Msg Base:  AREA 5  - ASK FATHER            CIN ECHO   AMDG
  Msg No: 254.  Mon  3-09-92 22:14  (NO KILL)  (MAILED)
    From: Father Mateo
      To: Desiree Wayne
 Subject: Freemasonry

+-
| Is membership in freemasonry still prohibited? If so why? What other
| secret organizations does the church frown upon?
+-[DW=>F]
 
Dear Desiree,
 
Here is the:
 
Declaration on Catholic membership in the Masons,
issued Nov. 26, 1983 by the Vatican's Doctrinal Congregation.  An NC
News translation of the declaration follows:
    "The question has been raised whether the church's position
    on Masonic associations has been altered, especially since
    no explicit mention is made of them in the new Code of Canon
    Law, as there was in the old code.  This sacred congregation
    is able to reply that that circumstance is to be attributed
    to a criterion adopted in drafting.  This criterion was ob-
    served also in regard to other associations which were like-
    wise passed over in silence, because they were included in
    broader categories.  The church's negative position on Masonic
    associations therefore remains unaltered, since their principles
    have always been regarded as irreconcilable with the church's
    doctrine.  Hence joining them remains prohibited by the church.
    Catholics enrolled in Masonic associations are involved in
    serious sin and may not approach Holy Communion.  Local
    ecclesiastical authorities do not have the faculty to pronounce
    a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which might
    include a diminution of the above-mentioned judgment, in accord-
    ance with the intention of this congregation's declaration deliv-
    ered Feb. 17 1981 (cf. AAS 73 (1981) pp. 240-241).  The supreme
    pontiff John Paul II approved this declaration, deliberated at
    an ordinary meeting of this sacred congregation, and ordered
    it to become part of public law."  The declaration was signed
    by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect, and Archbishop Jerome
    Hamer, OP, secretary.
    Msgr. Richard Malone, director of the National Conference of
    Catholic Bishops' Committees on Doctrine and on Pastoral
    Research and Practices, commented on the Vatican's declaration
    on Catholic membership in the Masons.  He explained that the
    new Code of Canon Law abolishes automatic excommunication of
    Catholics who become Masons, though there still is a canon, No.
    1374, on conspiratorial societies.  "Membership in the Masons
    was always discouraged, even in 1974 when it was stated that
    the excommunication only applied to truly anti-Catholic groups
    of Masons,"he said. "The problem seems to be both the philosophy
    of the groups and the kind of secrecy."  People get involved at
    lower levels without knowing exactly what is involved at higher
    levels.  This may leave people who joined innocently "open to
    manipulation." But, said Malone, "one wonders if many Masonic
    groups in the United States are real Masonic groups since some
    make the case that a) there is not the degree of secrecy about
    rituals and philosophy, and b) there are no anti-Catholic
    directions given to the members."  Malone said no law is retroactive.
    Commenting on the declaration's statement that Catholics who join
    the Masons are presumed to be in mortal sin, he said: "The authority
    to make a different judgment and to decide that the case is otherwise
    is explicitly reserved to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the
    Faith.  This congregation has to examine whatever evidence is
    presented for a more lenient discipline."
 
Catholics may not in good conscience become members of any group whose
teachings a/o activities are opposed to the teachings and well being of
the Church.
 
                                Sincerely in Christ,
 
                                Father Mateo