Papal Condemnations of the Lodge
by William J. Whalen
Eight Popes Have Condemned Masonry Since 1738
No one could accuse the Catholic Church of disguising her
antipathy to Freemasonry. Scarcely 20 years after the
organization of modern Masonry in 1717 Pope Clement XII forbade
membership in the lodge and since then seven other popes have
warned the faithful against the dangers of Masonic naturalism to
the Christian faith.
Catholics who join the Masonic sect are automatically
excommunicated. Except at the point of death only the pope or his
delegated representative can lift this excommunication in the
external forum. Such a "Catholic" Mason deprives himself of the
spiritual benefits of the Church, may not receive the sacraments,
and cannot be given Christian burial nor be interred in
consecrated ground. A Mason who desires to enter the Church must
cut all ties with the lodge. A Mason who wishes to marry a
Catholic woman must reveal his lodge affiliation in signing the
pre-nuptial questionnaire.
Excommunication is a drastic penalty but its object is to cure
the offenders and bring them back to the Church. Obviously a
non-Catholic cannot be excluded from the communion of the
faithful to which he does not belong. Masonic jibing at the in
effectiveness of papal excommunication for Protestant and Jewish
Masons betrays a complete misunderstanding of the term. The
Church does not excommunicate Masons. She excommunicates
Catholics who freely elect to worship the Grand Architect of the
lodge rather than the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
In previous chapters we have examined the chief reasons for the
Church's severe attitude toward Masonry. Masonry constitutes a
religion of naturalism which considers the basic Christian
doctrines of the Trinity, the Incarnation, the Atonement, the
necessity of baptism, and the role of the Church in the plan of
salvation to be quite incidental. The lodge furthermore exacts a
series of oaths from its candidates which cannot be called valid
extrajudicial oaths; those who swear such oaths, agreeing to the
most horrible self-mutilation in order to protect a few passwords
and secret grips, are objectively guilty of either vain or rash
swearing. Third, the Masonic order has historically sought to
destroy the Catholic Church and to substitute a purely secular
society. Posing as nonpartisan in religious affairs the lodge
plumps for abolishment of parochial schools, easy divorce laws,
cremation, suppression of religious orders especially the Society
of Jesus, and a separation of Church and State never envisioned
by the framers of the First Amendment. In addition, American
Freemasonry discriminates against Negroes, promotes a spirit of
religious indifference, lends itself to manifold injustices
through preferential treatment of Masons by Masons, and expunges
the name of Christ from lodge prayers and from Bible passages
used in the ritual.
Pope Clement directed his bull In Eminenti (April 28, 1738)
against Francis, Grand Duke of Tuscany, who had sponsored Masonic
lodges within his domain. The bull read in part:
It has become known to us, even in truth by public rumor, that
great and extensive progress is being made by, and the strength
daily increasing of, some Societies, Meetings, Gatherings,
Conventicles or Lodges commonly known as of Liberi Muratori, or
Freemasons or some other nomenclature according to difference of
language, in which men of any religion and sect whatsoever,
content with a certain affectation of natural virtue, are
associated mutually in a close and exclusive bond in accordance
with laws and statutes framed for themselves; and are bound as
well by a stringent oath sworn upon the Sacred Volume, as by the
imposition of heavy penalties to conceal under inviolable
silence, what they secretly do in their meetings.
But since it is the nature of wickedness to betray itself, and to
cry aloud so as to reveal itself, hence the aforesaid Societies
or Conventicles have excited so strong suspicion in the minds of
the faithful that to enroll oneself in these Lodges is quite the
same, in the judgment of prudent and virtuous men, as to incur
the brand of depravity and perverseness, for if they were not
acting ill, they would not by any means have such a hatred of the
light. And this repute has spread to such a degree that in very
many countries the societies just mentioned have been proscribed,
and with foresight banished long since as though hostile to the
safety of kingdoms.
We, accordingly, turning over in our mind the very serious
injuries which are in the highest degree inflicted by such
Societies or Conventicles not merely on the tranquillity of the
temporal state, but also on the spiritual welfare of souls, and
perceiving that they are inconsistent alike with civil and
canonical sanctions, being taught by the divine word that it is
our duty, by day and night, like a faithful servant, and a
prudent ruler of his master's household, to watch that no persons
of this kind like thieves break into the house, and like foxes
strive to ravage the vineyard, that is to say, thereby pervert
the hearts of the simple and privily shoot at the innocent; in
order to close the wide road which might be opened thereby for
perpetrating iniquity with impunity and for other just and
reasonable causes known to ourselves, have determined and decreed
that these same Societies, Meetings, Gatherings, Lodges or
Conventicles, of Liberi Muratori, or Freemasons, or by whatever
other name called, herein acting on the advice of some Venerable
Brethren of ours, Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church, and also of
our own motion, and from our certain knowledge, and mature
deliberation, and in the plenitude of Apostolic Power, should be
condemned and prohibited as by this present Constitution we do
condemn and prohibit them.
