Catholics, since 1738, are under penalty of excommunication, incurred ipso facto, and reserved to the pope, strictly forbidden to enter or promote in any way Masonic societies. Under the 1917 Code of Canon Law (CIC), also referred to as the Pio-Benedictine Code, which was promulgated on 27 May 1917[1] and took legal effect on 19 May 1918. It was in force until the 1983 Code of Canon Law took legal effect and abrogated it on 27 November 1983, Catholics associated with Masonry were: automatically, i.e., latae sententia, excommunicated, deprived of marriage in the Catholic Church, excluded from Catholic associations, deprived of Catholic funeral rites, invalidated from novitiate, invalidated reception of personal jus patronatus (right of patronage), with additional penalties against clergy, religious, and members of secular institutes.
Canon 2335 of the Code of Canon Law (1917) declares that “Those who join a Masonic sect or other societies of the same sort, which plot against the Church or against legitimate civil authority, incur ipso facto an excommunication simply reserved to the Holy See.”
Canon 1399 prohibited Masonic books:
8.° Books that argue the liceity of dueling, suicide, or divorce, and those that in discussing masonic sects and other societies of this sort argue that they are useful and not pernicious to the Church and civil society;
Canon 2335 of the CIC/17) referred explicitly to masonic associations. When the new Code of Canon Law was published in 1983, no mention was made of the traditional penalty of excommunication of Catholics who joined the Masonic Lodge. Today, however, this may be covered if they endeavor indeed to conspire against the Church.
This omission led some Catholics and Freemasons, especially in the United States, to believe that the ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons might have changed, and caused confusion in the church’s hierarchy. Many Catholics joined the fraternity, basing their membership on a permissive interpretation of Canon Law and justifying their membership by their belief that Freemasonry does not plot against the Church.
Clarification concerning the status of Catholics becoming Freemasons was a February 1981 letter from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reiterating the Church’s prohibition on Catholics becoming Freemasons. However, this document received little publicity.
1981 Declaration on Masonic Associations
“It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church’s decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous Code.
“This Sacred Congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance in due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.
“Therefore, the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
“It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the Declaration of this Sacred Congregation issued on 17 February 1981 (cf. AAS 73 1981 pp. 240-241)”.
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger then issued the November 26, 1983 document which reaffirmed the historic position against Freemasonry.
1983 Declaration on Masonic Associations
Pope John Paul II specifically approved the 1983 Declaration on Masonic Associations from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
In an audience granted to the undersigned Cardinal Prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this Declaration which had been decided in an ordinary meeting of this Sacred Congregation. Rome, from the Office of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, 26 November 1983.
In 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued Quaesitum est, a Declaration on Masonic Associations, which reiterated the Church’s objections to Freemasonry. The 1983 declaration states that “faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion. … the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association(s) remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. CDF 1983 “stipulated that neither” CDF 1974 nor CDF 1981 “allowed an individual bishop or bishops’ conferences to permit Catholics to belong to masonic lodges.
The Catholic Church abrogated and replaced 1917 CIC with the present 1983 CIC, which took effect in November 1983. 1917 CIC canon 2335 developed into 1983 CIC canon 1374. Unlike the abrogated 1917 CIC canon 2335, however, 1983 CIC canon 1374 § 1 does not name any groups it condemns; it states:aq `
“A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; one who promotes or takes office in such an association is to be punished with an interdict.”
§ 2 “Offence. To promote or direct an association of the type mentioned above. The director or promoter has greater responsibility, and is therefore guiltier and subject to a more severe penalty.
Penal Sanction. Determinate mandatory censure — interdict — that is ferendæ sententiæ [refers to anexcommunication. The phrase means that the sentenced is to be passed at a later time].
On December 6, 1964, Pope Paul VI, at Vatican Council II made it easier for Roman Catholics who had joined the Freemasonry to be reconciled with the Church. All one had to do was to go to Confession to any priest, explaining the reasons for his membership in the Masons, and ask for absolution. Previously, membership in a lodge was considered a reserved sin which caused automatic excommunication, which could only be absolved by a bishop or the Pope.
The Catholic Church uses two parallel codes of canon law: the 1983 CIC in the Latin Church of the Catholic Church and the 1990 Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches (1990 CCEO) in the sui iuris Eastern Catholic Churches of the Catholic Church. 1983 CIC canon 1374 and 1990 CCEO canon 1448 §2 are parallel canons. 1983 CIC canon 1374 differentiates between being a member of a forbidden association and being an officer or promoter but 1990 CCEO canon 1448 §2 does not.
Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) Reaffirms that Catholics Cannot be Freemasons
The Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith (DDF) released on Nov 15, 2023, Dicasterium Pro Doctrina Fidei Note for the Audience with the Holy Father reaffirming that Catholics are forbidden from becoming Freemasons.
The new document signed by Pope Francis and DDF Prefect Cardinal Victor Fernández was written in response to a bishop from the Philippines who had expressed concern at the growing number of Catholics in his diocese who are taking part in Freemasonry and asked for suggestions for how to respond pastorally.
The dicastery’s response, dated Nov. 13, 2023 calls for “a coordinated strategy” involving all of the bishops in the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines to promote catechesis “in all parishes regarding the reasons for the irreconcilability between the Catholic faith and Freemasonry.”
The Freemasons are the largest worldwide oath-bound secret society. Freemasonry promotes ideas and rituals incompatible with the Catholic faith, including indifferentism, or the position that a person can be equally pleasing to God while remaining in any religion, and a deistic concept of a “Great Architect of the Universe.”
The Vatican document reaffirms that “those who are formally and knowingly enrolled in Masonic Lodges and have embraced Masonic principles” fall under the provisions of the Catholic Church’s 1983 “Declaration on Masonic Associations.”
The 1983 declaration, signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger when he was prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, declares that Catholics who enroll in Masonic associations “are in a state of grave sin and may not receive holy Communion.”
The new DDF document further clarifies that these measures “also apply to any clerics enrolled in Freemasonry.”
The dicastery invites bishops in the Philippines to consider making a public statement on the Church’s teaching on Freemasonry.
“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,” the DDF document says.
“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,” it adds.
The Catholic Church’s prohibition on Freemasonry dates back to Pope Clement XII, who formally condemned it in a papal bull in 1738.
Dicasterium Pro Doctrina Fidei Note for the Audience with the Holy Father
13 November 2023
The Request of His Excellency, the Most Rev. Julito CORTES, Bishop of Dumaguete (Philippines) Regarding the Best Pastoral Approach to Membership in Freemasonry by the Catholic Faithful
Recently, His Excellency, the Most Rev. Julito CORTES, Bishop of Dumaguete, after explaining with concern the situation caused in his Diocese by the continuous rise in the number of the faithful enrolled in Freemasonry, asked for suggestions regarding how to respond to this reality suitably from a pastoral point of view, taking into account also the doctrinal implications related to this phenomenon.
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.
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.
Ex Audientia die 13.11.2023
Franciscus
Víctor Card. Fernández
[1] The Code of Canon Law (Latin: Codex Iuris Canonici) was promulgated by Pope Benedict XV. For the most part, it applied only to the Latin Church except when “it treats of things that, by their nature, apply to the Oriental”, Such as the effects of baptism (canon 87). It contained 2,414 canons.