Orient of Ohrid, 18th October 2025
Dearest Brethren in all your Duties and Qualities,
How good it is to see you again. Good and deeply moving, in my role as President of the Confederation of the Grand Lodges of Europe and the Mediterranean, a role I wish to fulfill to the very best of my ability, so that our Confederation may shine with living Light and living Brotherhood. Together, with the active collaboration of each and every one of you, because our Confederation is all of us together, or it is not at all.
A warm and fraternal embrace to the M.W. Grand Master, our beloved Brother D∴ B∴, and to all our Brethren of the Ancient and Accepted National Grand Lodge of Macedonia. I greet and thank you for the flawless organization, for your fraternal and loving hospitality. We feel at home, dearest Brother D∴, dearest Macedonian Brethren, and to feel at home is the emotion every Freemason experiences when he travels from Orient to Orient, provided that the Chain of Union remains solid, warm, and welcoming.
And welcome to you too, M.W. Grand Masters and all Brethren of the Obediences of our Confederation; welcome as well to the M.P. Sovereign Grand Commanders and Deputies of the Scottish Rite Pyramids that rest upon the Symbolic Foundations of our Communions.
Welcome, my beloved Brethren, to the 24th Reunion of the Confederation of the Grand Lodges of Europe and the Mediterranean.
Twenty-four is a number that reminds us of our responsibility as temporary custodians of the precious legacy entrusted to us by those Brethren who founded this Confederation and who, day after day, built it strong and beautiful. It is a legacy we must safeguard and one day hand down to the younger Brethren. We must preserve it and also enrich it in quality, for Freemasonry does not revere the cult of quantity that so pervades the profane world.
But twenty-four is also a number that excites and inspires us, for it speaks of how far we have journeyed together.
A journey that began long ago, in conversations and meetings, one among them at Montebelli at the beginning of this new Millennium, and that has continued through tireless and devoted work, nourished by dreams and hopes, given freely and with great heart.
Along this path, some Brethren have left us: beloved, unforgettable, and irreplaceable Brothers who have lifted the veil of Matter and set forth toward the horizons of the Eternal East. Such is life: it ends, and those who have shared our days become shadows and melancholy. Yet for us, who walk the paths of Freemasonry, separation is softened by the awareness that our Brethren, wherever they now dwell, are still with us, living within us, radiant beacons of wisdom and perseverance, and examples of Fraternal Love.
A road that began far away, and that we have walked with the slow, thoughtful step of the Wise one; for such it must be, since Freemasonry avoids the haste of profane time and prefers the prudent pace and the careful doing, so that all may be right and perfect.
A long journey indeed. It was in Lisbon, on the 20th of September 2008, that the Grand Masters of the Grande Loja da Andalucía and the Grande Oriente de Madrid for Spain, the Grande Loge Traditionelle et Moderne de France, the National Grand Lodge of Freemasons of Italy, and the Grande Loja Regular de Portugal (today the Grande Loja Maçónica de Portugal) constituted the Confederation of the Grand Lodges of Europe and the Mediterranean.
To the founding Grand Lodges were soon added the Regular Grand Lodge of the Free Masons of Greece, the National Grand Lodge of Bulgaria, the Masonic Grand Lodge of Serbia, and the Masonic Grand Lodge of Austria. Later, in June 2019 in Calabria, our Family welcomed the Grande Loge Nationale Marocaine and the Grand Lodge of New Enlightment of Romania, and a few months later in Nice, the Grand Lodge Jerusalem of the Ancient and Accepted Masons in the State of Israel. Finally, in 2023 at Montebelli, the sorrow of the commemoration of our Brother Leonardo Filotico was softened by the joy of enriching our Family with the Ancient and Accepted National Grand Lodge of Macedonia.
It was a moment of deep emotion and symbolism. We were returning to where the journey had begun twenty years before. And in the home of Brother Leonardo, another stone was added to the edifice of the dream he had helped to build.
And here we are today, we, the Confederation of the Grand Lodges of Europe and the Mediterranean. Other stones will be added, and they must be well-polished stones, for Freemasonry rejects the cult of quantity that reigns in the profane world. And they will be laid in their proper time, with due patience, for Freemasonry disdains haste and prefers the prudent pace and the careful doing.
Yet our Confederation is also more than this. Thanks to the tireless work of Brother A∴ R∴ during his Presidency, and of our indispensable Brother L∴ R∴, we had the privilege and honour of guiding the first steps of the Confederation of Symbolic Masonry of the Americas, and today we take pride in accompanying them in their flourishing growth. Our two Confederations, twin and twinned, form a bridge of fraternal love spanning the two shores of the Ocean. United by the same ideals, on both sides of the Atlantic, we celebrate and embody the universality of Freemasonry, both its ideal aspiration and its moral duty.
We are a dream that comes from afar, made real through dedication and care. We are, once again, together, the twenty-fourth time. Together, fraternally and lovingly.
We are a Confederation of free Obediences: free to walk the paths of Freemasonry according to their own inclinations, and their own moral and cultural identities; but free because responsible, for freedom without responsibility can easily slide into arbitrariness and domination.
And we are a Confederation of equal Obediences: equal in the duties we have mutually set, in the rights we have reciprocally recognized, and in the commitment that each must necessarily offer to our common edifice.
We could, each of us, practice Freemasonry with profit and joy separately, within our own Ritual Pyramid and within our own boundaries. We could, but we choose not to. For we are offered a greater possibility.
The profane world is restless, and the future uncertain, my Brethren. This is the time when we, explorers of the possible, seekers of Light, must once again inhabit reality, bringing into it our values and our honourable Masonic habit. We must show that a different future is possible, that a better world is achievable, that every soul may illuminate another without competition, rivalry, or fear; that together we may form infinite combinations, each preserving its own individuality.
But to re-enter the world requires action, and alone, each of us is but little.
Together, however, freely equal and equally free, we, the Confederation of the Grand Lodges of Europe and the Mediterranean, we, the Universal Freemasonry, can become the living example of Brotherhood among peoples and humankind. A sparkle of Light and of Fraternal Love.
Together we can. Only together can we.
Let us take care of our Brethren, of our loved ones, of all and everything, and of ourselves.
Ohrid, 18 October 2025
The President of C∴G∴L∴E∴M∴
Br∴ Antonio Cuomo
