Mediafax, Bucharest, 18.05.2020 - For many, Freemasonry is a secret and mysterious organization, predestined to feed all conspiracy theories. The Masons themselves define it as a "discreet" organization. However, the current conflict between the structures of the Romanian Freemasonry brings the organization to the attention of the press. Beyond "sensational revelations", in order to understand the problem, it is necessary to return to the facts and their chronology.
Stelian Nistor, the leader of the Scottish Rite of Romanian Freemasonry, has been elected to lead - on behalf of our country - the World Conference of Scottish Rites. This position is the highest ever obtained by a Romanian mason. Good news for any Romanian. Almost any Romanian. As often happens in our country, a compatriot, Radu Bălănescu, the leader of the Grand National Lodge of Romania, perceives the event as a personal threat and reacts mioritic. While the Masons are isolated in a state of emergency, the Grand Master forces his own Constitution, decides to break with the World Scottish Rite, even trying to exclude Nistor from the Romanian Freemasons! A typical Romanian scandal, which immediately attracts international outrage. In anticipation of the sanctions that will follow, more and more Romanian Masons revolt, denouncing Bălănescu's dictatorship, demanding his resignation and democratic reforms. Their document has a historical and most likely prophetic title: The Masonic Proclamation of Timisoara. A detail worth noting: 30 years later, one of the signatories of the 1989 one is among the authors. A slightly grayer head, but a spirit still fighting for freedom.
In order to better follow the facts, some clarifications are needed. As in any old organization, the functioning of Freemasonry is based on several institutions (with precisely delimited attributions and powers), on fundamental texts (constitutions, codes and regulations), as well as on universal principles and ancient customs. In order to reach the current edifice, all this has been added and harmonized over time. For a long time, because the organization has existed for centuries.
Freemasonry works by degrees. These should not be read as military degrees, but rather as academic ones, as they are meant to reflect the position of each member on a path of knowledge, not the subordination of some to others. The first three degrees are administered by a Grand Lodge, the "high" degrees by a Rite of Perfection. In the case of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite, the most widespread in the world, they range from Grade 4 to Grade 33 and Last. The Grand Lodges are subscribed to a national space (there are 53 in Romania!), But only one can enjoy the international recognition of the other Grand Lodges. In turn, they are all sovereign, but tradition maintains the Grand Lodge of England a special authority of recognition. In our country, the Grand National Lodge of Romania is the one that is considered today regulation and recognized. In the case of the Scottish Rite, things are a little different. Each Supreme Council is sovereign in its own country, but its recognition comes either directly from Washington, the Supreme Mother Council of the World (Southern Jurisdiction of the United States) or, "by affiliation," from at least three other national supreme councils recognized by it. . The Scottish rite in Romania is in a prestigious position to have been re-established and recognized even by the supreme jurisdiction in 1993. Moreover, not even the communist parenthesis interrupted its activity, Romania being the only country in Eastern Europe that at that time had a Supreme Council in recognized exile, based in Paris. Thus, the "Romanian Scots" can be proud of an uninterrupted activity from 1881 onwards. The Grand Lodge of Romania was established in 1880 by the same Constantin Moroiu, who a year later was able to establish the Supreme Council of the Scottish Rite. Today, the Rite is led by Stelian Nistor (Sovereign Grand Commander) and the Grand Lodge by Radu Bălănescu (Grand Master). Because we live in Romania, the latter, given that each of them is also a member of the other's organization, felt the need to ask the question: in such a complex construction, who is the boss? The correct answer is that both the Grand Lodge and the Scottish Rite exercise their authority by virtue of a principle of sovereignty. We can somewhat compare the situation with the membership of sovereign Romania in the NATO Alliance, but also in the European Union, both assuming the sovereignty of the state, but conditioning membership in an international structure by some criteria of convergence and integration, in fact recognition criteria. However, a major difference is that you cannot isolate yourself like North Korea and at the same time invoke the guarantees of integration into a universally recognized whole. Freemasonry is in its essence International. In Romanian, you can't be a freelancer on your own, on your own responsibility or on PFA: being a "brother" logically means that you are not "alone with your parents".
