Crash course on Francmasonry please!

[Alma]

I am afraid a close relative is considering becoming a Mason. :bigyikes:
I told him he would be automatically excomunicated by the Catholic Church -I even made him read the statement issued by the Vatican-. He challenged me to prove him that the Masons are enemies of the Catholic Church and want to destroy it.
Where can I find good, reliable information about this?

Thank you in advance!
:tiphat:
Alma

 

[BibleReader]

Alma:

I am afraid a close relative is considering becoming a Mason. :bigyikes:
I told him he would be automatically excomunicated by the Catholic Church -I even made him read the statement issued by the Vatican-. He challenged me to prove him that the Masons are enemies of the Catholic Church and want to destroy it.
Where can I find good, reliable information about this?

Thank you in advance!
:tiphat:
Alma

Just tell him to listen to the Masons.

I was given a tour of the Scottish Rite Temple in Collingswood, New Jersey, several years ago. There a Mason described how the men being initiated into the Masons participate in full-uniform skits recollecting how the Roman Catholic Church in the 14th Century cruelly disbanded the Knights Templar organization and stole their property, so that the Knights were forced to retreat to Scotland and reform themselves as the secular Masons.

“That is why we are so opposed to the pope and popery,” he argued.

In truth, the Knights were a Church order formed to protect the highways and biways of the Holy Land after the First Crusade. When the Holy Land was seized back by Islam, the Knights lost their purpose. In effect, they were suddenly just a fabulously rich Church-owned “corporation” making money hand over fist with nothing else to do.

The Church, not the Knights, was the owner of the Knights Templar property. The Church decided to disband the Knights and distribute their lands to the Kingdoms in which they were found. It was the Church’s prerogative to do so. These anti-Church skits the Masons put on are inane and unjust, and just cultivate anti-Catholic prejudice.

 

[Lillith]

TY for this info. Biblereader! It just so happens that my daughter asked me what’s wrong with the masons yesterday…

The Church says no doesn’t work with a 15yr. old! TY

 

[AuntMartha]

You can read about it here too:

catholic.com/thisrock/1993/9306qq.asp
(Scroll to the bottom of the page.)

The Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was explicit in the 1917 code of canon law (canon 2335), and it is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374).

Because the revised code of canon law is not explicit on this point, some drew the mistaken conclusion that the Church’s prohibition of Freemasonry had been dropped. As a result of this confusion, shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983 and may be found in Origins 13/27 (Nov. 15, 1983), 450.

 

[RikasAngel]

Hello All,

The Best resource is Christianity and American Freemasonry by William Whalen. More sensaonalist titles are Behind the Lodge Door by Paul Fischer and Freemasonry: Mankind’s Hidden Enemy by Charlesn Madden.

 

[wcknight]

Advise him to join the Knights of Columbus instead. Is is far more Catholic than the Masons and is fully acceptable by the Church.

You do have to be 18 or older to join, but some councils have “Squires” circles for teenagers and younger kids…

 

[Psalm45_9]

My understanding of why the Church is against freemasonry is not because it thinks that freemasonry is a cult, but because the teachings of freemasonry are not in line with the teachings of the Catholic Church.