Hi Chris,

Thank you for your long and thoughtful comments about my article on Freemasonry and the Catholic Church. What I mean by saying that the Catholic Church “misunderstands” Freemasonry is that they choose to ignore relevant information despite its vast resources. As vast as its resources are, Church is only willing to look at precedent. Some sources suggest that the Church originally banned Freemasonry for Catholics for political reasons, but I can’t confirm that, so I didn’t put that in the article.

That the Catholic Church is not likely to change its position soon is unfortunate, but I don’t see any reason that should stop me from saying my piece on this. I’ve disseminated this article so that not only Freemasons read it — but also people in Catholic groups can read it as well. If those Catholics don’t like it, so be it.

With all the voices in the Catholic press saying that Freemasonry is a “naturalistic religion” — when it is nothing of the sort — Catholics deserve the opportunity have read about Freemasonry from another point of view. Like you, I know many Catholics who are Freemasons and many Catholics who take the Church’s teachings “cafeteria Catholic,’ as you say in your comments.