The Universal Language of Freemasonry - ArchiMeD - Johannes ...

19. Case of emergency
Chapter 5 - Technical Terminology 283
If the members of a lodge have to assemble quickly in order to decide upon
an urgent cause, this instant is called "case of emergency," and the lodge is called
"lodge of emergency." The German expression therefore is "Dringlichkeitsloge."
826
In America, the Grand Master has to decide whether such a lodge of
emergency is allowed to meet.
22. Heal
The general law of Masonry requires a month to elapse between the
time of receiving a petition for initiation and that of balloting for the
candidate, and also that there shall be an interval of one month between
the reception of each of the degrees of Craft Masonry. Cases sometimes
occur when a Lodge desires this probationary period to be dispensed
with, so that the candidate's petition may be received and balloted for at
the same communication, or so that the degrees may be conferred at
much shorter intervals. As some reason must be assigned for the
application to the Grand Master for the dispensation, such reason is
generally stated to be that the candidate is about to go on a long journey,
or some other equally valid. Cases of this kind are called, in the
technical language of Masonry, cases of emergency. 827
Healing is a Masonic method of rendering an illegal lodge action legal by an
additional procedure. For example, a Mason who has received his degrees under
doubtful circumstances can be re-initiated, in order to make his initiation legal.
This is described in The Constitution and Code of the Grand Lodge of Iowa,
dating 1928, as follows:
A lodge with a proper charter or warrant, though not legally constituted
for a particular meeting, as if less than seven members are present, is
not a clandestine lodge, and Masons made therein are not clandestine
Masons. In such case the irregularity or error should be cured by
'healing' (re-obligating) the candidate in a regularly constituted lodge. 828
The Masonic Code of the Grand Lodge of Tennessee from 1958 uses this
technical term in the same sense: "A clandestinely made Mason may petition a
Lodge in the same manner and subject to the same conditions and requirements
826 Cf. IFL, p. 416.
827 MD, p. 219.
828 Grand Lodge of Iowa, The Constitution and Code, p. 135.