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The history of Freemasonry encompasses the origins, evolution and defining events of the fraternal organisation known as Freemasonry.It covers three phases. Firstly, the emergence of organised lodges of operative masons during the Middle Ages, then the admission of lay members as "accepted" (a term reflecting the ceremonial "acception" process that made non-stone masons members of an operative ...
An example is the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany, a member church of the Evangelical Church in Germany. It recognizes Freemasons among its members and sometimes the Masons hold public ceremonies in the historic St. Michael's Church, Hamburg .
However, the European Grand Orient Lodge of Masons, established primarily in Italy and France, is still considered anti-Catholic or, at least, atheistic," and that "the CDF 'let it be known that Catholics joining the Freemasons are no longer automatically excommunicated. The Church's new attitude has been in effect for more than a year.'
The Vatican has confirmed a ban on Catholics becoming Freemasons, a centuries-old secretive society that the Catholic Church has long viewed with hostility and has an estimated global membership ...
Freemasonry is the oldest fraternity in the world and among the oldest continued organizations in history. [4] Modern Freemasonry broadly consists of two main recognition groups: Regular Freemasonry, which insists that a "volume of sacred law", such as the Bible, the Quran, or other religious scripture be open in a working lodge, that every ...
The Letter to U.S. Bishops reiterated the Church's ban on all types of Freemasonry, [5] attaching reports analyzing the religious compatibility of Masonic and Catholic theologies. It is notable that it concentrated on the "naturalistic" beliefs of Freemasons rather than their alleged anti-clerical activities. [citation needed]
Freemasonry had developed in England in the seventeenth century, but after 1715 had split into Jacobite and Hanoverian lodges. The lodge in Rome was Jacobite (pro Stuart) and mainly Catholic, but admitted Protestants, while that in Florence was Protestant Hanoverian but also admitted Catholics and atheists who supported the Whig position.
Perhaps the most remarkable example of masonic resistance was the creation of the Liberté chérie Lodge within Esterwegen concentration camp in 1943. Founded by seven Belgian Freemasons on November 15, 1943, this lodge managed to hold ten meetings between its founding and 1944 [38]. The lodge conducted full masonic ceremonies, including an ...