Article: 47 of alt.freemasonry Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!athena.mit.edu!dryfoo From: dryfoo@athena.mit.edu (Gary L. Dryfoos) Newsgroups: alt.freemasonry Subject: Re: Religious requirements and Freemasonry Date: 26 Jul 1994 19:00:05 GMT Organization: Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lines: 73 Distribution: world Message-ID: <313mfl$7c1@senator-bedfellow.MIT.EDU> NNTP-Posting-Host: thelonious.mit.eduIn article
|>... |> I've read (on the Freemasonry email group, I believe) that the major |> requirement is that the Catholic in question has the permission of his bishop |> to join the Masons. How difficult this is to obtain, I have no idea.My experience and background to answer this question is that I have been master of a lodge outside of Boston for 4 years.
The previous posters were right: Masonry is glad to accept men of _any_ religion.
But, whenever our lodge had a would-be candidate for the degrees who was Catholic, I always made it a point to tell him that while we were glad to have him, it was his responsibility to make sure that joining wouldn't ignite any discord or controversy in his home.
Many young Catholics don't know that the Church has at times had a formal ban on its members joining Masonry. It's based in a series of Papal Bulls, listed in Coil's Masonic Encyclopedia as:
Pope Date Title ------------ ----------- ------------------------- Clement XII Apr 28 1738 In Eminenti Benedict XIV May 18 1751 Providas Pius VII Sep 13 1821 Ecclesiam Leo XII Mar 13 1825 Quo Graviora Pius IX Nov 9 1846 Qui Pluribus Pius IX Apr 20 1849 Quibus Quantisque Malis Pius IX Dec 8 1864 Qunta Cura Pius IX Sep 25 1865 Multiplices Inter Pius IX Oct 12 1869 Apostolicae Sedis Pius IX Nov 21 1873 Etsi Multa Leo XIII Feb 15 1882 Etsi Nos Leo XIII Apr 20 1884 Humanum Genus Leo XIII Oct 15 1890 Ab Apostolici Leo XIII Jun 20 1894 Praeclara Leo XIII Mar 18 1902 Annum IngressiDespite this long history, there are periods when the restriction is relaxed, and Masonry is quite strong in some Catholic communities.
But it would be an unfortunate thing if a man joined, and then, only afterwards, discovered that his family detested the Fraternity. So I always make sure to tell the pre-candidate a little about the Church's occasional animosity, and that he should discuss joining with his family. We always make sure that a married man has discussed it with his wife, but for Catholics the suggestion is widened to include his parents, in-laws, and any other significant family members. You can imagine the kind of trouble that would result if a guy's wife started hearing from her uninformed-and-upset mother that he'd joined an organization of "devil-worshippers" that was banned by the Pope. An admonition throughout our ritual is "without injury to myself or family," and we take that seriously enough to make sure to we don't accidently start a feud in someone's family.
As far as asking the bishop's permission, I suppose that a devout Catholic might see that as an appropriate step, but I'm not sure if a bishop could actually give his explicit "permission."
I'd like to see some postings here by regular Masons who are Catholic -- what their experiences were.