Catholicism And Freemasonry

Thoughts about the conflict

Yesterday, I took Melinda to a small town that she’d never visited before. To be honest, it had been an awful long time since I’d been there. The last time was for my niece’s Baptism, twenty-three years ago.

The town hasn’t changed a bit. The little stores are just as I remember them, along with the excellent prices, and the obvious fact that it’s a place that tourists just don’t go.

But the defining feature of the little town is its massive and strikingly beautiful church, right in its center. We wandered around a little bit. I looked at cowboy boots, Melinda bought some Christmas gifts, we had a beer in a real dive bar, and then I decided to show Melinda the Church.

We go up the stairs, push on the door. It’s locked.

That’s strange. I’m not used to Catholic Churches being locked shut. Especially in Mexico, where much of the population is extremely devout.

A lady comes up to us, it’s obvious from her clothing that she’s somehow connected with the Church. She’s trying to explain why the Church is closed. I’m not sure that I got it, something about getting ready for an upcoming event.

St. Michael Archangel, Pitillal, Jalisco, Mexico

I’m good to wander on. I’d seen the Church long ago for my niece’s Baptism, Melinda’s a Protestant by birth, so I often kind of figure that she just goes along with my Church peeping to humor me, and the lady we are talking with is obviously extremely devout, and here I am in my Freemasons of Washington shirt, with a Masonic ring on each hand.

But no, she decides. We’ve got to see the Church.

So she catches the attention of a nun, doing a little work in a little walled courtyard off to the side, I assume part of the cloister. They talk for a minute, then the nun unlocks the gate, lets us in the courtyard, then directs us into the church through a small side door.

The Church was as striking as I remember it, and outside of the norm, as it does not have a crucifix behind the altar.

Most striking though was the human interaction. This extremely pleasant nun, making a special effort to welcome a Freemason from a foreign land. Especially striking in my mind, given that the Vatican has just affirmed its unwillingness to give up its long standing battle against Freemasonry. She didn’t seem to care.

I’ve thought about this situation quite a lot since the Vatican’s latest announcement. Despite it, and all the previous condemnations of Freemasonry, I still consider myself Catholic. I feel like I’ve got a pretty good understanding of the various Protestant denominations and beliefs, but they just don’t do it for me.

It is, I’ve no doubt, because I was born into the Church, and educated by it. It’s just the way I was raised, and I identify with it.

Now of course this is all rather complicated because the Catholic Church spans continents, societies, and is composed of 1.36 billion people. The Church I was raised in in western Washington is different from the Church in Mexico. The teachings and beliefs might be the same, indeed are the same, but it’s just different. Different because the culture is different. I rather prefer the Church here in Mexico, it seems less dry, more vibrant.

So, I guess, I’m a Catholic, through and through.

But, and here is where it gets more difficult, I don’t really consider myself a believer in the Church, as I suppose a believer should be.

I can see evils that the Church committed over centuries (a little Spanish Inquisition anyone) and the evils that might still be ongoing with the sex abuse scandals. I find fault in some Church dogma, and it seems self evident to me that Popes and Councils of Bishops err even when claiming to speak ex cathedra.

And of course, clearly, I think that the Church is wrong about Freemasonry. I can’t believe otherwise, given that many of the very best men I know are Freemasons, and we can and should judge a tree by its fruit.

For me, what it comes down to is that there are two aspects to Catholicism. At least that’s how I look at it.

There is Catholicism as religion, and there is Catholicism as culture.

I don’t think that I could fit into the religion that is Catholicism. Put me down as a Unitarian like so many of our Founding Fathers here in the United States. That seems to me closest to that religion upon which all men can agree.

But culturally, I’m Catholic. I understand it, it’s comforting, and despite acknowledging the evils done in its name in the past, I can also recognize the tremendous good it does in the world.

And that is why as a Masonic leader I see no conflict with the Church, despite leaders of the Church trying to manufacture one.

I can recognize, first of all, that they are misguided. Secondly, I can recognize that probably the vast majority of Catholics around the world probably dissent from one Church teaching or another. It can’t be otherwise, for surely over a billion individuals can’t all agree on anything at all.

To my mind, and for myself, there is no incompatibility between the Church and our Ancient Craft. Hopefully, with the long march of time, the Church will someday realize that, so that this discord can be put behind us.

But, perhaps, as evidenced by the nun, helping the Freemason yesterday, this discord no longer exists anywhere but the fevered imaginations of a few old men in Rome.