In the last year, part of the current leadership of the Grand Lodge has multiplied - sometimes veiled, sometimes openly - a series of reproaches and accusations against the Rite, starting with the resignation of the Grand Master of the Scottish Rite (motivated by lack of time) and culminating in April 21 with a meeting of the Grand Council in which they voted, in high speed and in full unanimity, but blatantly violating their own Constitution, a series of measures that ended up burning not only any Romanian mason, but even the world courts of the organization. As Stelian Nistor was preparing to take over the leadership of the World Scottish Rite Conference on behalf of Romania - an unprecedented honor in the history of Freemasonry in our country, which enshrines the prestige of the evolution of all Romanian Freemasonry in recent decades - the bomb fell in Bucharest: Grand Master Radu Bălănescu, in a single meeting, unconstitutionally withdrew the recognition of the Rite by the Grand Lodge, and immediately granted it to a new self-established "Scottish Rite" (a home organization of the Grand Lodge, composed of SRI reservists, former members resigned or excluded from the official rite and "led" even by a great dignitary from Radu Bălănescu's faithful team) and announced that he would suspend Stelian Nistor as a master mason (grade 3, a quality to be able to access the higher ranks), referring it without delay to a Masonic court online (court incompatible both with the Constitution of the Grand Lodge and, more modestly, with that of Romania). Now, being in Bucharest, the online "looks at man": everything is online, minus the right to defense! The court ordered Nistor to consult the file at the headquarters, making him practically choose between respecting the military ordinances valid for anyone or Radu Bălănescu's decisions. All this, from one day to the next, in full planetary isolation, changing the rules for hundreds of years, from a position of "referee-player".
Obviously, this original Romanian contribution to a centuries-old edifice has not gone unnoticed or unsanctioned internationally. Dozens of national supreme councils reacted immediately and unequivocally, warning the current MLNR leadership that these acts are profound. irregularities, must be withdrawn and may result in loss recognition MLNR by world Freemasonry. From Germany to Mauritius and from England to Peru, all unanimously and unequivocally condemned the MLNR decision, all reconfirmed the recognition of the RSAA in Romania under Nistor's leadership, all affirmed and solemnly pledged that nothing would happen to them in the future. could lead her to recognize MLNR's new "puppet" rite. Any other option was ruled out when, just a few days later, the Supreme Authority (Southern Jurisdiction of the United States) ruled in the same categorical terms. However, the motivation of this unanimity is different from that of the Grand Council of
MLNR: it cannot be attributed to personal sympathies or conjunctures, being from the outset inscribed in capital letters in the Great Constitutions of the Scottish Rite, the oldest of which dates from 1762! Obviously, this cannot be fined overnight by anyone, much less in an outlaw manner. At the level of Scottish Freemasonry, the decision of the Supreme Mother Council of the World is equivalent to the final whistle of the match, in which even the FIFA president blows…
For its part, the Grand Lodge also sought understanding and support from the other Grand National Lodges. These are not exactly encouraging. In a polite but sharp letter, the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania (with over 110,000 members, the largest in the world and one of the most respected in the United States and the world, led at the beginning by Benjamin Franklin himself) has already warned Radu Bălănescu that he committed a serious deviation from the basic notions known by heart by the simplest Masonic disciple: COMPLIANCE (ie the practice of Freemasonry in accordance with the values, customs, spirit and letter of fundamental texts accepted worldwide), from which recognition (ie the possibility of being part of a global organization, a link in the so-called "universal chain of Freemasonry").
Basically, Stelian Nistor remains the leader of the RSAA in Romania, regularly and unanimously recognized worldwide and Radu Bălănescu, through his decisions as Grand Master, seems to have dragged the entire MLNR irregularly, putting every Romanian mason in danger of losing international recognition.
