I don't know if this is an attempt to promote extreme sedevacanism (or in the case of CM, just extremism) or not, as I don't know what your viewpoints are, but this is a rather interesting article. However, even if he was a freemason, it would not have had any affect on his papacy unless he was one while he was Pope. He eventually became a conservative, and condemned heresy and modernism. My guess is that if he DID become a freemason, he got out of it. So therefore, I don't think I would consider Pius IX an anti-pope at all. He would have had to have been a freemason while Pope to be declared an anti-pope.

http://www.muog89.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=38:pope-pius-ix&catid=16:Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყarticles&Itemid=26

 Pope Pius IX
Tuesday, 21 July 2009 13:29 Joel Porlares
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Pope Pius IXPope Pius IX (Giuseppe Maria Ferrero Mastai Ferretti) joined Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ in Santiago, Chile, in 1832, while a young priest.  He was the secretary of the Papal Nuncio at the time.

While the author of this article in 1922 was convinced that Pius IX was a freemason, and other reports are available, it should also be noted that this website is not privy to Italian masonic records and cannot testify to their veracity.

But, strange to say, there is no doubt that Pope Pius IX. was himself a Freemason. His signature still exists in the books of one of the Italian Lodges of Monte Video. Shortly after his ordination Mastai Ferretti (which was his secular name) was sent as Auditor to the Vicar-General of Chile, and at one time it was believed that he was initiated into Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ in that country. When, in later years, he was appointed Apostolic Delegate in Uruguay he appeared in the Lodges as a fully qualified Freemason, and a writer in the Libertad del Pensamiento, a Madrid journal, in 1870, said that there was in existence in the possession of one whose name he gave (Soussingeas) a portrait of the Pope in Masonic regalia.
Quite recently, however, any doubt that may have existed on the question was put on one side by the discovery of the initiation of Pope Pius IX. into Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ in the Lodge Eterna Catena of Palermo on 15th August 1839. The following is a translation from the Italian of the Bollettino Officiale del Grande Oriente nαzιonale Egiziano:— "Orient of Nuremburg, Lodge of Germanic Loyalty, daughter of the Grand Lodge of Bavaria, working under constitutions emanating from the Grand Mother Lodge of the Three Globes of Berlin."

Our archives contain, under No. 13,715, the following docuмent, certified and authenticated in regular and required form, written in Italian, and bearing the great seal of the Grand Lodge Luce Perpetua of Naples : " 'Masonic Lodge Eterna Catena of Palermo : " 'We, Master Masons, dignitaries and officials of the third degree of Masonry of St John, certify in the name of the Supreme Master, who directs all, that on this, the date given below, at the hour of twelve at night, we have received in this Lodge in the form prescribed by our rituals, and with entire conformity to our constitution, the Brother Giovanni Ferretti Mastai, a native of the Pontifical States, who, having assumed the oath in the presence of all of us, declared that he did not belong to any secret society hostile to this Lodge, and who has paid the charges demanded of him.

"'Wherefore we call upon all the Masonic Lodges of the world to recognise him and hold him as a genuine and true Mason, received in a just and perfect Lodge, and thus we regard and certify him, as a conscientious and honourable man. "'In testimony of the entire truth of the present docuмent, we sign in Palermo, in the profane and civil year 1839, on the fifteenth day of the month of August.
"'Ne varietur : Giovanni Ferretti Mastai.
"'Matteo Chiava, Master of the Lodge.
"'Paolo Duplessi, Secretary of the Lodge.
"'sisto Calano, Grand Master of the Lodge of Naples.'
" I certify to the truth of the foregoing, and that our archives contain the above docuмent under the number indicated.
" Wilhelm von Wittelsburg, Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of Bavaria, Prince of Bavaria."

In 1874 the Voice of Masonry published the following item of news :— "At the semi-annual meeting of the Grand Lodge of Masons Scottish
Rite of the Orient of Palermo, Italy, on 27th March last, Pope Pius IX. was excommunicated from the Order. The decree of expulsion was
published in the official Masonic paper at Cologne, Germany, and is preceded by the minute of the Lodge in which he was initiated, and is
as follows :
" ' A man named Mastai Ferretti, who received the baptism of Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ, and solemnly pledged his love and fellowship, and who
afterwards was crowned Pope and King, under the title of Pio Nino, has now cursed his former Brethren and excommunicated all members of the
Order of Freemasons. Therefore, said Mastai Ferretti is herewith, by decree of the Grand Lodge of the Orient, Palermo, expelled from the
Order for perjury.'

