The Vatican office throttles the left-over hope for the Catholics to be Freemasons by backing up the initial ban. On Wednesday, the official doctrine of the Vatican rings a clarion call as a letter shared by the Vatican media houses announces this news. It clearly demarcates the roles and aspirations of a faithful member of the Catholic institution.
Now that it came as a reply to a Philippian bishop who alarmed the Vatican about the growing Freemasonry in his country, the questions are also rising on the legitimacy of Freemasonry. Not only did the letter (countersigned by Pope Frances) highlight the active membership in Freemasonry by the Orthodox members to be prohibitory, but also stemmed its reason to be derived from the contradictory nature of both doctrines.
The Vatican media also disclosed that the principles of Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry are irreconcilable. This office of the Pope bears the authority under the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, which also happens to be the name of this department. It also claimed last week about the baptism of the transgender people. The Vatican nudged for them to be Catholic and serve as godparents besides acting as witnesses at Christian weddings.
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The Original Letter
In 2015, Pope Francis visited the Philippines, where one of the largest numbers of Catholics population is present, but the country is also well-known for its involvement in Freemasonry. One of its Bishops wrote a letter to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith, seeking clerical guidance upon the situation. Consequently, the Dicastery prefect published a response to the letter that confirmed the proposition of Catholics to be ‘forbidden’ from being a part of Freemasonry.
One can find the statement of ban in the 2003 guidelines of the Philippine Bishops Conference and Joseph Ratzinger’s (Pope Benedict XVI) statement of 1983 when he was the Dicastery’s prefect. At the ecclesiastical level, the Dicastery proposed assembling and organizing catechesis lessons in all parishes to describe the incompatibility of Freemasonry in the Catholic Faith. Plus, it advised the Bishop to consult the Bishops Conference of the Philippines, and think of releasing a public statement on the matter.
What is Freemasonry? | Vatican Office Confirms the Ban
According to Britannica, Freemasonry is the secret society for religious teachings and practices with fraternal order (an organization founded on certain ideologies) of Free and Accepted Masons. The motto here signifies the belief of all of its members in a Supreme Power and calls them to rely their trust upon the “Grand Architecture of the Universe”.
Freemasons don’t subscribe to orthodoxy or Catholic religion in general, but they have never banned Catholics from joining Masonic traditions to date. Today, many people scattered worldwide subscribe to this notion, but it originally resided in the British empire. The members of this tradition usually wear a ring that symbolizes their consistent connection with their fraternity (brotherhood).
However, the United Grand Lodge of England terms the current day’s Freemasonry to be influenced by the medieval traditions of stonemasons, and also denotes it as one of the oldest social, charitable, and influential foundations in the globe. Did you know that Masonic lodges mainly consist of male-only members? A point to note here is that the group claims the existence of female lodges with thousands of its female backers, too. These societies are also a source of multiple conspiracy theories linking their activities to impact global events but in a veiled manner.
Famous Freemasons from the Past
- Prince Philip, husband of the late Queen Elizabeth.
- Alf Ramsey, the former soccer manager of England
- Winston Churchill, a former Prime Minister
- Rudyard Kipling, the famous author
- Peter Sellers, the late actor
- Arthur Conan Doyle
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