Ecumenism: Knights & Masons Together

When Ervin Kotowski was installed recently as grand knight of Milwaukee’s largest Knights of Columbus Council, he got a telegram of congratulations from Circuit Judge Claire Voss, imperial potentate of the city’s big Tripoli Masonic Shrine. Exclaimed Kotowski: “Imagine the Shriners congratulating me!” A lot of brotherly things that would have been hard to imagine a few years ago are happening today be tween the Roman Catholic Knights and their longtime antagonists, the predominantly Protestant Masons.

Almost every day, the Knights (U.S. membership: 1,184,000) and the Masons (U.S. membership: 4,500,000) jointly sponsor some local charity drive; almost every night, two groups get to gether for bowling matches or common meetings. In Madison, Wis., for example, the Knights and the Shriners co-sponsored a charity bazaar. In Tacoma, Wash., Columbians and Shriners gathered for what one ecumenical enthusiast called “a real bash.” And in Hartford, Conn., the Knights have joined with the Masons and B’nai B’rith to form a brotherhood committee rep resenting a combined membership of 100,000. Says Supreme Knight John W. McDevitt, national head of the Catholic organization: “It’s high time for the dissipation of any recriminations, disaffections or petty jealousies that may have formed a barrier be tween the Knights of Columbus and the Masonic Order.”

Cooling the Militancy. Masons and Catholics have been on the outs ever since Pope Clement XII in 1738 issued the first papal bull condemning the Masons on the ground that their beliefs and rituals amount to a false religion. Catholics are still forbidden to join the Masons under pain of excommunication. For their part, the Masons have seldom been reluctant in the past to condemn the Catholic Church.

Largely because bias excluded Catholics from many social clubs, the Knights of Columbus was started in 1882, and since then has often taken a militant attitude toward non-Catholics. This old-fashioned militancy has gradually been cooling off on both sides, but the real impetus toward cooperation came from Vatican II.

The change is affecting many other Catholic lay groups. A year ago, Boston’s Catholic community noted with interest that Cardinal Gushing gave permission for a parish Holy Name Society to have a non-Catholic speaker on religious matters. Now no permission at all is needed for Boston Catholic groups to invite Protestant or Jewish speakers, and the cardinal himself recently addressed the Masons’ Brotherhood Lodge (subject: ecumenism). In St. Louis, some Holy Name Societies sponsor monthly meetings of Catholics and Protestants to discuss theology, with the groups alternating in choosing the topics. Catholic parent-teacher groups in San Francisco have switched discussions from such themes as “Patron Saint of the Month” to “Communication with Non-Catholic Brothers.” And the National Councils of Catholic Men and Women are distributing 20,000 “Grass Roots Ecumenism Kits,” which contain six booklets on such topics as Jewish-Christian dialogues.

“Out of the Ghetto.” At the same time, the Knights have altered the pitch of their national advertising from conversion to cooperation. Says Homer J. L’Hote, head of the Missouri Knights: “We used to try to make others see that we had the right religion. The attitude we now take is that we are on common ground with them, that we will work along with them.” The ground has become so common that when Knights invite Masons to a joint meeting, the speaker is frequently a rabbi. Frank C. Staples, grand master of the New York State Masons, says that Masonic lodges are meeting the Knights more than halfway. In Syracuse, the Masons even challenged the Knights to a blood-donation contest; the Masons won by two pints.

What all this has produced was summed up by Philip Spiro, a New York City Knights leader, after an outing with the Masons: “Some of us were looking for them to have horns, but we found that they were just people.” Adds Father John J. Mulroy, director of the Atlanta Archdiocese Commission of Religious Unity: “The church is moving out of the ghetto. Where the whole process is going, we really don’t know —but it is obvious that a lot of revamping is going to take place in lay organizations.” More than a few Catholic priests and laymen echo the sentiments of Lee Everts, head of the Wisconsin Knights, who predicts that in five or ten years, Knights will be permitted to join the Masons.