A Sacred Obligation
IT IS INTERESTING to compare the impressions of people on the inside and outside of an organization. Those unfamiliar with the Masonic fraternity often imagine all sorts of outlandish privileges that accrue to Freemasons—hiring preferences, price discounts, and political support. We on the inside, however, are more inclined to ponder our obligations—to keep our word, to support widows and orphans, to bury the dead, and to act charitably towards all mankind.
Freemasonry at the beginning of the twenty-first century is the inheritor of resources and treasures from the generations of Brothers who have gone before us. They left us our organizational structure, our buildings, and our libraries and archives. The Library of the Supreme Council, 33°, S.J., U.S.A., has been exceptionally blessed in its immense collection of Masonic publications, including an amazing number of periodicals—674 American and 555 foreign. We are but the temporary custodians of these priceless records of the progress of Freemasonry throughout the world, and it is our sacred obligation to preserve them and to pass them on to our successors.
This obligation has been partially fulfilled with the publication of American Masonic Periodicals: 1811-2001 (2003) and this volume, International Masonic Periodicals: 1738-2005, which together give the researcher a catalog of our Masonic periodicals. Importantly, this information is another stone placed in the edifice of Masonic knowledge, resting upon a centuries old foun¬dation and constructed with the loving hands of passionate students of Freemasonry. Students can use these resources to better understand the evolution and extent of Masonic publishing.
It is poignant that our library has preserved copies of some European volumes destroyed in their homes during World War II. Europe is our Masonic parent, and we are able to repay our birthright as faithful sons preserving our heritage. It is hard to know what the future holds for anyone or anything, but we shall continue building for those who come after us. It is more than our intellectual delight and fraternal duty—it is our sacred obligation.
—RONALD A. SEALE
Grand Commander
