Lamenting these evils, We are constrained by the charity which urges Our heart to cry out often to God: "For lo, Thy enemies have made a noise; and they that hate Thee have lifted up the head. They have taken a malicious counsel against Thy people, and they have consulted against Thy saints. They have said, `come, and let us destroy them, so that they be not a nation.' (Ps. 81:24)
At so urgent a crisis, when so fierce and so pressing an onslaught is made upon the Christian name, it is Our office to point out the danger, to mark who are the adversaries, and to the best of Our power to make head against their plans and devices, that those may not perish whose salvation is committed to Us, and that the kingdom of Jesus Christ entrusted to Our charge may not stand and remain whole, but may be enlarged by an ever-increasing growth throughout the world.
For as soon as the constitution and the spirit of the masonic sect were clearly discovered by manifest signs of its actions, by the investigation of its causes, by publication of its laws, and of its rites and commentaries, with the addition often of the personal testimony of those who were in the secret, this Apostolic See denounced the sect of the Freemasons, and publicly declared its constitution, as contrary to law and right, to be pernicious no less to Christendom than to the State; and it forbade any one to enter the society, under the penalties which the Church is wont to inflict upon exceptionally guilty persons.
The sect of Freemasons grew with a rapidity beyond conception in the course of a century and a half, until it came to be able, by means of fraud or of audacity, to gain such entrance into every rank of the State as to seem to be almost its ruling power. This swift and formidable advance has brought upon the Church, upon the power of princes, upon the public well-being, precisely that grievous harm which Our predecessors had long before foreseen. Such a condition has been reached that henceforth there will be grave reason to fear, not indeed for the Church — for her foundation is much too firm to be overturned by the effort of men — but for those States in which prevails the power, either of the sect of which we are speaking or of other sects not dissimilar which lend themselves to it as disciples and subordinates.
For, from what We have above most clearly shown, that which is their ultimate purpose forces itself into view-namely, the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism.
What We have said, and are about to say, must be understood of the sect of the Freemasons taken generically, and in so far as it comprises the associations kindred to it and confederated with it, but not of the individual members of them. There may be persons amongst these, and not a few who, although not free from the guilt of having entangled themselves in such associations, yet are neither themselves partners in their criminal acts nor aware of the ultimate object which they are endeavoring to attain.
Now, the fundamental doctrine of the naturalists, which they sufficiently make known by their very name, is that human nature and human reason ought in all things to be mistress and guide. Laying this down, they care little for duties to God, or pervert them by erroneous and vague opinions. For they deny that anything has been taught by God; they allow no dogma of religion or truth which cannot be understood by the human intelligence, nor any teacher who ought to be believed by reason of his authority. And since it is the special and exclusive duty of the Catholic Church fully to set forth in words truths divinely received, to teach, besides other divine helps to salvation, the authority of its office, and to defend the same with perfect purity, it is against the Church that the rage and attack of the enemies are principally directed."
Ecclesiastical masonry has made significant inroads into the Church. I have already shown that at this Blog. And this probably explains why some parishes within the Diocese of Worcester (which promotes New Age advocate Joyce Rupp) routinely omit the Nicene Creed during Holy Mass. Just yesterday, while attending Mass at Saint Joseph's Parish in Fitchburg, I was struck by the fact that the celebrant omitted the Creed. Last week, at Holy Cross Parish in Templeton, the Creed was omitted.
Is this permissible? In a word, no. According to the General Instruction of the Roman Missal: "The purpose of the Symbolum or Profession of Faith, or Creed, is that the whole gathered people may respond to the word of God proclaimed in the readings taken from Sacred Scripture and explained in the homily and that they may also call to mind and confess the great mysteries of the faith by reciting the rule of faith in a formula approved for liturgical use, before these mysteries are celebrated in the Eucharist." (GIRM, 67).
No. 68 of GIRM states that, "The Creed is to be sung or said by the priest together with the people on Sundays and Solemnities. It may be said also at particular celebrations of a more solemn character...If it is sung, it is begun by the priest or, if this is appropriate, by a cantor or by the choir. It is sung, however, either by all together or by the people alternating with the choir...If not sung, it is to be recited by all together or by two parts of the assembly responding one to the other."
Therefore, there is no provision for omitting the creed when prescribed and no priest has the authority to do so.
So why the omission of the Profession of Faith? Pope Benedict XVI, in his work entitled "Truth and Tolerance: Christian Belief and World Religions," tells us that, "The great fundamental decisions of the early councils, which were expressed in the creeds, do not bend the faith into a philosophical theory; rather, they give verbal expression to two essential, unchanging elements of the biblical faith: they assure the realism of the biblical faith and prevent a merely symbolic or mythological interpretation; they assure the rational nature of the biblical faith, which in fact goes beyond reason itself and any possible 'experiences' it may have yet nonetheless appeals to the reason and comes forward with the claim to be telling the truth - to be opening up access for man to the very heart of reality.." (pp. 92-93).
The Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches us that, "Whoever says 'I believe' says 'I pledge myself to what we believe.' Communion in faith needs a common language of faith, normative for all and uniting all in the same confession of faith." (CCC, 185). And, "From the beginning, the apostolic Church expressed and handed on her faith in brief formulae for all...Such syntheses are called 'professions of faith' since they summarize the faith that Christians profess. They are called 'creeds' on account of what is usually their first word in Latin: credo ('I believe'). They are also called 'symbols of faith'." (CCC, Nos. 186, 187).
Related reading here.
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