The aristocracy and royalty in England, hasn't had any "problems" with Masonry since its inception! As a matter of fact, every single king of England has not only been the HEAD OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND, but also, *gasp*, a MASON, since its founding there. So have many members of the ardistoctracy!
As a matter of fact, HRH THE DUKE OF KENT has even written the forward to the book FREEMASONS A CELEBRATION OF THE CRAFT, which was published in 2004.
Freemasonry is NOT a religion, nor even "a kind of religion unto itself"; it is and ALWAYS has been a FRATERNAL ORGANIZATION!
There are NO "vestments" ( you consider white tie and tails or black tie and tuxedos to be "vestments", do you ? LOL ), NO "feast days", and the fact that they see ALL men who are of good character and believe in GOD to be equal has always scared the spit out of the Catholic church!
Actually, it was a rabid, tightly titnfoiled wrapped Roman Catholic priest named Abbe Barreul started the ball really rolling, by publishing a tract that declared the Masons and the *gasp...here we go again* THE JEWS were responsible for the French Revolution.
Okay, so the Catholic church's antipathy for the Masons ( NOT THE OTHER WAY AROUND; THE MASONS DO NOT "HATE" NOR DISCRIMINATE AGAINST CATHOLICS ! ) was begun in 1738, by Pope Clement XII, which WAS a political move, rather than a spiritual one.
But gee, lots of Catholics have been Masons; Garibaldi for one and no, he was never excommunicated for being one.
Oh goody......your source used a crazy French NONMASONIC ( the French have had several of them...even one which admitted women, which is a BIG no no in Masonry! )organization as "proof". How splendid.....NOT!
Your entire scurrilous post is so riddled with falsehoods and inaccuracies, that it would be "funny" , if it didn't fuel the lunatic anti-Masonic tinfoilers and just plain old crazies and barking moonbats.
Okay, ugly... CALL OUT THE TROOPS!
Sinkspur was posting the current Catholic point of view about Masons, as he perceived that point of view. As for myself, I don't give a damn, either way, which is why I may be going to hell. Such is life. As a sidebar, I suspect I would find Masonry terminally boring, myself.
Bump.
A soldier is here!
Catholics are still forbidden from joining the Masons, historical inaccuracies in the above post notwithstanding.