[sinkspur]

Another issue to consider is their involvement in secret societies like Skull&Bones or the Masons. That also puts them in a state of mortal or grave sin therefore ex-communicating themselves.

Membership in the Skull and Bones is the equivalent of belonging to a fraternity. There is no moral prohibition against being a member.

Catholics are discouraged from belonging to the Masons due to their anti-Catholic stance. Being a member is problematic, and could be sinful.

[pascendi]

"Catholics are discouraged from belonging to the Masons due to their anti-Catholic stance. Being a member is problematic, and could be sinful."

No Catholic is permitted to be a member of Freemasonry, ever. Nothing has changed. It's not that it is discouraged; it's disallowed.

From a letter of Pope Leo XIII on December 8, 1892 to the Italian people:

"Let us remember that Christianity and Freemasonry are essentially incompatible, to such an extent, that to become united with one means being divorced from the other. Let us, therefore, expose Freemasonry as the enemy of God, of the Church and of our Motherland."

Leo XIII's 13th of October 13, 1884 vision of the future of the Church occurred exactly 33 years prior, to the day, to the miracle of the sun at Fatima.

[scot taylor]

THE MASONS ARE ALSO A FRATERNAL ORGANIZATION. Organizations that are shrouded in secrecy as well as having an obligation to them before the church are forbidden. Skull @ Crossbones is such an organization.

[Grey Ghost II]

We pray and beseech you, Venerable Brethren, to join your efforts with Ours, and earnestly to strive for the extirpation of this foul plague, which is creeping through the veins of the State. You have to defend the glory of God and the salvation of your neighbor; and with this object of your strife before you, neither courage nor strength will be wanting. It will be for your prudence to judge by what means you can best overcome the difficulties and obstacles you meet with. But as it befits the authority of Our office that We Ourselves should point out some suitable way of proceeding, We wish it to be your rule first of all to tear away the mask from Freemasonry, and to let it be seen as it really is; and by sermons and Pastoral Letters to instruct the people as to the artifices used by societies of this kind in seducing men and enticing them into their ranks, and as to the depravity of their opinions and the wickedness of their acts. As Our predecessors have many times repeated, let no man think that he may for any reason whatsoever join the Masonic sect, if he values his Catholic name and his eternal salvation as he ought to value them. Let no one be deceived by a pretense of honesty. It may seem to some that Freemasons demand nothing that is openly contrary to religion and morality; but, as the whole principle and object of the sect lies in what is vicious and criminal, to join with these men or in any way to help them cannot be lawful.

Humanum Genus

[corpus]

"Catholics are discouraged from be onging to the Masons due to their anti-Catholic stance. Being a member is problematic, and could be sinful."


COULD be sinful??? Membership is problematic??? The 1917 code states membership in a Lodge is explicitly penalized by excommunication (canon 2335. Excommunication is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374). Shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983 and may be found in Origins 13/27 (Nov. 15, 1983), 450.

How many times does the church have to teach it is a mortal sin and an incurrs automatic excommunication for you to get it? See the other posts for quotes from popes. Not "could be problematic or sinful", but IMPOSSIBLE to be a Catholic and a Mason. What part of the word "impossible" don't you get?