EUGEN OVIDIU CHIROVICI
Past Grand Master, National Grand Lodge of Romania
Honorary Director, MASONIC FORUM Magazine
In the early 1990s, the perspective of the Romanian society on Freemasonry was more than ambiguous.
As many of the „founding fathers” of modern Romania had been members, the communist regime preferred to keep quiet on the matter, rather than try and demonize the movement, as was the case in other socialist countries, such as Poland. Therefore, after 1990, the Romanian society wasn’t necessarily hostile to the idea of Masonry, but confusions reigned on all levels. The first batch of specialized literature on the subject, which included republished explicitly anti-Masonic works from the Interwar period, further increased the confusion, which oscillated between, on the one hand, ascribing every significant political and social movement in the last century to the Order, and completely minimizing its actual contribution towards the independence and development of the modern Romanian state on the other.
At one point in 1996 a colleague from “Curierul național”, who didn’t know that I was a member of the Order, was condescendingly explaining how 33rd Degree Masons in the Scottish Rite have the right to order executions, while a doctor confessed that Freemasons were dabbling in dark magic and could, among other things, levitate.
This was, by and large, the cultural and social paradigm in which “Masonic Forum” timidly made its appearance. In order to commensurate the precise role it played in the development of Regular Freemasonry in our country we must always underline the difficulty of such and endeavor in the late 1990s.
I’ve had the pleasure of being interviewed by Claudiu in 2001, when the magazine had only just been born, and I realized even then the part such a journalistic effort could and should play in clearing controversies and dispelling certain confusion, first of all within the Craft. Two years later, when the Brethren gave me the honor of electing me as Grand Master, I created and promoted an active partnership between the National Grand Lodge of Romania and “Masonic Forum”, a partnership that has always proven more than useful to both entities involved. I have promoted the magazine abroad and have helped Claudiu put together an honorary management team that included important names in the Universal Chain: Thomas W. Jackson (US), Chaim Henry Gehl (Israel), Alberto Menasche (Switzerland) and so on. Both of us maintained this partnership by navigating – some times with difficulty – between envy, diversions and confusions which could have easily buried this vital initiative.
Over time, the magazine became a key reference in the scholarly publishing landscape in Europe and beyond, while other similar publications in countries with some tradition have perished in the meantime, crushed by financial difficulties, disinterest and prejudice. To paraphrase William Faulkner, we could say that “Masonic Forum” has stubbornly not only persisted, but also triumphed.
When he attempted to underline the idea of a topic that was difficult to approach and explain, Winston Churchill once defined it as “a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma”. Even for carvers of rough stone, after more than three centuries of existence, Freemasonry remains a labyrinth. And a publication such as “Masonic Forum” has had and still has the purpose of shedding light, at least from time to time, in one corner or another of this glorious road.
Florence, April 2025
