Original scientific paper
Canon 1374 and the attitude of Catholic church towards freemasons
Juraj Brkan
; Catholic Faculty of Theology, University of Split
Abstract
This article, based on the relevant documents of Church, deals
with:
1. Natura! right of Church to spell canonical sentences to its
members;
2. Canon 1374 of the Code of Canon Law, of the Year 1983 with
its sources and the iter of the procedure of canon 1374;
3. At the end, the article deals with the declaration of the Holy
Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, November 26, 1983.
The Code of Canon Law from 1983 of the Latin Church in its
canon 1374 deals with the associations plotting against Church. The
canon stipulates that the catholic who joins such an association
should be justlv punished, while the one who promotes or is the
leader of such an association should be banned on religious
observance, i.e. interdicted. The sources, which the canon 1374 of the
Code from 1983 is based on, mentioned specificallv the sects of
masons and carbonaros, as well as the legal civil authorities. Our
canon does not mention sects, but generallv says "the association";
neither it mentions carbonaros nor legal civil authorities, as it was
the case in the earlier Church documents. Such an attitude of the
Church after II. Vatican Council raised doubts, especiallv about the
attitude of the Church toward masons. In order to clear doubts, only
one day before the Code from 1983 čame into force, the Holy
Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith had intervened with a Special
Declaration Quaesitum est which stated that Church continued
regarding masons as associations the doctrine of which was
incompatible with the doctrine of the Catholic Church. In
consequence, the punishments dealt with in the canon 1374 of the Code from 1983 refer to masons too, the punishment was especially
stated by the Congregatlon in the Declaration of February 17, 1981,
according to which it is forbidden to take part in the holy
communion, as it is also the case in the canon 915. Since the term
"Catholic" refers to ali the members of the Catholic Church, i.e. being
a member of a masons organisation the believers commit sinns and
as such cannot take part in the holy communion.
Keywords
Catholic Church; Canon Law; masons; punishment; interdiction
Hrčak ID:
38942
URI
Publication date:
20.12.2002.
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