A Brief History
On March 13, 1825, Pope Leo XII published an apostolic constitution called Quo graviora, a church law that forbade Catholics from becoming Freemasons. His order confirmed earlier papal edicts and was confirmed again in 2023.
Digging Deeper
The current status for any Catholic joining the Freemasons is that those “who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.” Apparently the secret rites of Freemasonry are what Catholics object to.
Freemasonry goes back to perhaps 1599 or as recently as the 1700s and is an organization of people that want to improve themselves and do good works, its origins perhaps in Scotland. A belief in a “deity” is a mandatory requirement of those joining the order, although no particular religion is required for membership.
Many prominent people have been Masons, including 15 US presidents, most recently Gerald Ford.
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Historical Evidence
For more information, please see…
Hodapp, Christopher. Freemasons For Dummies. For Dummies, 2021.
Stevens, Selwyn. Unmasking Freemasonry: Removing the Hoodwink. National Library of New Zealand, 2017.
The featured image in this article, a portrait drawing of Leo XII, is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
You can also watch video versions of this article on YouTube.
