>>14915167
The Catholics have persecuted Freemasons, and banned parishoners from joining freemasonry at time, through Papal Bulls.
This may be because of the freemasonic lore of being decended from the Knights Templar. The KT once were the bankers of the Vatican and of the King of France, who had borrowed a lot of money from the Templars. Not wanting to repay the debt, King Phillipe got a sympathtic Pope placed into the Vatican who had the Templars declared "satanic heretics" and exterminated them, thus wiping the books clean, and transferring all Templar wealth and lands to the Vatican.
Makes sense that the Vatican wouldn't want to be infiltrated by the decendants of those they persecuted so vigorously.