The Masons: What the Church says

The ad goes something like this: "I’m Bob (or whatever). I’m a doctor. I have kids who play soccer. I go to church. And I’m a Mason. That’s right. Plain old me. A Mason."

The ad goes on to say that the Masons are an organization dedicated to charity. The ad goes on to list many of the successful people who were Masons: Gerald Ford, John Wayne, etc.

Yet, for over two hundred years, the popes of the Roman Catholic Church have written encyclicals warning Catholics away from Freemasonry. So what’s the big deal? Paul Fisher covered it in a document called Their God is the Devil: Papal Encyclicals and Freemasonry.

The message: Clearly the Roman Catholic Church does not agree with the Freemasons. The Church does not allow Catholics to join the Freemasons. Also the Church warns Catholics to stay away from any known Freemasons. In his encyclical, In Eminenti in 1738, Pope Clement XII says," We have resolved and decreed to condemn and forbid such societies, assemblies, reunions, conventions, aggregations, or meetings called either Freemasonic or known under some other denomination."

He was the first pope to write about Freemasons, but not the last. Pope Leo XIII in 1884 said that Masons propagate religious indifferentism, limit Christian influence in society, have attempted to obliterate the papacy, and finally tried to regulate education in order that they might erase any mention of Jesus Christ or God. According to Fisher, the Masons are responsible for disposing of American laws that upheld Christian beliefs in the years of 1941 through 1971. The Masons did this by filling the Supreme Court’s bench with Masonic Justices. Some Masons have written heretical documents in which they actually claim Christ was not crucified. They claim that the only true crucifixion was OF a Mason BY members of the Catholic Church. Okay.

I must admit that I am somewhat skeptical of the idea of Freemasons being responsible for so many revolutions in so many countries. Fisher’s document reads like the ultimate conspiracy theory. He says the Freemasons were the ones behind the American Revolution, Communism, and even President Kennedy’s assassination.

I do believe my Church though. If so many popes wrote on this issue, then the Freemasons must truly be evil. I must take the Church at its word on this since the Masons are a secret society. Without becoming one, it is difficult to understand exactly what they are all about. In addition, there are some Catholics who say only the top Masons truly understand what is going on.

It boils down to this. There are many things the Church teaches that I agree with, believe and understand. There are things in the world, however, that I do not know. If the Church tells me something regarding one of those things, I’m going to go along with it. Because the Church has not led me astray in any other areas.

Oh, as for that list of successful people who are Masons, I can think of some other successful people I would NOT like to associate myself with. Jim Morrison (drug addict rock star dead at 27), Bill Clinton (Monica, Jennifer, Kathleen, etc.), Fidel Castro (He’s a communist, but he’s successful at it). My point: success does not equal morally good.

Tristan Mosmeyer
April 8, 1998

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