The Vatican has confirmed a ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons, a centuries-old secret society long viewed with hostility by the Catholic Church and estimated to have up to six million members worldwide, reports RTE.
“Active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is prohibited, because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry,” the Vatican’s doctrinal office said in a letter published by Vatican media, reports RTE.
The department, known as the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, issued its opinion on Nov 13 and countersigned it in response to a bishop in the Philippines expressing concern over Pope Francis’ growing number of Freemasons in his country.
The same office said last week that transgender people can be baptized, act as godparents and serve as witnesses at Catholic weddings.
The letter on Freemasonry cited a 1983 declaration signed by the late Pope Benedict XVI, then head of Vatican doctrine, which said Catholics “in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion”, reports RTE.
Masonic lodges are generally all-male associations associated with secret symbols and rituals. They have sometimes been associated with conspiracy theories based on their alleged undue influence in world affairs.
According to the United Grand Lodge of England, modern Freemasonry “is one of the oldest social and charitable organisations in the world”, rooted in the tradition of medieval stonemasons, reports RTE.
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