If I were inclined to believe such things, I’d swear there was a conspiracy afoot.  But it has nothing to do with Masonic goings-on behind closed doors.  Rather, it’s the media’s use of the words “masonic” and “freemasonry” as a shorthand for nefarious cronyism.  I came across a couple noteworthy examples of this phenomenon this week.

The first one was in a report on the issue of Catholic priest sexual abuse from the Independent News and Media Corporation which publishes several newspapers in Ireland.  According to the report,

[t]here were ‘connections’ — funny handshakes, meetings in dark corners. The tentacles of the Catholic Church reached far beyond the dark aisles of the archbishop’s palace and into the corridors of power.

If this weren’t Ireland we could say there was a Masonic-style ring operating at the highest echelons in the Church and the State. But there was serious planning involved in covering up the scandal, in moving deviant priests from one parish to the next, in sending them abroad, in organising secret compensation for their victims. And it is this cover-up that needs further investigation.

I have to ask:  what on earth does the issue of Catholic clergy sexual abuse have to do with Freemasonry?  The unpleasant truth is, sexual abuse involving Catholic priests has been a huge issue for the Catholic church for years now.  Yet if a newspaper were to start using the term “Catholic priest” as a shorthand for “pedophile” Catholics everywhere would be justifiably outraged.   Shouldn’t Freemasons be equally outraged for the use, in this case, of the word “Masonic” to describe the systematic cover up of child sexual abuse?

Here’s another example.  In an op-ed piece in the Daily Mail, Patrick Collins calls out french soccer player Thierry Henry for his now infamous hand-ball during a World Cup finals game between Ireland and France.  The failure of the referees to call the hand-ball resulted, many believe, in Ireland being robbed of it’s place at the World Cup in South Africa next summer.  In describing the unfairness of the call, and the lack of any outrage or calls for justice on the part of soccer professionals, Collins had this to say about ordinary soccer fans:  “They feel themselves the victims of grand larceny and increasingly they distrust the cosy freemasonry of old pros”.  Again, I ask:  What does a bad soccer ruling have to do with Freemasonry?

Here’s an oddball story:  Several Freemasons from Australia and New Zealand were at a lodge meeting in Fiji when an angry crowd arrived with police in tow and had the Freemasons arrested on suspicion of witchcraft.  Read the whole story here.