Explaining Catholicism VS Freemasonary to a non-Catholic

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A girl I work with was wondering what was so bad about Freemasonry and I tried explaining to her why a Catholic cannot be a Freemason but she is not Catholic so can anyone help me out here in explaining why no one should be a Freemason and not just from a Catholic point of view?

Thank you and God Bless!
Mike
 
Listen to Tuesday’s Catholic Answers Live with guest Patrick Madrid

catholic.com/radio/shows/open-forum-13140

Also, Tim Staples has had some good explainations regarding this.

Finally, you have to keep in mind that it’s typically not the local lodge in America that’s a problem. It’s more their blood oaths, their idea that no religion is wrong, international leadership, and their past actions against the Church in Europe.

If you search for “mason” on Catholic Answers’ website you will find other resources:
8 more radio shows
4 blog entries
3 magazine articles
etc.

God Bless
 
Cajun_Papist said:
A girl I work with was wondering what was so bad about Freemasonry and I tried explaining to her why a Catholic cannot be a Freemason but she is not Catholic so can anyone help me out here in explaining why no one should be a Freemason and not just from a Catholic point of view?

Thank you and God Bless!
Mike
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Hi Mike,
The Lutheran Church Missouri Synod holds a similar view to that of the Catholic Church.
**Lodges, Fraternal Organizations and Fraternities **

Q: What is the Synod’s view of membership in lodges, fraternal organizations and fraternities?
A: It has consistently been the position of The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod throughout its history that membership in fraternal lodges is incompatible with membership in a synodical congregation.
Bylaw 3.925 of the Synod’s Handbook summarizes the rationale for the Synod’s longstanding position on the lodges: “Pastors and laypeople must avoid membership or participation in any organization that in its objectives, ceremonies, or practices is inimical to the Gospel of Jesus Christ or the faith and life of the Christian church.” The Commission on Theology and Church Relations has prepared detailed discussions of the reasons for the Synod’s opposition to membership in various lodges. They may be found online at
lcms.org/ctcr.
There are fraternal organizations (e.g., Kiwanis, Lions Club) or community clubs that do not have the objectionable features of the lodges in their rites, ceremonials, and membership requirements. There are generally no objections to membership in such organizations. Since there are so many college fraternities, and since their membership requirements vary, the Synod’s Commission on Theology and Church Relations has advised that judgments must be left to individuals based on the particular case.

Usage: We urge you to contact an LCMS pastor in your area for more in-depth discussion.
Published by: LCMS Church Information Center

©The Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod
1333 S. Kirkwood Road, St. Louis, MO 63122-7295
888-843-5267 • infocenter@lcms.org • www.lcms.org/faqs
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Jon
 
Based on my understanding: Freemason started out as a fraternity of intelligent and educated men coming together to share ideas, build, and contribute to society, and they had done this (should not take this away from them). However, over time, this fraternity and its members started to put themselves on a certain pedestal, and feel, based upon their collective knowledge, they have the authority and understanding to create their own beliefs/faiths outside of Catholicism and Judaism (pulling in from other sources such as paganism, gnosticism, mythology, hinduism, and so on), thus not compatible. Resulting in the Freemasons creating a “cult-like church”.

One cannot be a Freemason without indoctrinating themselves into their beliefs/faith; however, this group DOES NOT have the authority on divinity which governs this, that authority has been given to the Catholic Church (through Lord Jesus Christ) and Torah/Judaism (through Moses); thus, with regard to divinity - they’ll just keep getting it wrong and it will be detrimental to the soul.

Here is a metaphor, the Freemasons are a group of lawyers (some of the best) trying to learn how to perform medical surgery (heart surgery, and so on) from their law books (wrong source), and from time to time put what they’d learned (from their law books) into practice and performed a medical procedure - disastrous. But being that they are great lawyers they rationalize all they do as great - megalomanic, and convinced others likewise.

If the Freemasons just leave divinity alone, and focus on academics/science, things might just start getting better, because they do have a number of intelligent, talented, and influential members.

In summary, Freemasons turned into a cult-like church with erroneous beliefs/faiths.
 
The Church forbids membership in ALL secret societies.

In a secret society, you take an oath (make a promise) to uphold and promote ideals that you are not informed about when the promise is made (this knowledge is deliberately withheld from you until after you commit, thus you do not know what you are committing to).

I don’t think someone has to be Catholic to have a problem with such a system.

The Church has no objection to Catholics participating in non-secret (and non-Catholic) fraternal societies such as the Elks.
 
My father was three time Grand Master of the local Masonic lodge.

Freemasonry admits all men as long as they believe in a god of some kind. When a dispute arises between two Freemasons of different faiths about some matter of faith, the Freemason must submit to what Freemasonry says.

A Catholic however, believes that the Church was established as God’s legitimate authority on earth with regard to matters of faith. Our savior says, “No man can serve two masters” (Matthew 6:24) and a Catholic therefor, cannot submit to both authorities. A Catholic must choose one or the other, but cannot choose both.

There are other reasons but this is the one I could not get past. Freemasons do much good in the world, but it is incompatible with Catholicism and so I did not join.

-Tim-
 
As a Mason, I am curious as to your objections. Why would you discourage from someone joining a fraternity that is dedicated to doing good?

The issues are one sided. Masonry is silent on religion beyond that Mason’s can’t be atheists and that during meetings we are encouraged to pray in whatever manner we see fit (we use the generic Presbyterian term of Grand Architect of the Universe to avoid any discussions).

Religion and politics are divisive and therefore are forbidden to be discussed, so the earlier mention that when two disagree over a religious issue is moot as both would be asked to leave if such a discussion was brought up in Lodge. No man’s religion is the concern of another.
 
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