Former President Joe Biden, who is Catholic, joined a historically black Freemason lodge just one day before he left the presidency, an offense punishable by excommunication in the Church.
Biden was conferred with “Master Mason membership” and “full honors” on Jan. 19 at the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of Free and Accepted Masons of the State of South Carolina, according to the Conference of Grand Masters announcement. Joining the Freemasons as a Catholic forbids an individual from receiving communion, with the potential for excommunication, according to canon law of the Catholic Church.
“Herefore, 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,” the statement reads.
Parish Hall Freemasonry, which takes the name of its founder, is a historically black sect of Freemasonry founded in 1775 by freed African slaves, according to the lodge’s page. Biden is now the 16th president in American history to become a Freemason, according to MasonicFind.
The Freemasons are a secret fraternal society that offers fellowship to the men who join, which includes secret rituals and customs, according to Britannica. The masons require that members profess a belief in a “supreme being,” but are not explicitly Christian.
Before a revision in 1983, the Catholic Church prescribed automatic excommunication to anyone who joined the Freemasons, according to the canon law. However, the revision does not mention the organization by name and instead bars an individual from receiving communion or otherwise punishes someone “who joins an association which plots against the Church,” according to current canon law.
The Archdiocese of Washington and the Diocese of Wilmington did not immediately respond to questions on whether Biden would face excommunication, be actively barred from receiving communion or any other punishment for the act.
The Conference of Grandmasters did not immediately respond to the Daily Caller News Foundation’s request for comment.
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