CUBA:
Women Apply for Masonic
Rites
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, (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.
Masonry is
self-described as a
progressive,
philanthropic
institution made up of
free-thinking persons of
good character who seek
self-improvement. People
of different religious
creeds and atheists
coexist within it, as do
Masons of different
political and
philosophical
persuasions.
But one of the ancient
fundamental precepts of
the United Grand Lodge
of England, which
sponsors Regular Lodges
all over the world, is
to exclude women from
the brotherhood.
Initiation of women
Masons, therefore, would
appear to be irregular
and problematic.
However, José Manuel
Collera, Grand Master of
the Grand Lodge of Cuba
from 2000 to 2003, says
that "like many other
Masons," he thinks this
rule is now outmoded and
should be revoked.
"Personally, I have
always defended the
inclusion of women in
Freemasonry," he told
IPS.
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.
Collera acknowledged,
however, that Cuban
women have had to
overcome several hurdles
in their quest,
especially among some of
the most conservative
male Masons. "But these
are only conflicting
currents of thought, not
an official position of
Freemasonry as a whole,"
he said.
In any event,
sponsorship by the
Women’s Grand Lodge of
Chile removes any risk
of the male Grand Lodge
of Cuba losing its
regularity and the
recognition of the other
Grand Lodges it is in
amity with, by
transgressing the
ancient boundaries and
accepting women among
its numbers.
Women’s Masonry uses the
Scottish rite, also
practised by the male
Cuban Lodges, so the
symbols, rituals and
initiations will be the
same for men and women,
said Medina, 46, who is
a specialist in
maxillofacial surgery at
the Calixto García
teaching hospital in
Havana.
Among the groups of
Masonic aspirants, aged
18 to 60, there are
professional women and
homemakers, Catholics
and state employees.
"The important qualities
are that they should be
virtuous, discreet,
hardworking, and of
course keen to join the
Masons," said Medina,
whose father and husband
are Freemasons.
Political activism or
belonging to other
social organisations are
no bar to becoming a
Mason, Collera and
Medina said.
The Working Committee
led by Medina was formed
two years ago in Havana,
and is made up of about
30 women. In Pinar del
Río there are 32 women
aspirants, and interest
has spread to Caibarién,
a town on the north
coast of the province of
Villa Clara, 268
kilometres from Havana,
where a new group of
women is getting under
way.
There are plans for
another Working
Committee to be set up
in Santiago de Cuba, the
country’s second-largest
city, which is 847
kilometres southeast of
Havana. "We are not
interested so much in
quantity as in quality,"
Medina said.
Statistics from 2004
indicate that there are
29,000 Masons in Cuba,
organised in over 300
Lodges. The governing
body of the order is the
Grand Lodge of Cuba, and
both the Ancient and
Accepted Scottish Rite,
as well as the York
Rite, are practised.
According to experts,
throughout the history
of Cuban Masonry women
have always been
associated with its
activities, lending
external support, but
until now the felt need
of women to enter the
inner sanctum of its
mysteries has gone
unrecognised.
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