CATHOLICS & THE MASONS
A few months ago I heard of a very public person and a Catholic who had joined the Masons. Someone inquired of me as to whether the Catholic Church had changed its position toward the Freemasonry, and I assured them, the Church in fact had not changed its stance at all. Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict the XVI have made it clear that Catholics are forbidden to join the Masons. Pope John Paul II issued the statement below through then Prefect for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope Benedict XVI.
On Nov. 26, 1983, with the approval of Pope John Paul II, the Sacred Congregation reiterated the ban on Catholics joining the Masons: “The Church’s negative position on Masonic association … remains unaltered, since their principles have always been regarded as irreconcilable with the Church’s doctrine. Hence, joining them remains prohibited by the Church. Catholics enrolled in Masonic associations are involved in serious sin and may not approach Holy Communion.” However, neither this declaration nor the 1983 Code of Canon Law imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics belonging to the Masons.
Declaration on Masonic Associations (Quaesitum est)
(English Translation of a Latin Document from the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith Nov. 26, 1983)
“It has been asked whether there has been any change in the Church’s decision in regard to Masonic associations since the new Code of Canon Law does not mention them expressly, unlike the previous code.
This sacred congregation is in a position to reply that this circumstance is due to an editorial criterion which was followed also in the case of other associations likewise unmentioned inasmuch as they are contained in wider categories.
Therefore, the Church’s negative judgement in regard to Masonic associations remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and, therefore, membership in them remains forbidden. The faithful, who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.
It is not within the competence of local ecclesiastical authorities to give a judgment on the nature of Masonic associations which would imply a derogation from what has been decided above, and this in line with the declaration of this sacred congregation issued Feb. 17,1981. [1]
In an audience granted to the undersigned cardinal prefect, the Supreme Pontiff John Paul II approved and ordered the publication of this declaration which had
been decided in an ordinary meeting of this sacred congregation.
Office of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Nov. 26, 1983 Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Prefect
PARISH KITCHEN: NEW EQUIPMENT
The parish has recently acquired a new, 10-burner gas stove with two ovens and a new Hobart dishwasher for the parish hall kitchen. These two necessary purchases were made possible solely by the fundraising efforts of our Parish Social Committee who, through various sales, breakfasts and largely from the proceeds of the parish bazaar, raised enough funds for the stove and dishwasher and for the good of the parish at large. Previously our parish was reliant on two very used and unreliable stoves and ovens that had already been and would continue to prove costly for repair. The dishwasher washes dishes at high temperature in 76 seconds flat with a 22 second rinse. On behalf of all parishioners of St. Leo Parish I wish to extend our appreciation, admiration and thanks to the tireless efforts of our Parish Social Committee – all of them women! (Come on men; you’re allowed to join and get involved too, you know!)
Our parish Knights of Columbus plan to purchase a large gas griddle for the parish as well which will nicely complement all of our new items. Thank you to the Knights of Columbus of our parish and their great work for the community and the parish.
CORNERSTONE MEN’S HOSTEL: THANK YOU ST. LEO PARISH!
We have received a letter on behalf of the Cornerstone Men’s Hostel in Oshawa for the great generosity shown through the various clothing and toiletry items given at Christmas time benefiting the men who live on the streets and are reliant on the basic clothing items of socks, gloves, etc. as well as personal hygiene products. They Hostel expressed their thanks to those who gathered the items, delivered them and to the Knights of Columbus of our parish who helped take the items to the hostel and who donated $500.00 to Cornerstone. This kind of outreach is a lived response to the justice called for through the Gospel.
A ST. LEO PARISH CHRISTMAS
Throughout the Christmas season our parish church looked stunning with red poinsettias, green boughs, wreathes, trees, sparkling lights and the large, substantial manger scene donated by a family in Pickering. Once again the Hotner’s of Hotner Greenhouse donated many and multi-coloured poinsettias adorning the sanctuary along with the other flowers purchased by the parish through the generous giving of our parishioners who contributed through the special Christmas Flower envelope. The church was set up and decorated by a relatively small group consisting of David Forget, Mrs. Paula Podesta and her son, Matthew, John Forget, Sandra Johnson, myself, (Fr. C) and Tom and Joan Barker, our parish custodians. One parishioner asked me if we had hired professional decorators, and I’d say we are pretty professional! We’ve really set the bar for what the church can look like not only at Christmas but this coming Easter as well.
Thanks to all who contributed through offerings, labour, generosity and love. (Fr. Charles)
EPIPHANIES
Christmas will soon be over, at least the Church’s celebration of it is coming to an end, while its meaning and message shall never cease to summons and speak to our living. As I always say about the Christmas message each year, the meaning of Christmas could be summed up in one word – passion! God showed his passion for his people, of all time and place, to be with us, to dwell among us. His passion was to come down to our level and live among us, hoping that we would somehow return the favour according to our own individual response to grace.