Wherefore we direct the faithful in Christ, all and singly, of
whatever status, grade, dignity and preeminence, whether laics or
clerics as well secular as regular, even those worthy of specific
and individual mention and expression, strictly and in virtue of
holy obedience, that no one, under any pretext or farfetched
color dare or presume to enter the above mentioned Societies of
Liberi Muratori, Freemasons, or otherwise named, or to propagate,
foster and receive them whether in their houses or elsewhere, and
to conceal them, or be present at them, or to afford them the
opportunity or facilities for being convened anywhere, or
otherwise to render them advice, help or favor, openly or in
secret, directly or indirectly, of themselves or through the
agency of others in whatever way; and likewise to exhort, induce,
incite or persuade others to be enrolled in, reckoned among, or
take part in Societies of this kind, or to aid and foster them in
any way whatsoever; but in every particular to abstain utterly as
they are in duty bound from the same Societies, Meetings,
Assemblies, Gatherings, Lodges, or Conventicles, on pain of
excommunication to be incurred by all who in the above ways
offend-to be incurred ipso facto without any declaration, and
that from this excommunication no one, except on the point of
death, can obtain benefit of absolution except through Us, or the
Roman Pontiff for the time being.
Communications in 1738 did not encompass the daily newspapers,
magazines, radio, TV, and motion pictures of today, and hence the
Catholic world did not immediately know of the contents of the
bull. According to ancient Church practice a bull was not
promulgated in a given diocese until it is posted and means are
obtained to enforce it. Where Masonry was not yet a problem or
where secular authorities prevailed upon individual bishops the
promulgation was delayed for many years. To add to the confusion
a bogus bull was circulated which asked the faithful to support
the lodges whenever possible!
Consequently we find that some Catholics, particularly in
Ireland, continued to join the lodge after the papal
pronouncement. Some served as Worshipful Masters and some lodges
were composed entirely of Catholic priests and laymen. Even the
Irish patriot Daniel O'Connell served as Master of Dublin Lodge
No. 189 after his initiation in 1799. In 1837 he testified that
he had renounced the lodge some years before. Lord Petre, a
prominent Roman Catholic, became Grand Master of the English
lodge in 1772 and served in this capacity for five years.
Daniel Carroll, brother of the first American bishop, was active
in Masonry and apparently Bishop Carroll did not consider the
papal ban applicable to this country until sometime after 1800.
For example, the bishop discussed the various censures of the
Holy See on the lodge question in a letter to a layman in 1794.
He added, "I do not pretend that these decrees are received
generally by the Church, or have full authority in this diocese."
A convent of nuns in Nantes sent a Masonic apron to George
Washington as a present. Masons laid the cornerstone for St.
Mary's church, first Catholic church in Albany and first
cathedral of that diocese. Catholics in the Louisiana Territory
were likely to be members of the lodge and Father Sedella, pastor
of the New Orleans cathedral, was buried in Masonic regalia.
Clement's successor, Pope Benedict XIV, was equally adamant
against the spreading secret societies, especially Freemasonry.
He asked Maria Theresa, Empress of Austria, to disband the lodge
in Vienna. Police almost arrested her husband, Francis, when they
raided the lodge room but the Duke escaped through a back door.
The captured Masons were detained for a day or two but the lodge
soon resumed underground activities. Benedict issued a second
bull in 1751 reiterating the penalty of excommunication.
Present-day readers may consider some of the papal charges to be
wide of the mark. Masons delight in pointing to distinguished
American statesmen and asking if these are the depraved and
perverted men whom the popes identify. At the same time the only
Catholic Church which Masonic polemicists seem to know at
firsthand is the Church of the Spanish Inquisition. Masons should
remember that these early bulls against the lodge were written
long before the American Revolution. When the popes say "now" in
these bulls they mean the mid-1700's and when they spoke of
Masonry they meant the European Masonry which they knew. That the
charges in these pronouncements blacken the character of the
neighborhood druggist or filling station operator who joined the
local F. & A. M. Lodge to sell more pills or gasoline or just to
get away for an evening with the boys would be a just criticism
if we ignored the time and circumstances. Today, more than two
centuries later, the character of individual Masons is not the
point; Catholics are warned against the enticements of the lodge
but not because the lodge promotes communism or perversion or
subversion or carousing or atheism.
