The former head of an outlawed masonic lodge linked to some of Italy’s biggest scandals has sparked an outcry by announcing that he will take part in a television talk show to give his version of events.

Licio Gelli, the 89-year old former grandmaster of the shadowy Propaganda 2 (P2) group, will be the main guest in “Venerabile Italia” (Venerable Italy), a programme on Italy’s history from fascism to the 1980s.

The P2 was founded in 1969 and used to be the country’s most powerful secret organisation with prominent politicians, business leaders and military officers as members.

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(Note: The P2 Lodge was closed by the Grand Lodge of Italy for its ties to the Mafia, Fascists and other “undesirable” associates, and the members of P2 who refused to resign from the organization were expelled from regular Masonry.)

The new Limestone Medical Center won’t officially open for about four month, but the ceremonies have already begun.

Masons for across Texas converged on Groesbeck last Friday to ceremoniously level two cornerstones at the facility.

“This is a special time for this city and county,” said David B. Dibrell, past grand master of the Grand Lodge of Texas. “And this is special for us. It’s unusual for us to have the chance to level two cornerstones at one time.”

Cornerstones and cornerstone ceremonies are part of architectural history.

The cornerstone of a building is the stone that lies at the corner of two walls and forms the corner of the foundation of an edifice. Upon it the alignment of the entire structure will rest. History records, from ancient times, great ceremony involving the cornerstone before construction began on the architect’s design.

Records of the observance are found etched on clay tablets left by peoples of the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Assyria. It was a ceremony marking a moment in time. Even today, when schools, churches or local government buildings are scheduled for construction, there are moments along the way to completion that are especially memorable.

One of the most beautiful and meaningful of those moments is when the fraternity of Freemasons conducts a rite similar to those recorded in history. The ceremony of symbolically leveling a cornerstone. It is performed with solemn ceremonies giving dignity to the occasion.

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During the Middle Ages, the Knights Templar protected Christian pilgrims traveling to Jerusalem. But by 1321, members of the military-religious order, known for their role in the Crusades, were tried for heresy and the group disbanded.

In recent years, the order of monks has become a subject of renewed interest, and have become more popularly known as guardians of spiritual treasures, in particular the mysterious lost Holy Grail, the chalice believed to have been used by Jesus during the Last Supper.

The Templars have been featured as key players in the juicy plot lines of blockbuster motion pictures and best-selling novels — fueling keen interest in what became of the secretive group nearly 700 years ago.

The reproduction set of Vatican Templar Trial Transcripts, here for a one-day presentation, are owned by the Chancellor Robert R. Livingston Masonic Library of Grand Lodge in Manhattan. The Masons’ ownership of the documents is somewhat ironic, because the Catholic Church historically has opposed Freemasonry and has banned Catholics from joining lodges.

Thomas M. Savini, the library’s director, acknowledged that the acquisition “will raise some eyebrows” inside and outside the Masonic fraternity.

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In pursuit of his Christian duty, the Rev. Matthew Wissell used to dress up as a clown.

Pastor of Eastham United Methodist Church on Cape Cod and a Freemason, Wissell spent six years entertaining young burn victims at Shriners Hospital for Children in Boston. The Shriners are part of the Freemasons, the global fraternal organization founded in 18th-century England that spends millions of dollars on charitable works, motivated in part by its minimalist religious requirement that members profess faith in one God.

Wissell followed his grandfather’s footsteps into the Freemasons 15 years ago.

“As a United Methodist, we understand that faith is more than simply adhering to a group of beliefs,” he said. “It’s living out our beliefs in the world in a very tangible way.”

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Members of the state’s predominantly white Masonic organization struck down a vestige of the segregation era Friday when they voted to recognize members of the black organization as brother Masons.

The vote — at the annual convention of the Ancient, Free and Accepted Masons of North Carolina in Winston-Salem — follows years of frustration among the group’s leadership, which each year had introduced a resolution to recognize the black group.

“Old ways, old cultures and old traditions die hard,” said the group’s grand master, David Cash, a Methodist minister from Kannapolis. “And that’s why this is so monumental.”

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They are popularly known as a shadowy organisation connected with the Holy Grail, the global illuminati and who knows what other manner of shadowy conspiracy theories.

But now the freemasons are hoping to reveal a new image to the public after years of misinformation.

Richard Goddard, the provincial grand master for Worcestershire, says he is hoping to radically modernise the public profile of freemasonry with a new policy of openness.

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