Should Biden Be Excommunicated for Joining the Masons? by Phil Lawler 

By Phil Lawler, Catholic Culture, Feb 05, 2025

Phil Lawler has been a Catholic journalist for more than 30 years. He has edited several Catholic magazines and written eight books. Founder of Catholic World News, he is the news director and lead analyst at CatholicCulture.org.

On January 19, the final day of his presidency, Joe Biden was presented with a “resolution of membership” in the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of South Carolina. News of the presentation came from the Lodge, not the White House, and to date Biden himself has offered no comment on the event. But when the story emerged, it prompted a flurry of questions among Catholic commentators. Had Biden violated the Church’s strict rule that Catholics may not become Freemasons? If so, could he be excommunicated for the offense?

Since the 18th century, when Masonic lodges emerged as a significant social force in Europe, the Catholic Church has condemned the movement, with several Roman Pontiffs explaining that the teachings of Freemasonry are incompatible with the Catholic faith and destructive of objective morality. Pope Leo XIII, writing in Humanum Genus (1884), pointed to the liberal campaigns to make marriage a simple civil union, and to eliminate parental authority over their children’s religious training; he concluded; “If these be taken away, as the naturalists and Freemasons desire, there will immediately be no knowledge as to what constitutes justice and injustice, or upon what principle morality is founded.” …

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