Dean Roman Rota, Msgr. Pinto: Freemason and Term Ended

Dean Roman Rota, Msgr. Pinto: Freemason and Term Ended

  • Posted by Mary's Advocates
  • On August 29, 2018

by Bai Macfarlane

Today’s story on Lifesite news here, says that Msgr. Vito Pinto, the Dean of the Roman Rota, appealed to Pope Francis to keep a homosexual predator, Italian priest Don Inzoli, in his position performing some functions of the priesthood.

The historian Henry Sire says in his book The Dictator Pope that in 2014, the Pope ‘followed an appeal by Inzoli’s friends in the Curia, Cardinal Coccopalmerio and Monsignor Vito Pinto’ and he reduced the priest’s penalty to a ‘lifetime of prayer.’

According to the Rules of the Roman Rota, Msg. Vito Pinto is not allowed to be Dean of the Roman Rota anymore. His birthday is 29 March 1941, so he’s over 77 years old (source). He was supposed to cease as the Dean in March of 2016.

Rota Norm. Art. 3 §3 “The Dean ceases his function with the completion of seventy five years of age.”

Source Latin Norms 1994 A.A.S. 1994 here (page 508-540). English in Exegetical Commentary Code of Canon Law, Vol. 5, pp. 257-288.

On Sept. 8, 2015, when the Pope’s streamlined annulment process was announced, Rorate Caeli blogged about Pinto’s statements. Pinto’s statements were in the Italian article he wrote in L’Osservatore Romano. Rorate points out that Msgr. Pinto’s article indicates,

We are facing not a mere procedural reform but a true revolution regarding the “divorced and remarried” and the Church’s very understanding of justice and mercy. The reforms are bluntly described as coming from Our Lord and from the Holy Spirit, acting through Francis.

The ‘divorced and remarried’ are now redefined as forming part of ‘the poor’ for which the Church should have a special solicitude; anyone aware of the heightened place held by ‘the poor’ (e.g . the ‘preferential option for the poor’) in the post-Conciliar Magisterium should be aware of the magnitude of the shift involved here.

Furthermore, Msg. Vito Pinto is listed as a member of the freemasons on the Pecorelli list, a journalist who collected a purported list of freemasons and was murdered in 1979.

Each man’s name is followed by his position, if known; the date he was allegedly initiated into Masonry, his code #; and his code name, if known” […] “Pio Vito Pinto. Monsignor, Attache of Secretary of State and Notare of Second Section of Supreme Tribunal and of Apostolic Signature. 4-2-70; # 3317-42. ‘PIPIVI.’(source  metapedia.org)

Karl Keating, founder of Catholic Answers, wrote about Freemasons in June of 1993.

The Church has imposed the penalty of excommunication on Catholics who become Freemasons. The penalty of excommunication for joining the Masonic Lodge was explicit in the 1917 code of canon law (canon 2335), and it is implicit in the 1983 code (canon 1374).

Because the revised code of canon law is not explicit on this point, some drew the mistaken conclusion that the Church’s prohibition of Freemasonry had been dropped. As a result of this confusion, shortly before the 1983 code was promulgated, the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith issued a statement indicating that the penalty was still in force. This statement was dated November 26, 1983. 

Freemasonry aims to destroy the Catholic Church. In 1917, St. Maximilian Kolbe saw the Freemasons conducting their bicentenary demonstration, displaying banners: “‘Satan must reign in the Vatican. The Pope will be his slave.’”

About this encounter St. Maximilian Kolbe wrote:

In particular, it [Freemasonry] aims to destroy the Catholic religion. Their deceits have been spread throughout the world, in different disguises. But with the same goal – religious indifference and weakening of moral forces, according to their basic principle – ‘We will conquer the Catholic Church not by argumentation, but rather with moral corruption.’” (source here. Kalvelage, Francis Mary. Kolbe – Saint of the Immaculata. San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2002. pp. 31-32)

The Dean of the Roman Rota has great authority to undermine marriage and family because he’s in charge of the Tribunal of appeal for all judicial cases. The Rota decides appeals for nullity of marriage cases and judicial Church cases of separation of spouses that a party can request instead of a government civil divorce proceeding.

 3