Joe Biden ‘conferred’ membership of the Freemasons in South Carolina

(LifeSiteNews) — Former President Joe Biden has had membership of the Freemasons “conferred” upon him, despite Catholic teaching firmly prohibiting joining the Masons and the automatic excommunication for doing so remaining, quietly, in place.

One day before Donald Trump was inaugurated as President, Joe Biden attended a “private ceremony” in South Carolina to become part of the “Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of South Carolina.”

As noted by the Freemasons themselves, in a ceremony on January 19 “Master Mason membership with full honors were conferred upon President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. in recognition of his outstanding service to the United States of America.”

The Masons cited Biden’s actions as President as an explanation for the membership:

WHEREAS, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. has demonstrated exceptional dedication and service to the United States of America.

WHEREAS, his service reflects the core values of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of South Carolina, including brotherly love, relief, and truth.

WHEREAS, President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. contributions have significantly benefited the citizens of the United States of America;

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that I, 27th Most Worshipful Grand Master, Victor C. Major, on behalf of the members of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of South Carolina, hereby confer membership upon President Joseph R. Biden, Jr. in recognition of his outstanding service to the United States of America.

It is not clear whether Biden was made to undergo any of the customary initiation rituals, such as those exposed by undercover journalist Kyle Clifton.

Joe Biden has regularly touted his Catholic faith while in office, despite advocating for a number of issues which contradict teachings of the faith, such as abortion and LGBT issues.

Can a Catholic join the Masons?

As LifeSiteNews has extensively published, being its own universal religion, Freemasonry has long set its hostility against Christianity, and the Catholic Church in particular.

READ: Everything you need to know about Freemasonry’s core teachings

The Catholic Church has consistently and firmly forbidden Catholics from joining the Freemasons. Pope Clement XII’s 1739 papal bull, In Eminenti, judged Freemasonry so serious a matter, and membership in it so dangerous, that he imposed an automatic excommunication, latae sententiae, on any Catholic who joined the freemasons.

Pope Leo XIII wrote in Humanum Genus that Freemasons have as “their ultimate purpose…the utter overthrow of that whole religious and political order of the world which the Christian teaching has produced, and the substitution of a new state of things in accordance with their ideas, of which the foundations and laws shall be drawn from mere naturalism.”

Excommunicated or not?

However in recent years, especially following the publication of the 1983 Code of Canon Law, such clear pronouncements have become rarer, leading to questions about whether the Church still imposes the penalty of automatic excommunication. Despite this confusion, the teaching remains constant.

In the Vatican’s 1981 Declaration Concerning Status of Catholics Becoming Freemasons, the Vatican reaffirmed the prior teaching on joining the Freemasons, based on renewed questions on the topic, noting that the excommunication and all penalties remained in place for Catholics who became Masons. The 1981 text from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) reads:

the present canonical discipline remains in full force and has not been modified in any way;

consequently, neither the excommunication nor the other penalties envisaged have been abrogated.

The 1983 Code removed the clear language of the 1917 Code which noted the automatic excommunication.

However, following the new Code, the Vatican published a note in 1983, approved by Pope John Paul II, which stated that there had been no change in Church teaching on joining the Masons. It read: Therefore the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden.

The 1983 note added that “The faithful who enrol in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion.”

Subsequently in 1985 the Vatican text “Irreconcilability of Christian Faith and Freemasonry” reiterated the Church’s position, noting the “irreconcilability between the principles of Freemasonry and the Catholic faith.”

With Freemasonry growing in the Philippines, the bishops there wrote a text in 2002 on the matter. Drawing from the teaching of the Vatican’s 1983 note, the bishops wrote that:

“Any Catholic who is a convinced member of Freemasonry, notoriously adhering to the Masonic vision, is already considered excommunicated latae sententiae (Cf. Canon 1364). As such, the censures described in Canon 1331 automatically take their full effect on this person.”

They formally issued the text in 2003, noting the automatic excommunication of any “convinced member of Freemasonry, notoriously adhering to the Masonic vision.”

Most recently, the CDF issued a note in 2023, again addressing the question of Freemasonry in the Philippines. Written by Cardinal Victor Fernández and approved by Pope Francis, the text re-iterates teaching of the CDF’s 1983 note – which in turn drew from the 1981 note which outlined the automatic excommunication. Fernández also re-iterated the teaching of the Philippine Bishops own text from 2003, another document which outlined the automatic excommunication. He wrote:

(a) On the doctrinal level, it should be remembered that active membership in Freemasonry by a member of the faithful is forbidden because of the irreconcilability between Catholic doctrine and Freemasonry (cf. Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Declaration on Masonic Associations” [1983], and the guidelines published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines in 2003). Therefore, those who are formally and knowingly enrolled in Masonic Lodges and have embraced Masonic principles fall under the provisions in the above-mentioned Declaration. These measures also apply to any clerics enrolled in Freemasonry.

The question now remains as to what the Catholic bishops in the U.S. will do in response to Biden’s membership of the Freemasons. Given that he is a member of a South Carolina lodge, it raises questions of jurisdiction about which bishop should respond, since Biden does not live in the state.

But given the reticence of the U.S. episcopate to directly address Biden’s public support for abortion and homosexuality during the course of his presidential term, it appears unlikely that the Catholic former president will face formal repercussions.