How is it the Catholic Church knows the nature of Freemasonry in a way more so than Freemasonry itself?
“Freemasonry considers all religions of the world as mere competitive attempts to know God, who remains unknowable. Consequently, to say that Christianity is the true religion would be unacceptable in Freemasonry,” the CBCP states, adding that the Masons promote relativism, meaning no one can claim to possess a truth in an absolute way, and deism or that man is no longer accountable to God and becomes the master of the world, so one cannot speak of divine providence or revelation.
This comes from a broader story in the Business World Weekender, out of Manila, Philippines, about the Clash of the two dogmas.
The Broader context of the story speaks to the recent rift between the Church and Freemasonry in the Philippines in the recent refusal to grant the late Quezon Governor Rafael Nantes, who because of his status as a Freemason and Born Again Christian, was denied a Catholic burial last May.
The events are singular and isolated, a Church official refusing to administer what he believed to a born-again Christian and a Mason who did not repent.
“Canon 1184 states, that Church funeral rites are to be denied to ‘notorious apostates, heretics and schismatics’ unless they showed some signs of repentance before death,” as reported and told by Bishop Emilio Marquez of Lucena to UCA News.
Any armchair scholar of Freemasonry is well aware of the divisions between the church, even up to as recent as Cardinal Ratzinger re-affirming the disdain towards the fraternity in Quaesitum est, approved by John Paul II in 1983.
Taking the edict several steps further, the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines declared in 1990 that funeral rites will be denied to any Catholic who belonged to any Masonic association, unless there was some sign of repentance before death.
Is it worth making the argument against their position that: “Freemasonry considers all religions of the world as mere competitive attempts to know God, who remains unknowable” or does that sum up a good point of its outlook?
Does the absence of declaring a religion as absolute declare insist no one is, especially in a morally enlightened (and based) organization?
If God cannot be known, then how do you know even that God cannot be known.
To assert that he is unknowable—you must know something very basic about God!
I don’t buy it pal.
I myself being born and raised into the Catholic religion and being raised in Los Angeles where there’s a multitude of religions being served have to agree with this article. I find it unfair and Anti-Catholic in itself to forbid one a proper restful burial merely because of religious arrogance due to choosing to join a fraternal order where many of all religions meet to coincide. Yes it’s true, God until this day remains unknowable and each religious order should respect the boundaries of all religions or else it fails to comply with its own laws to not be discriminative amongst ones neighbor. There is several ways to reach salvation not just through Catholicism and to think otherwise is mere arrogance, discrimination and ignorance. For more than 10 years I’ve stalled joining Freemasonry because of this issue to comply with Catholicism’s Canon Laws. If a Freemason is reading this please be generous to email me and inform me of how I may join a lodge. I’ve visited lodges before but stalled for many years due to being tied to my religion. I am an open-minded individual and I would like to finally join Freemasonry if permitted. I live in the Los Angeles inner-city area. enriquez.rene@live.com
Phenoemnal breakdown of the topic, you should write for me too!
can you remove my email address listed on the previous comment i left above? thank you…
best regards
re