By Thaddeus M. Baklinski
EDMONTON, December 4, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Edmonton's Archbishop Richard Smith is urging the Catholic schools in the archdiocese to forgo fundraising from "harmful" gambling activities such as school-based casinos, high-stakes bingo and video lottery terminals.
"The Catholic Church doesn't have a problem with gambling per se, but there are activities that we do consider harmful," said Lorraine Turchansky, director of communications and public relations for the archdiocese.
"Those are things like casinos and video lottery terminals and high-stakes bingo. Those are the kinds of things that hurt people and, therefore, are ethically wrong."
"We know these kinds of activities tend to encourage gambling addictions or encourage people to spend money that should be spent on life essentials for their families and themselves," Turchansky said. "You wouldn't see that in a raffle, or a Grey Cup pool ticket, or a lottery where you buy a $100 ticket on a house."
"The people who tend to suffer from these kinds of activities are the poor and the vulnerable," she said.
The new policy states that no Catholic parish or organization or agency in the archdiocese should raise money through harmful gambling activities, and is expected to come into effect at the end of the school year in June 2010.
Turchansky noted that the change from gambling-based fundraising to other forms of generating money for cash-strapped schools was going to be a challenge for many, but the problem of underfunding of schools is something the government must also work to solve.
"How do we advocate with the provincial government for the proper level of educational funding so that schools aren't dependent on things like casinos, which ultimately hurt some of the weaker and more vulnerable people in our society?" Turchansky asked.
Edmonton Catholic school board chairwoman Debbie Engel said district officials will be working with the bishop to see how any potential change could be phased in. "The bishop is a reasonable man," Engel told the Edmonton Journal. "He knows the $3 million we bring in."
"We've said for decades," Engel added, "it is not the ideal way to raise funds. But in Alberta, it has gotten to be the way."