FREEMASONRY TODAY , report about 'Moldova' .

The Eye Hiram Lodge Consecrated in Odessa After having reintroduced the masonic light into the Republic of Moldova (ex-Soviet Union) with the consecration of the Alliance Lodge at Chisinou in June last year, Giuliano di Bernardo, Grand Master of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy, consecrated the Hiram Lodge at Odessa in the Ukraine on 7 February 1998. Both of these lodges are entered in the register of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy. On April 23 the Medical University of Odessa granted Giuliano di Bernardo the Degree of Doctor Honoris Causa, previously granted to heart-surgeon Christian Barnard, the President of Georgetown University, Washington, and to Poland’s President of the Academy of Science. While at Odessa, Giuliano di Bernardo gave a lecture on Ethics and Science to the University Senate and addressed over 1000 students on the subject of the philosophical foundation of Man. As Giuliano di Bernardo wished to pursue in the Ukraine the policy of transparency that is the hallmark of his masonic projects, he met Leonid Kuchma, President of the Republic, in Kiev, and told him of his intention to create masonic lodges throughout the Ukraine. The result of this was his consecration of the Hiram Lodge in Odessa, according to ancient usage, assisted by the Grand Officers of the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy and by the Moldovan Brethren. The event was reported in the most authoritative newspapers and was also covered by national and regional television networks, as well as by CNN. The Hiram Lodge counts among its members personages from the academic world, the arts, economics, politics, entertainment and the professions. The Master of the Lodge is Prof Valery Zaporozhan, Rector of Odessa Medical University, member of the Academy of Sciences and Honorary Fellow of many universities in the United States and Europe. Bro Zaporozhan, in a statement to the press, declared his intention of dedicating his life to establishing Freemasonry in all the countries of the former Soviet Union. The Chisinou and Odessa lodges work with the Emulation Ritual, which has already been translated into Moldovan and is now being translated into Russian. Like the Regular Grand Lodge of Italy on its creation, they have also received the Constitutions and Regulations of the United Grand Lodge of England. The first steps are already being taken to introduce the Royal Arch as well. The masonic light is now spreading from Odessa throughout the Ukraine. In the first week of June 1998, two more lodges will be consecrated : one in Kiev and the other in Odessa, and by the end of the year lodges will also be opened in Sevastopol and Dnepropetrovsk. Contacts have already been made for bringing the masonic light to Georgia, Armenia and Kazakhstan.http://www.freemasonrytoday.com/05/p01.php