" The charges against him were first prepared in his Lodge at Palermo in 1865, and notification and copy thereof sent to him, with a request
to attend the Lodge for the purpose of answering the same. To this he made no reply, and for divers reasons the charges were not pressed
until he urged the Bishops of Brazil to act aggressively towards the Freemasons. Then they were pressed, and, after a regular trial, a decree of expulsion was entered and published, the same being signed by Victor Emmanuel, King of Italy, and the Grand Master of the Orient of Italy." The king thus returned his compliments for the "major excommunication" which the Pope had sent him a few years previously with the Pope's kind regards." "It is difficult," said the Pall Mall Gazette in October 1874, "to see what retort Pius IX. can make to this decree, unless, indeed, he has in reserve some still more formidable maledictory missile to launch at the Grand Lodge of the Orient. But in these days, unfortunately, a papal anathema is hardly as terrible as a Masonic decree."
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Dudley Wright, Roman Catholicism and Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ. London : William
Rider & Son, Limited, 1922. hc. 251 p. 5 3/4" x 8 3/4". pp. 172-175.


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Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti (b. May 13, 1792, Senigallia, Papal States - d. Feb. 7, 1878, Rome), head of the Roman Catholic Church whose pontificate (1846-78) was the longest in history and was marked by a transition from liberalism to conservatism.1

On 8 December 1864, Pius issued the encyclical Quanta Cura with the Syllabus listing eighty of the "principal errors of our times." The eightieth "error" was that "the Roman Pontif can or should reconcile himself to and agree with progress, liberalism, and modern civilization."

The first Vatican Council opened on 8 December, 1869. On 13 July, 1870 it was decided that the Pope was Infallable when he made pronouncements ex cathedra. "... the records of the Italian Grand Lodge show His infallible Holiness to have been expelled from the fraternity after his election as pope. Victor Emanuel, having been aided by Garibaldi, a 33° Mason, in overthrowing the temporal power of the papacy and establishing religious and constitutional liberty in Italy, was informed that the Pope, when a young man, had been Initiated, Passed and Raised in a Masonic lodge. He therefore caused him to be tried for repeated violations of his obligations to the Masonic brethren. Pius IX was found guilty, expelled, and the proclamation of his expulsion, signed by Victor Emanuel, then king of Italy and grand master of Masons in that country, was sent all over the Masonic world."2

Initiated : August 15, 1839
Expelled : March 27, 1873
Lodge Eterna Catena, Palermo
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1. New Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1989. v.9, p. 485.
2. W. G. Sibley [William Giddings] (1860-1935), The Story of Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ. Gallipolis, Ohio. The Lion's Paw Club, Gallipolis Daily Tribune Press: 1904. p. 23-24. [114p. 19cm.]. No citation noted. Also see Ars Quatuor Coronatorum. vol. xxvi (1913) pp. 218-19. vol. xxxii, "Notes and Queries" p. 174. See Dudley Wright, Roman Catholicism and Fɾҽҽmαsσɳɾყ for source of initiation date. Cf.: 1832 initiation date, also "For years a copy of his 'petition' was circulated as proof of the event; but it has been denounced as a forgery." Alphonse Cerza, The Truth is Stranger than Fiction. Washington, D.C. ; The Masonic Service Association, 1980. p. 57.

Hopefully this information will do some good.

No, but this...   ...might do you some good :)

   I still blame the destruction of the Church on Pius IX and more importantly , the Catholics who permitted his abuse of power.  IF the antiChrist says "I am tradition", he will have to give Pope Pius IX the credit for that . I think the antiChrist playbook will be merely a rewrite of Pius IX's material , but given full Satanic power and the aid of technology and financial control. And since post 1870 Catholics are used to giving total unquestioning support to leadership no matter how unbiblical or unGodly, is should be a cakewalk for the antiChrist to have total control, especially after the latest round of sex scandals throughout the world that have completely delegitimised the authority structure of the Catholic Church.


