[I-ambush]

What I have read about the Freemasons would indicate that the lower degrees are not privy to the real purposes of the organization. I agree that none of the Masons I have met have any hint of the demonic. Nevertheless, great popes of the past(unlike our current pontiff) have universally condemned the organization and levied the penalty of excommunication for joining.

[bdfromlv]

the catholic popes decreed that no good catholic could keep a secret from a priest and masons had secret words and hand shakes so the pope made the knights of Columbus so that good Catholics would have a fraternal organization to belong to.