Expert: Not all Freemasons were opponents of the Church

There were not always conflicts between the Church and the Freemasons, says one expert. In the 18th and 19th centuries, there were also many priests, monks, abbots, bishops and even cardinals who were themselves members of a Masonic lodge, explained the Catholic priest and theologian Michael Heinrich Weninger in an interview with the Croatian political magazine "Express" (Tuesday).

The problem, according to Weninger, is that there are several different Masonic grand lodges in Italy, some of which are willing to engage in dialogue with the Church, while others actively work against it. Unfortunately, the Italian model of freemasonry is often wrongly applied to the whole world. "Another mistake is the lack of differentiation within the Masonic community itself," said the theologian. The church also lacked differentiation. For centuries, it had regarded Freemasonry as a unit instead of recognising the different traditions within the community.

Mistakes from both sides

Weninger is a former Austrian diplomat who was ordained a priest by the now retired Viennese Cardinal Christoph Schönborn following the death of his wife in 2011. The theologian has researched this topic and argued in favour of reconciling the Church and regular Freemasonry in his dissertation published by the Pontifical Gregorian University in 2019. During his research, he was particularly touched by the experiences of Freemasons who were practising Catholics: Some were banned from attending church services by the bishop himself; in another case, a dying man was denied anointing of the sick because he belonged to a Masonic lodge. "That shook me to the core. I asked myself what kind of church I was living in," says the theologian.

However, there were also times when both sides made mistakes. "On the one hand, some Freemasons persecuted Catholics; on the other, the Church imprisoned and excommunicated innocent Freemasons," i.e. excluded them from the ecclesiastical community, according to the expert. This meant that both sides had a moral obligation to clear up historical misunderstandings and strive for reconciliation. "The regular lodges always had a spiritual dimension, while the irregular lodges such as the Grand Orient de France developed an atheistic and anti-clerical approach."

Church maintains incompatibility

Over time, however, people within the church have realised that there are not only lodges that are at odds with the church, but also others that share its moral values, according to the expert. "Today, this diversity is increasingly recognised, but the historical perception of freemasonry as a threat to the church is still present. This is precisely why many myths and prejudices persist, and dialogue between the Church and Freemasonry remains a challenge, but it is possible and necessary."

However, the official line of the Church continues to emphasise the incompatibility between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry. The head of the Vatican's Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernandez, signed a document at the end of 2023 in which he reaffirmed the Church's rejection of Freemasonry, which was last laid down in 1983 in a declaration by the former Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, then headed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger. (KNA)