Q&A--"I AM TRADITION"-Pope Pius IX and the Arrogance of the Papacy

I found this to be interesting :

http://reasonablechristian.blogspot.com/2010/07/what-do-we-mean-by-sola-scriptura_20.html

In fact, however, if you listen carefully, you will notice that the real authority for Rome is neither Scripture nor tradition, but the church. What is the Scripture, and what does it teach? Only the church can tell you. What is tradition, and what does it teach? Only the church can tell you. As the Roman theologian John Eck said, “The Scriptures are not authentic, except by the authority of the church.”6 As Pope Pius IX said at the time of the First Vatican Council in 1870, “I am tradition.”7 The overwhelming arrogance of such a statement is staggering. But it confirms our claim that, for Rome, the only real authority is the church: sola ecclesia.


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Let me offer as an illustration two examples from the work of Augustine, often quoted against the Protestant position on the question of the authority of the church. At one point in his debate with the Pelagians, a bishop of Rome sided with Augustine, and Augustine declared, “Rome has spoken, the matter is settled.” Later, however, another pope opposed Augustine on this subject, and Augustine responded by saying, “Christ has spoken, the matter is settled.” Augustine did not bow to the authority of the bishop of Rome, but turned to the word of Christ to evaluate the teaching of Rome.

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   As early as the seventeenth century the Reformed theologian Francis Turretin noted the serious theological divisions in the Roman church and asked why the pope did not settle these disputes if his office was so effective.13 Such theological problems are certainly much greater today than in Turretin’s day and the question remains unanswered as to why the pope is so ineffective.13

We should not be surprised that there are divisions in the church. Christ and His apostles predicted that there would be. The Apostle Paul told us that such divisions are useful. He wrote: “No doubt there have to be differences among you to show which of you have God’s approval” (1 Corinthians 11:19). Differences should humble us and drive us back to the Scriptures to test all claims to truth. If we do not accept the Scriptures as our standard and judge, there is indeed no hope for unity.

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We must listen to the Scriptures so that we will act as God’s Word teaches us to act. Consider the story of Paul in Berea, Acts 17:10-12. Paul preached there in the ѕуηαgσgυє and many Jєωs responded to his preaching with eagerness. We are told that after they listened to Paul each day they examined the Scriptures to see if what Paul said was true. How did Paul react? Did he say that the Scriptures were not clear, and that only he as an apostle or the rabbis or the Sanhedrin could tell them what the Scriptures really meant? Or did he say that they should not expect to find the truth in the Scriptures because they were incomplete and needed to be supplemented by tradition? Or did he say that they were insulting his apostolic authority, and that they should simply submit to him as the infallible interpreter of the Bible? Or did Paul say that they should defer to Peter as the only one who could interpret the Bible? No! He did not say any of these things. The practice of the Bereans is praised in the Bible. They are called noble because they evaluated everything on the basis of the written Word of God.

If we would be faithful children of God, if we would be noble, we must proceed as the Bereans did. We must follow the example of Moses and Paul and our Lord Jesus. Do not rest your confidence on the wisdom of men who claim infallibility. Stand rather with the Apostle Paul who wrote in 1 Corinthians 4:6, "Do not go beyond what is written.

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  Going beyond what is written? - That is the trademark of Pope Pius IX and his newchurch - Club Infallible. When Pope Pius IX castrated the statues in the Vatican, this was symbolic of the  emasculation of the entire Catholic Church and his promotion to infallible class status.

http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Vatican-City/blog-27869.html

A crime within the Vatican Museum wall: The Great Castration

Groan!  I am so sad, I don't know what to say.  I can't understand us fighting over whether there is a pope or not.  I can't understand why we keep fighting, Catholics against Catholics.  I made the strongest statement possible and it doesn't seem to have "taken".

Poor Classicom!  Poor Raoul!  And so many besides.  You start out believing that so and so is bad because this book says so and it is easy to believe it of this person.  And that makes it easier to believe it of another person, and another and another.  You get so conditioned to believe that everyone is a rascal, that everyone becomes a rascal.  Soon not even a canonized saint is safe. And you are surrounded by rascals and go completely round the twist.

Better---FAR BETTER---to believe good of everyone than to believe bad of everyone.  Almost lost his faith?  What did Jesus say about faith when He returns?