MASONERÍA, LAICIDAD Y EDUCACIÓN DEMOCRÁTICA EN LA ESPAÑA CONTEMPORÁNEA

Abstract

Freemasonry is an organization that has been present in Spain, as in the world, during liberal periods and which has been persecuted and almost disappeared in totalitarian regimes, whether communist or fascist. Spanish freemasonry, traditionally linked to the continental European model, has given great importance to active participation in the great social debates. The fundamental task of freemasonry is the education of its members as individuals and as citizens. From such a perspective, the masonic workshops have been recognized as genuine schools for the formation of democratic elites and constitute a capital as important as it is unknown of our political culture. Moreover, freemasonry has shown outstanding interest in teaching, often reducing the great social questions to an educational problem. Within the secular ethical legal framework, the formative democratic action of masonry focuses with growing intensity on "education for peace". An important example of the pacifist legacy of historical freemasonry is the seven freemasons who have been distinguished with the Nobel Peace Prize. Freemasonry should be considered then, in its own right, as a school of secular training for democracy and peace.