The Feast of the Epiphany speaks of the Magi coming to the manger scene with their strange gifts, totally useless for the birth of a baby. One can imagine Mary saying to them, as they unpack their precious treasures of baby shower gifts, “Did anyone consider just bringing some diapers?” Yet these gifts were meant just as much for you and me as they were for Mary, Joseph and the infant Jesus. They symbolize who this babe was to become – the long awaited Messiah – Gold, because he was a king, incense, because he was a priest, and Myrrh, (a funeral spice), because he, the Messiah, would die.
I say that it is a message for us because we too are supposed to, are meant to, must, have our own epiphanies. If God desired and desires still to be “with us”, what would be the point if he was no where to be seen in our lives? We are supposed to experience the living God who has come to dwell among us through the power of the Holy Spirit.
I think about the many and varied epiphanies in my own life – those times when God either so clearly made something manifest to me or the times when I felt God was winking at me.
I was thinking the other day about Christopher Hitchens, the self-proclaimed “anti-theist” and his recent debate in Toronto with former British Prime Minister, Mr. Tony Blair. As Fr. Ken Lewis, who writes for the Catholic Register put it, “Tony Blair shouldn’t have entered into a debate with an old street scrapper like Mr. Hitchens”. At any rate, one of the things Mr. Hitchens said was, “I can’t believe in a god who creates you sick and demands that you be well”. Mr. Hitchens is a smart man, at ease in debate and smooth in his delivery. This line heard in the ears of those who already don’t believe or at least question God and the good of any religion, makes a strong point and could easily be viewed as a great rebuttal in the face of the likes of many a Christian speaker who would pale in comparison to Mr. Hitchens. (Where’s Fulton Sheen when you need him?) I’ve given the matter a great deal of thought and am led to think that the missing link in what Mr. Hitchens holds and defends is…. experience, epiphany.
If God were to appear to any of us in the awesomeness of God, we would scarce be able to grasp it or explain it to ourselves in our own minds much less in words to others. In my own life, particularly in my personal call to the priesthood, I have had several powerful epiphanies; manifestations of God where I just knew it was God and other-worldly. No one can fully understand what another person experiences, but those same experiences for the one who receives them require no approval, understanding or belief from others. Yes, I was raised as a practicing Catholic in a family that went to church every Sunday, but the faith I was presented with, even as a young child, was confirmed in my own personal experiences of God and God’s love for me – I didn’t make them happen, they happened to me.. From them I just knew God was real, alive, in me, with me and led me to know that there was far, far more I didn’t know than I thought I knew about Him.
I know of a man who encountered great change in his own personal life and that of his family through the subtle revelations he received in his Christian journey. His name is Fr. Paul Acton and he is now a Roman Catholic priest and lives in Barrie with his family.
Fr. Paul Acton had his own “epiphany” when he felt God calling him to the Catholic Church. Long before that, Paul, being raised as a Baptist, had sensed the call to serve God as a Baptist Minister, and this he did for nine years. His Baptist background didn’t leave much room or liking for Roman Catholics, and in his call to serve the Lord as a minister, he could never have imagined where one epiphany would lead to the next, much less to the door of the Catholic Church. But it did.
Paul, a quiet, intellectual family man began to discover that there was a Church that existed after the death and resurrection of Christ that is commonly known as the Early Church. These were the times when the Church wrestled with what Christ wanted them to do, what they were to believe and how they were to exist in the world. This Early Church had sacraments, called themselves ‘Catholic’, had bishops and seemed to have a clear structure. Paul began to ask himself, “Where is that Church now?”, and his gaze was shifting slowly toward Rome. Yet, how could this be for him since he was a Baptist who doubted that Catholics could or would even go to heaven? Eventually his epiphany, his realization of what God was leading him to, led him to leave the Baptist Church, and so after nine years of service as a Baptist Minister, he and his family hit the road on the journey of faith once again, stopping off in the Anglican Church. The Anglicans received him and his family with open arms and he was ordained an Anglican priest and served in that capacity for another five years. But he wasn’t home yet, he would say. Eventually, through the manifestations of God through the power of that awesome Holy Spirit, Paul was led to the door of the Catholic Church, and at Easter in the late 1990′s, he and his wife, Marjorie, and their four children were all received into the full communion of the Catholic Church.
A star led shepherds, (the lowliest) and kings (the exalted of the earth) to the same place – the manger – where Christ Jesus lay sleeping in a trough used for feeding cattle. He would become the One who would feed the world with his own body and blood in the Eucharist, being born in Bethlehem, a town whose name means, “house of bread”. The Bread of Life being born in the House of Bread. It is through the epiphanies of ordinary life that we glimpse and know that which seems to at first seem unknowable. Epiphanies, as they were for the wise men and the poor shepherds, are personal invitations from God to experience the incredible, sometimes even in me.
(Fr. Charles)