Freemasons requesting Catholic funerals ‘is no coincidence’: Report examines alleged push for dual membership

The New Daily Compass, an Italian conservative Catholic website, reported this week that Freemason lodges are working to recognize dual membership with the Catholic Church for some members, with the latest efforts being two attempts for high-profile Freemasons to be given Catholic funerals at churches in Italy. 

Editor-in-Chief Riccardo Cascioli reported Aug. 11 that the two requests for the funerals were “almost granted.” A funeral was scheduled for Aug. 7 for Freemason musician Bruno Battisti D’Amario at the Santa Maria Basilica in Montesanto, Rome, but it was canceled at the last minute by Rome’s vicar, Cardinal Baldassare Reina, according to Cascioli. He pointed to a separate report recounting that the La Bussola learned about his Freemason affiliation, and inquired to the Church about the planned funeral. Father Don Fabrizio Maria Gatta told the outlet that D’Amario’s daughter asked the Church for the funeral. 

“To be honest, we didn’t even know he was a Freemason. I’m just learning that from you,” the priest told the outlet, according to an automated English translation of the Italian report. 

He added, “Clearly, given this situation, I’ll have to notify the rector of the Basilica, Monsignor [Bishop] Antonio Staglianò, because this situation shocks me.” He noted that he didn’t think the funeral could be canceled but at least the D’Amario family could be asked “to not allow Freemasons with their banners into the church.” 

The basilica rector consulted the Rome diocese’s legal office and his immediate superior Cardinal Reina; ultimately, the cardinal denied authorization for the funeral Mass. 

Less than 24 hours after the cancellation, Bishop Antonio Suetta of Ventimiglia-Sanremo canceled the scheduled funeral of a different Freemason, Mario Tarducci, who was going to have the funeral rite at a church in Sanremo. The diocese issued a statement announcing the cancellation especially in light of the similar situation that had just taken place in Rome, noting that the Masonic affiliation was discovered only after the funeral had been scheduled. 

The Church has taught for centuries that Freemasonry is incompatible with the Catholic faith and that Catholics cannot be Freemasons. Cascioli argued that the Freemasons could be viewing the Catholic funeral as a first step toward allowing Freemasons access to the sacraments. 

“It is easy to assume that the Catholic funeral, which is not a sacrament and is now granted to anyone in the name of human compassion and the principle of 'let God be the judge', was conceived as a first step towards allowing Freemasons to receive the sacraments and normalising their presence in church,” Cascioli wrote. 

Bishop Staglianò, who is rector of the basilica, has previously engaged in dialogue with Masonic leaders, prompting controversy, among some including The New Daily Compass, for having alleged sympathy for the Freemasons’ position on possible reconcilability more so than the Church’s doctrinal approach to the issue.

However, the bishop, who is also president of the Pontifical Academy of Theology, told Vatican News in February 2024 after participating in a seminar with Masonic leaders that Catholic teaching remains the same: Catholics cannot be Freemasons, and Catholics who join Freemason lodges are in grave sin and cannot receive the Eucharist, as the Vatican reiterated in 2023. He also outlined several significant differences in the Masonic view of God, charity, and fraternity, in comparison to Catholic belief. 

“Freemasonry represents a heresy that fundamentally aligns with the Arian heresy,” Bishop Staglianò said at the time. He noted that Arius saw Jesus as a “Great Architect of the Universe,” and Freemasonry holds a similar belief about the Supreme Being of the Universe, effectively denying Christ’s divinity. 

The Council of Nicaea, which convened to respond to the Arian heresy, thus “emphatically affirms the truth about Jesus: begotten, not made; God from God, Light from Light, true God from true God,” Bishop Staglianò added. 

He also noted a 2023 statement issued by the Vatican Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirming that Catholics may not be Freemasons. However, a separate New Daily Compass report alleges that at the seminar with the Masonic leaders, the bishop criticized this document “because it is reductive, it remains on the level of doctrinal confrontation,” according to the report.