Regarding the causes of this "Romanian-Romanian World War", the opinions of the simple Masons are divided: some believe that it is about envy, personal pride, others speculate that it is about financial irregularities at MLNR that risk to be revealed. All we can say for sure here is that Radu Bălănescu is in his third term (out of the two allowed by the MLNR Constitution, but Ion Iliescu or Vladimir Putin gave him the example of greater dignity) and that he led with a handful of iron MLNR, adding and multiplying dignities and remunerated functions to a large number of relatives, which guarantees in any debate not only a comfortable majority, but often unanimity, emptying of meaning all democratic bodies that could control its activity. In short, a dictator. However, it seems that even in Freemasonry, despite the fraternal principles and the patience or discretion assumed, the Romanian polenta ends up exploding. Coincidence or homage, the cry of the revolution leaves Timisoara again!
Following the insistence of the current MLNR leadership not to take into account the wave of recent international reactions and to continue a scorched earth policy, which risks throwing away decades of work and sacrifices of all Romanian masons, a lodge in Timisoara came with a concrete exit program. The flame of the appeal spread, in a few days hundreds of Masons from all over the country contacting Timisoara outside the official communication circuit (the MLNR server being suddenly defective) to debate, join or propose additional points in the program. Like many things lately, the fraternal democracy promised by Freemasonry to its members has had to move online. The stakes are the regular return of the Grand Lodge, with options ranging from the honorary resignation of the current leadership, the revocation of irregular decisions and the convening of a special convention ("Convention") or the mass resignation of MLNR members and the establishment of a new Grand Lodge. but at least regular). On the other side of the barricade, the current MLNR leadership is gathering "adhesion forms" for its decisions from as many lodges in the country as possible. Some Freemasons complain that their lodge appears to have signed them, but without being consulted, others have pressured to sign this "blank check". However, everyone over a certain age recognizes a process of sad memory. For now, MLNR can count on more lodges than revolutionaries. But the situation remains fluid and in Freemasonry, power is not limited to the number of soldiers. Like in the anecdote attributed to Stalin, who asked: What does the Vatican's position matter? How many divisions does the Pope have? ”
To sum up, the conflict has already been resolved internationally in favor of the Scottish Rite. But in Romania, he is still artificially extended by the current MLNR leadership, for reasons known only to Radu Bălănescu and his close team. At the individual level, Romanian masons find themselves in several impossible situations: any mason who participates in the works of the Scottish Rite risks being excluded from the Grand Lodge, thus losing his quality of master, which conditions him to access the Rite; any mason who joins the "new Scottish Rite" promoted by the Grand Lodge loses recognition of his quality worldwide; any mason who is not a member of any rite of perfection may find himself in the next period to be a member of a Grand Lodge which loses its recognition because of its irregularity. In short, you can choose between a Romanian passport, but valid only in the country or an international passport, but not recognized by the Romanian authorities. The irony is that the only exception to this rule is Stelian Nistor! Although Bălănescu tries to exclude him from the Grand Lodge, he does not lose his quality as a master mason or as a Sovereign Grand Commander, he is also a member of the United Grand Lodge of England. And the current leadership of MLNR and the online tribunal cannot even claim to have known this important detail: another Romanian brother in the same English lodge with Stelian Nistor is Radu Bălănescu!
In recent days, the Sovereign of the Northern Jurisdiction of the USA has personally written to Radu Bălănescu, explicitly asking him to resign immediately "so that Romanian Freemasonry can flourish again". The Grand Master has not yet responded, but one of the judges of his Masonic tribunal has resigned, denouncing the unconstitutionality of the decisions of the body to which he belongs.
For all other Masons in Romania, of all ages and opinions, the situation remains confusing and tense. And only the Grand National Lodge of Romania and Grand Master Radu Bălănescu can get them out of this existential and institutional dilemma. And if not them, then their successors.
The full article is available on the Mediafax website: World Freemasonry, reached a Romanian crossroads
