Giving To Shriners Hospitals
Q. Can Catholics morally give donations to the Shriners Hospitals? Their ads are very convincing, but aren't the Shriners Masons? (Surry, Virginia)
A. All Shriners are Masons. (The reverse, though, is not true. Shriners International began in 1872 as a spinoff of Freemasonry, with philanthropy as one of its principal goals.) Shriners Hospitals for Children is a network of 22 facilities across North America that specializes in treating children with orthopedic conditions, burns, spinal cord injuries and cleft lips and palates -- all without regard to a family's ability to pay.
True, Catholics have long been prohibited from joining the Masons since it is, at its core, a naturalistic religion. (Pope Leo XIII in 1884 said that Masonry had as its fundamental tenet "that human nature and human reason ought in all things be mistress and guide," and the Vatican's Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared in 1983 that "the faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin.")
Your monetary donation to the Shriners Hospitals, though, is given not to advance the spread of Masonic doctrine but simply to help offer compassionate care to children, and I would feel comfortable making such a donation.
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Questions may be sent to Father Kenneth Doyle at askfatherdoyle@gmail.com and 30 Columbia Circle Dr., Albany, New York 12203.
