Ecumenism: Knights & Masons Together

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"Out of the Ghetto." At the same time, the Knights have altered the pitch of their national advertising from conversion to cooperation. Says Homer J. L'Hote, head of the Missouri Knights: "We used to try to make others see that we had the right religion. The attitude we now take is that we are on common ground with them, that we will work along with them." The ground has become so common that when Knights invite Masons to a joint meeting, the speaker is frequently a rabbi. Frank C. Staples, grand master of the New York State Masons, says that Masonic lodges are meeting the Knights more than halfway. In Syracuse, the Masons even challenged the Knights to a blood-donation contest; the Masons won by two pints.

What all this has produced was summed up by Philip Spiro, a New York City Knights leader, after an outing with the Masons: "Some of us were looking for them to have horns, but we found that they were just people." Adds Father John J. Mulroy, director of the Atlanta Archdiocese Commission of Religious Unity: "The church is moving out of the ghetto. Where the whole process is going, we really don't know —but it is obvious that a lot of revamping is going to take place in lay organizations." More than a few Catholic priests and laymen echo the sentiments of Lee Everts, head of the Wisconsin Knights, who predicts that in five or ten years, Knights will be permitted to join the Masons.