Pius VII (1821), Leo XII (1825), Pius VIII (1829), and Gregory
XVI (1832) issued bulls against Freemasonry and the host of
secret societies which were infesting the continent and thriving
on intrigue, assassination, and subversion. Freethinkers flocked
to the lodges as the natural base from which to attack Church and
State. Today the same sort of person would naturally gravitate
toward the Socialist and Communist parties which promise to
overthrow the present social order. Italian Masonry was disrupted
by feuds and schisms but the chief leaders of the Italian
unification movement were all Masons: Mazzini, Garibaldi, and
Cavour.
Pope Pius IX issued six bulls on Freemasonry between 1846 and
1873 His 1865 Allocution pointed out:
Among the numerous machinations and artifices by which the
enemies of the Christian name have tried to attack the Church of
God, and sought to shake it and besiege it by efforts superfluous
in truth must undoubtedly be reckoned that perverse society of
men called Masonic, which at first confined to darkness and
obscurity, now comes into light for the common ruin of religion
and human society.
Bishop John McGill of Richmond castigated the lodge in a pastoral
letter published in 1884:
(Masonry) professes a great respect for religion, declaring that
only men who respect religion can be members, and it amuses its
members with a display of the Bible and certain prayers and
religious terms, and while it inculcates the belief that the love
of man and mere human virtues are all-sufficient and alone
necessary, and in this manner it more effectually combats
Christianity than can be done by the hosts of immoral and infidel
writers who are openly laboring for its destruction. It is,
mighty in its agency, because it professes to dispose of the
goods of the present life. It places its sword at the entrance of
all the avenues of trade, business and professional life, and
gives the accolade of patronage and success only to those who
have learned its catechism and been initiated through the means
of its supernatural signs. Its influence seriously affects all
who refuse to enroll their names upon its list, upon all the
fields of competition and follows its members with the benefits
of aid and protection upon the battlefields, in the prisons,
before the tribunals of justice and at the hustings. It throws
the veil of concealment over its chief end and its internal
administration by the requirements of a solemn oath of secrecy,
and only makes itself known to the public by its festive
processions with dazzling banners and regalia, and by its
bountiful donations and timely assistance to the widows and
orphans of deceased members.
The notorious Leo Taxil case illustrates the credibility of some
Catholics on the subject of Masonry. Although the hoax was
exposed, some of the fantastic ideas about Masonry linger in
Catholic folklore. Likewise, Masonic partisans point to the Taxil
case as proof positive that the Church's case against the lodge
is built on falsehoods and misunderstandings.
Taxil, a French anticlerical journalist, had written a
sensational pot boiler called Secret Amours of Pius IX and he now
saw another chance to get rich quick and humiliate the Church he
despised. He pretended conversion, recanted his atheist writings,
and was received into the Church. He published a series of books
entitled Complete Revelations of French Masonry in which he
accused the lodges of demon worship, orgies, spiritualism, Black
Masses, etc. Masons were guilty of every crime from ritual murder
to blasphemy according to convert Taxil who added that worship of
Satan was the object of the higher degrees. He claimed that
Charleston, S. C., then headquarters of the Scottish Rite
Southern Jurisdiction, was the fountainhead of diabolical Masonry
with Pike as the Masonic pope. The high priestess of higher
Masonry, a being with supernatural powers who was known as
"Diana," rebelled when Pike commanded her to desecrate a host.
She too authored books on Masonry which were ghost written by
Taxil.
Taxil was acclaimed as an outstanding authority on the inner
workings of Masonry and was featured speaker at an anti-Masonic
congress at Trent in 1896. The 1000 delegates clamored for an
appearance by the mysterious Diana and Taxil promised to produce
her in Paris on Easter Monday, 1897. Instead the anti-Masonic
mountebank astonished his admirers by announcing that his
conversion 12 years earlier was a pretense, Diana a myth, and his
revelations pure fiction.
The unbelievable gullibility of some Catholics in the Taxil case
may serve as a wholesome lesson in examining Masonry. The
Christian case against the lodge will never be served by checking
intelligence and common sense at the door. During the course of
research on this book the author has heard tales of Masonic
doings hardly less incredible than Taxil's famous fabrications.
One clergyman solemnly described the death lottery in which all
33rd degree Masons participate. Every year one name is drawn and
the winner (loser) must agree to commit suicide in the following
year for the greater glory of Freemasonry!
On the other hand, we cannot absolve the Masons for resorting to
wild exaggeration and fables in seeking to discredit the papal
condemnations. For years they circulated the canard that Popes
Benedict XIV and Pius IX had themselves been initiated into the
lodge. Such preposterous stories have been retold in the pages of
the New Age although they have the same sort of historical basis
as the legend of Pope Joan. In a solemn allocution on April 20,
1849, Pius IX referred to the rumor about his Masonic initiation
and denounced it as "the blackest of all calumnies."
