Three days ago, we posted a Lepanto Institute press release warning about the hospital which so many contribute to, assuming incorrectly that it is Catholic: St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital Marked ‘Not Safe’ for Donations by Charity Watchdog.
Saint Jude’s is not now nor was it ever a Catholic hospital. The hospital website is transparent about its being a secular institution:
We are not a Catholic hospital, nor are we affiliated with any religious organization. Our founder, Danny Thomas, was Catholic, and St. Jude Thaddeus was his patron Saint.
Danny Thomas, a Maronite Catholic of Lebanese descent, was a Knight Commander of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, appointed by Pope Paul VI. His being a “devout Catholic” and a devotee of Saint Jude is part of the story of Saint Jude’s founding. But this does not mean the hospital was a Catholic institution. It never was.
Thomas was also a Master Mason, who publicly extolled the Craft, and expressed pride in his membership. He was a member of Gothic Lodge No. 270 — a Blue Lodge of the York Rite — in Hamilton Township, New Jersey.
Thomas was also a member of the Scottish Rite and Al Malaikah Shrine in Los Angeles.
According to the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania, he was a 33rd Degree Mason, presumably of the Scottish Rite.
Since the eighteenth century, Catholics have been expressly forbidden to be Freemasons, under threat of severe canonical penalties.
The first papal condemnation of Freemasonry was issued by Pope Clement XII on April 28, 1738 in the bull, In Eminenti Apostolatus Specula. Since that time, Catholics have been forbidden to be Freemasons. Multiple papal interventions reiterated and expanded Clement’s condemnation, eventually making membership in a Masonic lodge an offense that incurred automatic excommunication.
The 1983 Code of Canon Law did not contain an explicit mention of Freemasonry, but something else happened that same year to clarify the issue:
In 1983, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, with the personal approval of Pope John Paul II, issued a Declaration on Masonic Associations, which reiterated the Church’s objections to Freemasonry. The 1983 declaration states that “faithful who enroll in Masonic associations are in a state of grave sin and may not receive Holy Communion. … the Church’s negative judgment in regard to Masonic association(s) remains unchanged since their principles have always been considered irreconcilable with the doctrine of the Church and therefore membership in them remains forbidden. CDF 1983 stipulated that neither CDF 1974 nor CDF 1981 allowed an individual bishop or bishops’ conferences to permit Catholics to belong to masonic lodges.” (Source).
A long treatment of the Church’s historical stance on Freemasonry and the Craft’s anti-Catholicism may be read here: Papacy and Freemasonry — A Speech made by the late Monseigneur Jouin on December 8, 1930.
This column is not intended to malign Danny Thomas, but to set the record straight about Saint Jude’s and about Danny Thomas’ Freemasonic involvement. During his lifetime, there were many in the hierarchy who sounded an uncertain trumpet about this matter (and so many other matters!), and he may legitimately have been confused, as others continue to be very confused to this day.
