[JimRed]

Freemasonry has been condemned as anti-Christian and anti-clerical by various popes through history.

Since everything about Freemasonry is secret to non-members, how would those Popes know?

If the priest saw a conflict with his vows to the Church, would he not have left the Freemasons?

[BlackElk]

The former priest in question has taken a vow of obedience and violated that oath. This is not a matter of individual "conscience" or for individual interpretation. The Vatican's ban on ANY Catholic belonging to the Masonic Order goes back at least to 1738 and Pope Clement XII's In Eminenti Apostolatus and reiterated by many popes since, notably (on six occasions) by Blessed Pius IX in the mid 19th century and by Pope Leo XIII in the late 19th century and more recently by Josef Cardinal Ratzinger (later Pope Benedict XVI) as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with the approval of Blessed Pope John Paul II.

It would appear that the former priest has been excommunicated latae sententiae which resolves any conflict between his "Catholicism" and his membership in the Lodge. He is now a Mason and no longer a Catholic whatever he may imagine unless and until he repents and renounces his membership in the Lodge.

The American rituals of Freemasonry are available from Barnes and Noble which published them in one volume. I suspect that the Vatican has adequate intelligence assets or other sources to be quite familiar with the rituals of Europe's Oriental Lodges. Don't you agree?