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Although many Protestant denominations do not prohibit or discourage their members from joining Masonic lodges, nor have they issued any position papers condemning Freemasonry, other churches have formally opposed Masonry and spoken of the problems they see with Christians belonging to Masonic lodges.
The Catholic Church, some Protestant denominations, and certain Islamic countries or entities have expressed opposition to or banned membership in Free-Masonry. Opposition to Freemasonry is sometimes rooted in anti-Semitism or conspiracy theories, [8] [9] and Freemasons have historically been persecuted by authoritarian states. [10] [11]
Freemasons usually take a diametrically opposite view, stating that there is nothing in Freemasonry that is in any way contrary to Catholicism or any other religious faith. Whether Freemasonry is anticlerical often depends on how anticlericalism is defined and which branches of Freemasonry are being referred to.
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 was an important catalyst in the founding of the Knights of Columbus and the Knights of Peter Claver in the United States [131] and the Knights of the Southern Cross in Australia, because one of the attractions of Freemasonry was that it provided a number of social services unavailable to non-members (e.g., devout Catholics). [132]
Freemasonry in the United States is the history of Freemasonry as it was introduced from Britain and continues as a major secret society to the present day. It is a fraternal order that brings men together (and women through its auxiliaries) to gain friendship and opportunity for advancement and community progress.
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 ...
The term protestant, though initially purely political in nature, later acquired a broader sense, referring to a member of any Western church which subscribed to the main Protestant principles. [18] A Protestant is an adherent of any of those Christian bodies that separated from the Church of Rome during the Reformation, or of any group ...