The Government of Spain spends 3 million euros to restore a Masonic temple

The Government of Spain has spent 3 million euros to restore a Masonic temple in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which has been reopened in the presence of the Minister of Territorial Policies and Democratic Memory, Ángel Víctor Torres.

Torres has stood out through his social networks that the use of public funds has served to recover “the memory of Freemasonry and its defense of equality, democracy and secular education.”

This building was built at the beginning of the 20th century to house the meetings and rituals of the Azaña Lodge. After the Civil War, the building was transferred to the Spanish Falange and, shortly after, it was used as a warehouse for the Military Pharmacy.

Abandoned in 1990, the building was sold to the Santa Cruz de Tenerife city council in 2001. In 2022, restoration works began, financed by the Government of Spain, which have just been completed. It is expected that the building will be converted into a museum of Freemasonry.

The mayor of Santa Cruz, José Manuel Bermúdez, stressed during the inauguration that the city “honors itself by turning on a light that should never have gone out, precisely because today we open the doors of the Masonic Temple again, an architectural and symbolic jewel that shines again in the heart of our city.”

Thanks to the Master Masons

“This temple, unique in Spain and a reference element of international Masonic architecture, was promoted and built by men who believed in progress and freedom of thought, values ​​that cannot and should not be forgotten,” added Bermúdez.

The Tenerife councilor also praised and thanked “the different representatives of Freemasonry, especially Jesús Soriano, of the Supreme Council of the 33rd and Last Degree of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite for Spain”, according to reported the Santa Cruz City Council.

Some priests present on social networks have reacted to the news by calling for the “separation of Freemasonry and the State now”, as is the case of the priest Francisco “Patxi” Bronchalofrom the Diocese of Getafe.

For his part, Father Juan Manuel Góngora, of the Diocese of Almeria, thanked Minister Torres “the fact of openly showing that the vaunted secularism is summarized, among other anti-Catholic perfidies, in conspiring to sponsor a Masonic lodge with public money in a city called Santa Cruz.”

What the Catholic Church says about Freemasonry

In November 2023, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith reiterated that “active membership in Freemasonry by a believer is prohibited due to the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry.”

The Code of Canon Law established in numeral 1374 that “whoever joins an association that schemes against the Church must be punished with a just penalty; whoever promotes or directs that association must be punished with an interdict.”

This wording from 1983 replaced the one from 1917, which explicitly spoke of Freemasonry and established penalties automatically.