Excerpt from "Time Couriers" by C.Q. Scafidi

“Louis talked about the Freemasons’ ‘Rule of Three’, symbolizing strength, beauty, and wisdom. Of course, there’s got to be a connection. According to Louis, they designed and built this to more than reflect their Masonic beliefs, so I think we can be certain the three steeples or spires are a connection, especially since the center spire is the most prominent, the one symbolizing
wisdom, just like on the tracing board. I remember reading how the Knights Templar were accused of worshiping Sophia, the goddess of wisdom. It would make sense. Let’s go inside and see if there are any other connections here. Besides, don’t you have a relative or something buried under the church—Monsieur Chauvin?”

“I told you that was what my nannan said. We’ll see when we get inside, if she was stretching the truth.”

As the two walked into the vestibule of the Cathedral, they looked at each other with amazement the floor of the Cathedral was a black and white checkerboard pattern, just like in the
Masonic tracing board. Steve had already read that the checkered pattern is explained in the Craft ritual as the diversity of objects which decorate and ornament creation, the animate and inanimate parts thereof. It was there just as Louis said it would be. The checkerboard was used by the Knights Templar in their banking activities to issue checks, since that is essentially what was issued to travelers to the Holy Land under the protection of the Knights Templar during the crusade period. Travelers could deposit in their own country and retrieve their funds at a Templar stronghold in the Holy Land modern banking. Steve was getting excited at all of the correlations he was finding, but the biggest revelation was yet to come.

Steve pulled out his camera and began taking pictures of the floor, of all things. Monique saw some other tourists looking at him and she poked him in the shoulder. They moved passed the
gift shop where Steve had spoken to the old woman on the day Andrew disappeared. He wondered where she was. The shop was closed for fifteen minutes for some reason, so they just passed it by and went past the adjoining doors which led to winding staircases, up to the choir loft. Winding staircases another item on the Masonic tracing board, Steve thought to himself.

They entered the church on the left, and after genuflecting and crossing themselves with holy water, Steve moved immediately to the left side aisle that led past a row of large columns and
toward the spectacular stained glass lining the wall all the way to the baptistery at the other end of the church. The church was in typical cathedral style, in the shape of a large cross, with the altar at the far end of the church aglow in frescoes, gilded molding and extraordinary statuary.

Steve’s attention was caught by the very first stained glass window he laid eyes on. From his research he had learned that the stained glass images and frescoes were intended to represent key moments in the life of Louis IV, Saint Louis, King of France, who reigned in the middle of the thirteenth century and was the only member of the French monarchy to achieve sainthood.

It was the second window on the left side that had caught Steve’s eye. It clearly depicted stonemasons in the act of constructing a medieval cathedral or church, with a monk or knight
showing a member of the monarchy, presumably Louis IV, the plans for a church. What was most shocking to Steve was the prominence of a stonemason’s trowel in the stained glass. This
window was not in homage to a saint, but more a tribute to the stonemasons who built the very church they were standing in, complete with its three spires and its checkerboard floor.

Steve stood there baffled that the oldest Catholic cathedral in the United States could actually be a Masonic temple. These images, and more importantly the groups they honored, were
outlawed since the Papal Bull In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula issued 1739 by Pope Clement XII. This was reinforced as recently as 1993 under Pope John Paul II, in the official papal document,
Quaesitum est. This document officially states, “The faithful, who enroll in Masonic Associations, are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.”