary characteristics of a
new society. In each of them that concept of Uomo Vero
(True Man) which we intend to build, based on the model
of the Initiate, would become reality.
The conclusions drawn at the Convention of Grand Masters
and Grand Secretaries of the world that we are organising
for November 1997 in Rome on the theme : The Objectives
and Responsibilities of Freemasonry in a changing
society, are sure to give Freemasons the leading role as
an irreplaceable moral force in the Third Millennium.
During the Initiation ceremony of the Grand Orient of
Italy which is not unlike the ones in use in other Masonic
Obediences of the world, the Venerable Master declares a
solemn moral observance to the neophyte : "Never
forget the universal and eternal precept : do not do unto
others what you would not like to have done unto you, and
do unto others all the good that you would like to be done
unto you".
These words epitomise the distinctive characteristic of
Masonic ethics that, admirably, fuses with the theological
and humanistic ones.
The first draws on Aristotle's philosophical thought for
which every thing in this world has an ultimate purpose
which is God, in a way that man's objective is a
contemplative life which allows, as far as it is
possible, for some form of participation in a divine
life.
Instead the second, the humanistic ethic bases morality
not on the rapport between Man and a superior reality,
but on Man's own needs, the first of which is survival.
Moreover, here morality has the function of guaranteeing
the survival of Man and the human community in that Man
is seen as a responsible or rational subject and the
community is seen as free collaboration and peaceful coexistence
of these subjects.
Therefore Freemasons from all the world, in their Temples
and in the profane life, who always work for the glory of
the Great Architect of the Universe, that is to say that
Supreme Being that is the origin and final destination of
everything, must characterise their lives with respect
for themselves and for others, directing their search for
their own divine essence to reach perfection which is
found in the Supreme Being and in none other. However,
aware of his own nature as a man inserted in a society
anguished by his own existential dramas, the Freemason
sublimes egoism - that has finally become a positive
quality - in the comforting altruism of donating his own
spiritual victories to his fellowman.
This is how that extraordinary message of Love that the
Venerable Master confides to the initiate is spread
throughout the world. By opposing Vice, he can to help
the rest of Humanity to live peacefully according to the
moral laws of respect and dignity of each and everyone in
order to project himself in a dimension of light and
truth that is divine.
The spiritual path the Mason must take to find himself is
difficult, as is his commitment of Love towards Humanity,
but he knows that, above the walls of the Temple, where
he gathers with his own Brothers in an invisible chain of
energy which by enriching him purifies him, there is a
starry sky - that mysterious dimension where Pythagoras
urged us to look and in which only the conscience of pure men
rests.
This is why the Freemason is all the Earth, source of
that Love which moves the Sun and the stars, where he can
walk head high, because he is a free and authentic being,
a true Man !
To the Glory of the Great Architect of the Universe.
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