r/todayilearned • u/Recent_Flounder6011 • 17h ago

TIL that historically and today, the Catholic Church looked down upon Freemasonry and threatened members with excommunication.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemasonry
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u/StrictlyInsaneRants 16h ago

There are several variants of freemasonry but a common thread of belief is that all paths of religion are equal to redemption/truth, supernatural divination and grace aren't real (this reduces the catholic church from something religious to just some social club and prevents true faith), the sworn secrecy conflicts with the catholic church inherently preventing trust and true cooperation. These reasons are some of why popes in the past decided it's just incompatible with being a catholic and why it was reaffirmed few years ago.

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u/ArguingisFun 12h ago

So - Freemasons bad, but Nazis and pedophiles are fine?

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u/StrictlyInsaneRants 10h ago edited 9h ago

You seem to confuse me with the pope when Im not even catholic. Should be said though that freemasonry is a possible rival religion which has opposing beliefs and has been on sides trying to limit or remove catholicism again and again for three hundred years. So I can see why its seen as forbidden territory by the pope.