Die Freimauer und die katholische Kirche. Vom geschichtlichen Überblick zur geltenden Rechtslage (review)

The first grand lodge of modern Freemasonry was established in London in 1717, with the recognition of the first lodge in the United States following in 1730. Shortly thereafter, the earliest of what would be many condemnations of the Freemasons by the Catholic Church ensued with the publication in 1738 of the bull In eminenti apostolatus specula of Pope Clement XII. To this day, the complex history of relations between the Catholic Church and the Freemasons continues to develop. Scholarly works that address this subject matter are not as plentiful as one would expect. The present volume adds a welcome contribution to that important body of work.

The volume under review is a slightly modified version of a doctoral dissertation presented to the Catholic Faculty of Theology at the University of Bochum in 2008. As such, the works reads very much like a well-crafted dissertation, with concise, densely worded pages and more than 1000 helpful footnotes to lead the reader to further sources. The bibliography is extensive, beginning with an excellent listing of ecclesiastical sources and concluding with a solid, although not exhaustive, presentation of available scholarly works, most written in German.

Klaus Kottmann divides his work into two major parts. The first discusses the original, diffusion, and self-understanding of the Freemasons. The benefit of this introductory section is the succinct manner in which the author presents the history of the Freemasons along with the rituals and structure found in the organization today. The downside to this approach is that the wide-ranging number of issues treated in the section allows the author to present only the most salient points about each. For instance, the establishment of the Freemasons in the United States is discussed in barely three pages. This leaves the reader to seek out other sources to fill in the gaps, although the author provides some possibilities. Additional sources are not difficult to find, since numerous other authors have covered most of the information in this section, including many who write in English.

The second section makes an important contribution to the particular study of ecclesiastical law and Catholic membership in Freemasonry. Kottmann first discusses the numerous papal bulls, synodal norms (including those of the Council of Baltimore in 1866), and conciliar declarations up to 1917. He then considers the Pio-Benedictine Code of Canon Law of 1917, although only in some fifteen pages. A more elaborate examination of the canonical developments that have taken place since the promulgation of the revised Code of Canon Law of 1983 concludes this part of the work. Of special interest here is the analysis of scholarly reactions to the 1983 Declaration of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith on Catholic membership in Freemasonry.

For those interested specifically in the position of the Catholic Church on the tenets of Freemasonry and membership in the organization, this work will serve as a necessary complement to the few others available. For the reader who desires merely a general introduction to the history and tenets of Freemasonry, other works are available in English that will fulfill that need better than the present volume.