Centuries of Secrecy

How, in Catholic Italy, could a secret, traditionally anticlerical organization like the Freemasons flourish?

The answer may lie in the fact that during centuries of oppression--foreign and home-grown--secret societies were a means of popular resistance to authority. The Mafia, for instance, came into being under feudal rule in Sicily. In the 19th century an underground society called the Carboneria fought to get rid of Austrian rule. Similarly today, in an Italy that has been threatened by Communism, neo-Fascism and terrorism, many an idealistic Italian has been tempted to join a secret group with the avowed aim of improving society. The apparent aberration of P2 aside, there are believed to be about 30,000 Masons in Italy, with more than 500 chapters, out of a worldwide body of some 6 million to 8 million.

Freemasonry, an Anglo-Saxon creation first transplanted to Florence in 1733, was soon under attack by the Catholic Church. The Masonic principles of nonsectarianism and ab stract belief in a "Great Architect of the Universe" were viewed as an intolerable threat by Pope Clement XII, who issued the first papal edict that ordered excommunication of any Catholics who became Masons. Masons were often regarded as subversive political freethinkers by the Italian principalities. By the mid-19th century, in fact, many of the most prominent nationalist leaders of the Italian risorgimento were Masons. Among them: Giuseppe Mazzini and the notoriously antipapal Giuseppe Garibaldi.

After Italy was unified in 1861, Masonry was tolerated for more than half a century. In 1925, however, Benito Mussolini suppressed the organization. After World War II, Masons were again allowed to assemble, although anti-secrecy provisions of the new Italian constitution required that membership lists be made available to authorities upon request. Today even the church's position toward Masonic organizations appears to have mellowed. In March the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, declared that excommunication should apply only to those Catholics who belong to associations that are "truly plotting" against the church.

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