‘Vatican reaffirms its ban on Freemasonry’

    

Vatican News

In a document published Monday, the Vatican reaffirms its ban on Freemasonry for Roman Catholics.

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, responding to concerns of bishops in the Republic of the Philippines, issued its recommendations as approved by Pope Francis. Nearly 80 percent of Filipinos are Roman Catholic. (I was going to write about the Philippines situation a week ago, but mistakenly figured it wasn’t a big deal.) Excerpted:

Membership in Freemasonry is very significant in the Philippines; it involves not only those who are formally enrolled in Masonic Lodges but, more generally, a large number of sympathizers and associates who are personally convinced that there is no opposition between membership in the Catholic Church and in Masonic Lodges.

Cardinal Víctor Fernández
Prefect of the Dicastery

To address this issue appropriately, it was decided that the Dicastery would respond by involving the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines itself, notifying the Conference that it would be necessary to put in place a coordinated strategy among the individual Bishops that envisions two approaches:

(a) On the doctrinal level, it should be remembered that active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is forbidden because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry (cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Declaration on Masonic Associations” [1983], and the guidelines published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in 2003). Therefore, those who are formally and knowingly enrolled in Masonic Lodges and have embraced Masonic principles fall under the provisions in the above-mentioned Declaration. These measures also apply to any clerics enrolled in Freemasonry.

(b) On the pastoral level, the Dicastery proposes that the Philippine Bishops conduct catechesis accessible to the people and in all parishes regarding the reasons for the irreconcilability between the Catholic Faith and Freemasonry.

Finally, the Philippine Bishops are invited to consider whether they should make a public pronouncement on the matter.