Have you heard the one ...
Have you heard the one about the Swiss, the Belgian, the Luxemburger, the English and the Spiritual Guide ?
No folks, LML in English isn’t the first with the story but we’re doing our best to ensure you get it as fast as the Frogs at breakfast tomorrow morning. Without overtime rates LML in English is working late into the night to bring you the story that François Koch revealed at 7.31 p.m. on Monday January 10th.
In his Express blog he reveals that the Grand Masters of the Grand Lodges of Switzerland, Belgium and Luxembourg have written a 3rd joint letter to François Stifani. It appears that a copy of the same letter was sent to all WWMM of the Grand Lodge of Belgium by their GM.
The letter takes Stifani to task for not having addressed the central subject of their previous correspondence, the observation that the 3 principal French masonic orders, REAA, RER & RF, had pointed out the internal tensions of the GLNF. Stifani had completely overlooked this key element in his letter of December 16th 2010, preferring to stigmatise the authors of the Myosotis blogs that published the exchange of correspondence.
Even more dramatically the 3 Grand Masters question Stifani’s position concerning the alleged correspondence between himself and the French President…..
“……your explanation of the letter sent to the Elyséé leaves us particularly perplexed. We note that a complaint against X has been filed, but wonder about the absence of an immediate reaction when you received the reply from the Elysée, at least as an anticipatory precaution, in the light of the current climate in your obedience. Even more worrying is your comment that the letter was a forgery: “as to a political engagement of the obedience whatever the real nature of the document…”. Does your phrasing lead us to believe that you distance yourself from the letter itself but not, or at least, hardly, from its content, which, under any hypothesis, would represent, at worst, only a pardonable infringement of an essential Landmark ? Must we deduce that we do not have the same conception of the fundamental principles of the Order ?”
The 3 Grand Masters go on to express their amazement at having learned by internal correspondence of the GLNF (Stifani’s encyclical letters to the GLNF masses) and by a regional newspaper (no doubt Nice Matin – translator’s conclusion) that Stifani had pacified the anxious 3.
They point out that the constant mediatisation of the GLNF difficulties and Stifani’s systematic recourse to the French courts puts international Freemasonry in a bad light and that the effects are now being felt among the general public.
But the real bombshell that the Swiss, the Belgian and the Luxemburger Grand Masters drop is that the English are coming (at last ! –translator’s note).
“All this is even more preoccupying when we add that ours is not an isolated position. The United Grand Lodge of England, with whom we corresponded following our declaration, wrote to you in the same way, a copy of which we have received.”
LML in English has not seen this letter and has no idea when Stifani received it. Perhaps it was only sent today, in which case we are sure the spiritual guide will inform us quickly of its contents. But if it was sent some time ago, why the silence ? We are doing our best to obtain a copy and will publish its contents as soon as possible.