Lodge and altar

This book is the expanded, improved, and illustrated new edition of the dissertation "Wisdom. Strength. Beauty: On the Reconciliation of the Catholic Church and Regular Freemasonry." The relationship between the Catholic Church and Freemasonry has historically been marked by misunderstandings, prejudices, and hostilities. It is high time to achieve reconciliation. Can this finally succeed? The book by Austrian Vatican diplomat and priest Michael Weninger provides encouraging answers to this question. The author explored all essential sources from the Vatican as well as the Austrian and German Freemason archives for the first time. On November 27, 1983, the new canon law of the Catholic Church came into effect, which no longer included the excommunication that had been imposed for centuries on Catholics who were also members of the Freemason brotherhood, and it did not condemn Freemasonry with a single word. Therefore, the declaration of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on November 26, 1983, just one day before the new canon law came into force, hit like a bombshell, stating that the "judgment of the Church regarding Freemasonry remains unchanged," and thus the excommunication for Catholic Freemasons would continue to exist. Confusion, disappointment, and bitterness on one side, and unabashed glee on the other, were the consequences that have not truly been overcome to this day. However, it does not have to remain this way. Michael Weninger's book corrects old misjudgments and points to new paths.