Post by Tamrin on Sept 23, 2008 18:57:42 GMT 10
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.
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.
However, José Manuel Collera, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Cuba from 2000 to 2003, says that ... 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.
