Sunday, April 24, 2005
NOT A CRIME BUT A SIN
"Axel Pohlmann Reports on Discussions Between Freemasonry and the Catholic Church"
That is the title of an article online taken from the current issue of "Freemasonry Today" - Issue 31, edited by Michael Baigent.
Read the article and you will learn that Catholic priests and laymen met with a representative of German masonry in November 2003 after a period of silence that began in 1980. That silence had followed a period of "friendly and open discussions between representatives of German and Austrian masonry and of the churches" of Austria and Germany which had "led to a declaration of good will, instigated by the Viennese Cardinal Konig, and then carried to Rome to influence the new Code of Canon Law."
The article is correct in stating that the new Code of Canon Law, issued in 1983, does not specifically mention Masonic Lodges. Provision 1374 states: "A person who joins an association which plots against the Church is to be punished with a just penalty; however, a person who promotes or directs an association of this kind is to be punished with an interdict."
However, Cardinal Ratzinger clarified the passage with a declaration issued on Nov. 26, 1983 which reads in part: "the Church's negative judgment in regard to Masonic associations remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and, therefore, membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful, who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion."
Now, according to the article, two experts in Church law have rendered an opinion that contradicts Ratzinger's statement:
A Jesuit priest, Dr. Reinhold Sebott, professor of Church Law in Frankfurt, together with the director of the legal department of the Hamburg archdiocese, Klaus Kottmann, reported on the history of the difficult, sometimes violent, and always uneasy, relationship between Catholicism and Freemasonry, and on the current situation.
It certainly came as a surprise to many listeners that both Catholic law experts hold the clear view that a Catholic's membership of a masonic lodge does not necessarily mean that he is not on good terms with his church. It seems important enough for Catholics all over the world to quote their result literally:
1. The Code of Canon Law as amended in 1983, in contrast to its predecessor, no longer threatens a Catholic who is a member of a masonic lodge with ecclesiastical sanction.
2. The declaration of the German bishops of 1980 on the incompatibility of membership of the Catholic Church with masonic membership was extended to the whole Church by the corresponding declaration of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith in 1983.
3. These declarations mean that a Catholic's membership of a masonic lodge seems to be impossible and thus is disapproved on a moral, not necessarily criminal, basis.
4. Only by examining the individual case may the Church shed light on whether this Catholic by his convictions fulfils other criminal offences such as heresies or apostasies which might lead to consequences.
5. But when a Catholic in his conscience comes to the conclusion that the prohibition of membership (incompatibility) pronounced by the official Church is wrong, this decision must be respected by the Church.
The article concludes with the analysis that the "statement is based on the dictinction between a crime (a violation of church law) and a sin (a violation of moral law, in this case as defined by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith). As church law does not specifically forbid masonic membership, and the law must be strictly interpreted, there can be no crime in being a member of a lodge..."
Perhaps Dr. Sebott and Klaus Kottmann could be persuaded to take up a career in politics full time and leave both the Church and the Lodge in peace. No wonder Catholics join the Lodge thinking they are doing so in good conscience.
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UPDATE
For the correct story on Catholics and the Lodge, go here
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