One of the greatest modern popes, Leo XIII, was also one of
Masonry's stanches" foes. This has embarrassed those Masons who
argue that only political reactionaries among the hierarchy used
the lodge as a red herring to divert the attention of the people
from needed social reforms. Because of its paramount importance
in understanding the position of the Church on Freemasonry we
have reproduced the encyclical, Humanum genus. In this 1884
encyclical Pope Leo indicates that the human race is divided into
two opposing camps, one under God and the other under Satan. "At
every period of time each has been in conflict with the other,
with a variety and multiplicity of weapons, and of warfare,
although not always with equal ardor and assault. At this period,
however, the partisans of evil seem to be combining together, and
to be struggling with united vehemence, led on or assisted by
that strongly organized and widespread association called the
Freemasons," declared the pontiff. Of course, the Holy Father did
not mean that all Masons are wicked and all Christians, saintly.
He is speaking of the spirit of the Church and the spirit of
Masonic naturalism as unalterably opposed to one another. Pike
replied to the pope's denunciation by delivering a Praelocution
in October, 1884. This consisted mainly in a recital of alleged
horrors of the Inquisition and misdeeds of the Church of Rome.
Said the head of the Southern Jurisdiction of the Scottish Rite,
"If, in other countries, Freemasonry has lost sight of the
Ancient Landmarks, even tolerating communism and atheism, it is
better to endure ten years of these evils than it would be to
live a week under the devilish tyranny of the Inquisition and of
the black soldiery of Loyola. Atheism is a dreary unbelief, but
it at least does not persecute, torture, or roast men who believe
there is a God." Tragically, history and international Communism
have proved General Pike to be wrong.
The General went out of his way to deny any basic distinction
between American and Latin and Continental Masonry:
It is not when the powers of the Papacy are concentrated to crush
the Freemasonry of the Latin Kingdoms and Republics of the world,
that the Masons of the Ancient and Accepted Scottish Rite in the
United States will, from any motive whatever, proclaim that they
have no sympathy with the Masons of the Continent of Europe or
with those of Mexico or of the South American Republics. If these
fall into errors of practice or indulge in extravagances of
dogma, we will dissent and remonstrate; but we will not forget
that the Freemasonry of our Rite and of the French Rite has
always been the Apostle of Civil and Religious Liberty, and that
the blood of Spanish and other Latin Freemasons has again and
again glorified and sanctified the implements of torture, the
scaffold and the stake, of the Papacy and the Inquisition.
In a later reply to the encyclical Pike boasts:
It is the crowning glory of Freemasonry that, requiring only that
a Candidate shall believe and put his trust in a living and
personal God, a beneficent and protecting Providence, to whom it
is not folly to pray; and shall believe in the continued
existence of the Soul of man after the death of the body, it
receives into its Lodges the Christian of every sect the Hebrew,
the Moslem and the Parsee, and unites them in the holy bonds of
brotherhood.
Pope Leo's final word on Freemasonry was delivered in 1902. The
official position of the Church regarding membership in the lodge
was stated in the Code of Canon Law issued by Benedict XV in
1917. Since then the Holy See has been preoccupied with the
immense problems of two world wars, the rise of nationalism,
Fascism, and Nazism, the tremendous advance of atheistic
Communism which has engulfed 800 million people, the
possibilities of H-bomb annihilation. The position of the Church
on Freemasonry could not be made clearer and the recent pontiffs
have not felt the need to restate what their predecessors have
repeatedly declared.
The present Holy Father, however, may have had Masonry in mind in
his 1955 May Day address when he warned, "Laws and institutions
are of little worth if the ordinary man sees in his daily life
that everything depends on influential connections which he,
unlike others, does not possess; or if he suspects that behind
the facade of what is called the State there lies concealed the
manipulations of powerful organized groups."
For more than 200 years the Catholic Church has called attention
to the anti-Christian basis of modern Masonry. What originated as
Catholic guilds engaged in erecting the magnificent cathedrals of
the Middle Ages has become one of the implacable enemies of the
Church. The points on which the lodge stands condemned are not
the peculiarities of the French Grand Orient or other
"schismatic" Masonic bodies. The recent popes, particularly Leo
XIII, were well aware that the bulk of the world's Masons were
English and American. Their lodges have been condemned for their
religious naturalism not their atheism, for their immoral oaths,
for their historic if technically unofficial anticlericalism. As
we shall see, millions of Protestant and Eastern Orthodox
Christians belong to denominations which join in warning against
affiliation with the Masonic sect.
Chapter 8 of "Christianity and American Freemasonry" by William
J. Whalen, published by The Bruce Publishing Company.
Copyright (c) 1996 EWTN
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Further Reading:
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