(Lepanto Institute) — Shriners Hospital for Children is an institution born of Freemasonry and upholds Freemasonic tenets that are thoroughly incompatible with Christianity. One Shriner’s Hospital for Children location also hired multiple physicians who have not only engaged in LGBTQ and abortion activism but have actually participated in so-called “gender-affirming surgeries,” which are in actuality bodily mutilation.
The Shriners hospitals are run by the Freemasonic sect the Shriners, who are Master Masons. In their words, “Not all Masons are Shriners, but all Shriners are Masons.”
Masonry revolves around a handful of dubious tenets, primarily, the errors of indifferentism, rationalistic naturalism, and implicit relativism, all of which are thoroughly incompatible with Catholic teaching. Freemasonry exults the human being and demotes the reality of the One, True God, His law, and intimacy with the Divine. The understanding of God in Masonry is cursory at best and merely affirms the existence of an “Architect,” or some vague “Supreme Being,” allowing for the members to select or define their own conception of said entity. This belief that truth is elusive and unclear consequently encourages Christianity to be seen through this lens. Christian dogmas, rituals, and traditions are relegated to mere symbols, and the profession of faith is equated to a simple institutional affiliation, as opposed to a statement of true conviction and the desire for a transcendent relationship with God.
Freemasonry has been condemned by the Catholic Church over 53 times, with at least 20 popes reaffirming the bans against it. The most recent affirmation of the Church’s condemnation of Freemasonry came in 2023 during the pontificate of Pope Francis. The very first encyclical condemning Freemasonry, In Emininti, issued by Pope Clement XII in 1738, forbids Catholics not only from enrolling as a member, but also forbids any and all support, aid, or assistance to Freemasons as individuals or Masonic institutions, under pain of automatic excommunication. The encyclical states:
“Wherefore We command most strictly and in virtue of holy obedience, all the faithful of whatever state, grade, condition, order, dignity or pre-eminence, whether clerical or lay, secular or regular, even those who are entitled to specific and individual mention, that none, under any pretext or for any reason, shall dare or presume to enter, propagate or support these aforesaid societies of Liberi Muratori or Francs Massons, or however else they are called, or to receive them in their houses or dwellings or to hide them, be enrolled among them, joined to them, be present with them, give power or permission for them to meet elsewhere, to help them in any way, to give them in any way advice, encouragement or support either openly or in secret, directly or indirectly, on their own or through others; nor are they to urge others or tell them, incite or persuade them to be enrolled in such societies or to be counted among their number, or to be present or to assist them in any way; but they must stay completely clear of such Societies, Companies, Assemblies, Meetings, Congregations or Conventicles, under pain of excommunication for all the above mentioned people, which is incurred by the very deed without any declaration being required, and from which no one can obtain the benefit of absolution, other than at the hour of death, except through Ourselves or the Roman Pontiff of the time.”
Joining, associating with, or supporting in any manner Freemasons and their agencies is an extremely serious matter and must not be taken lightly. For this reason alone, no Catholic can provide any sort of moral or material support to the Shriners’ hospitals. And for those non-Catholics who are not bound by such prohibitions, there are other moral reasons to steer clear from this institution.
Every member of the Shriners Hospital for Children’s board of directors, board of trustees, and joint board, are Shriners/Master Masons, as shown on their leadership page.
Shriners Hospital for Children has employed a physician by the name of David Morris from the University of Illinois Hospital, who is not only a surgeon there, but has written a paper on, and engaged in, “gender affirming” surgery.
Morris isn’t currently listed as a so-called “LGBTQ healthcare” provider or “gender affirmation” surgeon at University of Illinois Health. However, when looking through previous versions of their website, he in fact was. That information can be found here.
The “gender affirmation” procedures and what they consist of can be found on the UI Health page, accessible here. These surgeries were previously accessible to children at UI Health up until August of 2025, when the facility halted them due to Trump’s threat of federal defunding to hospitals that committed “gender mutilation” surgeries on minors.
Another doctor at Shriners, Kavitha Ranganathan, is a supporter of the mutilation of mentally ill individuals, as opposed to providing genuine aid. She was a speaker at a SurgeOn event that she hosted called, “An Introduction to Gender-Affirming Surgery.”
She is involved in “LGBTQ health” and “gender-affirming” surgeries, according to Brigham and Women’s Hospital, where she is the director of craniofacial reconstruction.
Another Shriners employee is surgeon Alice Fagin, MD. She is a rampant pro-transgender and pro-LGBTQ supporter.
Her posts are a vast array of sentiments such as these.
Another employee by the name of Katherine Ovsevitz has promoted LGBTQ and fundraised for Planned Parenthood on Facebook.
Conclusion:
Shriners is not only a Freemasonic institution, which, as discussed prior, is condemned by the Church, but Shriners Hospital for Children has willingly hired multiple people who not only have participated in the mutilation of children but celebrate sexual immorality and promote the murder of children.
No Christian with a proper understanding of the detrimental affects of Masonic tenets, or with any love for children, would help fund an institution so opposed to the moral teachings of Christianity, let alone one where morally bankrupt adults would be attending to your children.
Reprinted with permission from the Lepanto Institute.