The conflict between the Catholic Church and Freemasonry, has been long standing and to date remains confrontational, controversial and confused. Could a new look at this open up a possibility of dialogue? In this volume sociologist, Freemason and renowned author Fabio Venzi analyses the events that have resulted in this sort of deadlock by addressing the issue from a different viewpoint to that habitually adhered to by studies in the field. Exploring 300 years of the official Catholic documents, this study is the most clear and definitive assessment of relationship between the two organisations to date. Hardback