Declaration Concerning Status of Catholics Becoming Freemasons

The Declaration Concerning Status of Catholics Becoming Freemasons is a February 1981 declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) under Cardinal Franjo Šeper which restated the Catholic Church's prohibition against Catholics becoming Freemasons. It contains three points of "confirmation and clarification" about "erroneous and tendentious interpretations" of a leaked 1974 private clarification, on interpretation of 1917 Code of Canon Law canon 2335, from the CDF to episcopal conferences: "canonical discipline remains in full force and has not been modified in any way" "neither the excommunication nor the other penalties envisaged have been abrogated" the intention of the 1974 letter was to remind about "the general principles of interpretation of penal laws for the solution of the cases of individual persons which may be submitted to the judgment of ordinaries" and not "to permit Episcopal Conferences to issue public pronouncements by way of a judgment of a general character on the nature of Masonic associations, which would imply a derogation from the aforesaid norms".

Source: Wikipedia — Declaration Concerning Status of Catholics Becoming Freemasons (CC BY-SA 4.0)