Iron Ring Ceremony: Should a Catholic Attend?

By August Yakabuski

Should a Catholic attend the Iron Ring Ceremony? (IRC hereafter for what is formally called the Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer) The short answer is No. The IRC does have some laudable content, but risks undermining more crucial fundamental Catholic ideals. The long answer which details the following points is provided in this essay. 1. It has Masonic connections and themes tied to its Masonic creator Rudyard Kipling. This point is simply a red flag supporting points 2 and 3. It is not illustrated as if a Catholic cannot be part of anything that a Freemason has helped create simply because they are masons. 2. The sometimes-used poem entitled, The Sons of Martha, expounds an non-Catholic understanding of the story of Martha and Mary. In fact, it may seem to devote Christians to mock the words of Jesus Christ himself. It is only the poem mentioned above which is critiqued in this essay. Other parts have not been reviewed as they are secret in nature and foreign to the author who has never attended the ceremony. 3. Points 1 and 2 could potentially cause a sin of scandal by attending and also risk a sin against the second commandment by taking an obligation which references God (making it close to an oath or in fact an oath) using a poem which is distasteful and in a scandalous situation. In conclusion, this essay shows that the poem The Sons of Martha, should never be used in a professional setting. It is distasteful to sensible Christians. It is mostly likely the remnants of the public and popular anti-Catholicism present in Canadian society stemming from English Canadian nationalism in the early 1900 to mid-1900s. The organizers of the IRC should issue and apology for its sometimes inclusion into the ritual.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B09Y98F5YY
• ISBN13: 9798809796804
• Release Date: April 2022
• Publisher: Independently Published
• Length: 28 Pages
• Weight: 0.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.1" x 6.0" x 9.0"