ROTARY CLUB. - A Rotary Club is an association of businessmen and professionals founded on 23 February 1905 in Chicago by the American lawyer Paul P. Harris. It has a democratic structure and aims to bring its members to a higher degree of friendship and dedication to the common good.
The association experienced rapid growth not only in the United States of America but also in the countries of the New World and in other parts of the world. It currently comprises 250 Districts (the Italian one being District 1879), each governed by a governor and subdivided into Rotary Clubs, with hundreds of thousands of members spread across the globe and professing the most diverse religious and political beliefs.
Over time, the association refined its program and organizational structure. The former is built around four fundamental points: 1) deep friendship among members; 2) dedication to one’s profession with the most scrupulous respect for honesty; 3) dedication to the community through charitable and welfare works; 4) fostering mutual understanding while respecting differing faiths and political convictions, and supporting international bodies that promote international cooperation and collaboration among peoples (such as the United Nations, the Council of Europe, etc.). The central organization is governed by a general secretary based in Chicago and three world sub-secretaries based in London, Zurich, and Bombay.
The Rotary Club soon attracted the attention of Catholic authorities. On 4 February 1929, a response from the Sacred Congregation of the Council declared it inadvisable for Ordinaries to allow clergy to become members of the Rotary Club or to participate in its meetings (AAS, 21 [1929], p. 42). The reasons for this decision were not specified. In any case, the Congregation’s response concerned only clergy and merely stated that their enrollment or participation in meetings was inadvisable. Nothing was said about the laity.
The silence of ecclesiastical authority was broken by some, though not entirely consistent, episcopal positions. While the Dutch episcopate, in a declaration of 12 July 1930, forbade even the laity from joining the Rotary Club, the *Quinzaine religieuse de Savoie* (cf. *Semaine religieuse*, no. 29, Nov. 1929) expressly authorized II.
Recently, the Holy See revisited the issue. A decree of the Holy Office dated 11 January 1951 established that clergy were neither permitted to join the Rotary Club nor to attend its meetings; the laity were urged to conform to canon 684 of the *Codex Iuris Canonici* (AAS, 43 [1951], p. 91). With this decree, it began to be clarified that for clergy, the matter was not merely one of advisability but of unlawfulness. “The prohibition against priests belonging to the Rotary Club or attending its meetings... is to be understood as limited to meetings of Rotary members alone and insofar as these meetings deal with the Club’s economic and professional affairs. It does not extend, therefore, to meetings that, even if organized by the Rotary Club, are open to non-members for purposes consistent with priestly activities, such as promoting charitable initiatives or works of mercy. As for the laity, the decree of the Holy Office does not impose a prohibition, as it does for ecclesiastics, but merely exhorts Catholics to act in accordance with canon 684 of the *Codex Iuris Canonici*, which, in its positive aspect, commends those who lend their name and support to associations established or recommended by the Church, while in its negative aspect, warns against associations that may fall under one of the categories listed in the canon itself” (v. *A proposito del R. C.*, in *L’Osservatore Romano*, 27 Jan. 1951).
At present, therefore, the following conclusions must be drawn: 1) clergy (and religious) may not join the Rotary Club; even if not members, they may not participate in Rotary conventions where the association’s economic and professional matters are discussed. 2) The laity are warned that spiritual danger may arise from participation in the Rotary Club. Its proclaimed neutrality can easily become independence from the Church’s teaching, even in matters of faith and morals, and may favor the infiltration of Masonic and anticlerical elements. If such danger exists, the faithful cannot adhere to the Rotary Club; if no such danger exists, there are no objections. 3) The concrete judgment is not left to individual faithful but is entrusted to the bishops. Consequently, 4) where bishops have not expressly declared that the Rotary Club is to be considered a suspect association, the laity may remain at peace of conscience.
Giovanni Battista Guzzetti