[Catholic Caucus] Fr. Murr recounts long battle to expose Freemasonry within Vatican

LifeSite News ^ | November 13, 2026 | LifeSite News Staff

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[Catholic Caucus] Fr. Murr recounts long battle to expose Freemasonry within Vatican

Fr. Charles Murr explained at the Rome Life Forum how documentation was presented to Pope Paul VI that an archbishop who was also a Freemason 'was creating our new Mass and our new sacraments.'

Father Charles Murr discussed during this week’s 2026 Rome Life Forum the extensive Freemasonic infiltration of the Vatican as he witnessed it unfolding in the 1970s, the subject of his best-selling book Murder in the 33rd Degree: The Gagnon Investigation into Vatican Freemasonry.

During his talk, Fr. Murr recounted how, in 1974, while studying in Rome as a lay student, he met and befriended then-Archbishop Édouard Gagnon. Around the end of that same year, the priest explained that an unknown priest gave Cardinal Dino Staffa, the prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, documents showing that Archbishop Annibale Bugnini was a member of an Italian Masonic lodge that would be substantiated and how it set off a chain of events leading to Gagnon investigating the entire Roman Curia for ties to Freemasonry.

“The priest came to him with documentation, according to the priest, proof of Annibale Bugnini … being a member of the Masonic Lodge of Italy … and he brought him documentation of that,” Father Murr said. “And very prudently he got in touch immediately with the Interpol and asked them to do an official investigation of the evidence, of these documents (to find out) were they in fact legitimate.”

WATCH: Masonic infiltration of Vatican exposed by Fr. Murr in viral video

“They came back saying, ‘Yes, they were legitimate.’ (Staffa) and Cardinal (Silvio) Oddi, of the congregation for bishops … went to go see Pope Paul VI with that documentation and they gave it to the Holy Father and said … well, I mean, what do they have to say, ‘We have a Freemason creating our new Mass and our new sacraments?’ Because that’s what it came down to,” he added.

Murr continued:

The pope did his own investigation; he called in (Cardinal) Giovanni Benelli, who was his sub-secretary of state … and Benelli said to the pope … ‘There should be an investigation of the entire Roman Curia, not just of Bugnini.’ Because if there’s one spot of cancer on the lung, you want to check the whole lung; as a matter of fact, you might even go through to the whole body and see if there’s anything else. The Holy Father agreed, and he asked, Benelli, ‘Who shall we send?’ … And (Benelli) said, ‘There is a French Canadian rector of the Pontifical Canadian College, (Archbishop) Édouard Gagnon,’ who happen(ed) to be a very wise man, a very good man, a saintly man … The pope commissioned him, and he agreed to the commission, and he set off to do an investigation of the Roman Curia.

To purchase a replay of the 2026 Rome Life Forum livestream and get access to Father Murr’s full talk, click here.

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TOPICS: Catholic; History
KEYWORDS: bugnini; freemasonry; vatican

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“They came back saying, ‘Yes, they were legitimate.’ (Staffa) and Cardinal (Silvio) Oddi, of the congregation for bishops … went to go see Pope Paul VI with that documentation and they gave it to the Holy Father and said … well, I mean, what do they have to say, ‘We have a Freemason creating our new Mass and our new sacraments?’ Because that’s what it came down to,” he added.

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