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Email: "Vancouver Diocese Exits Credit Union Program Over Institution’s Support for Homosexual Agenda"

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Corporation supports "agendas which are worrisome and harmful to the Church and to society" BY LifeSiteNews.com VANCOUVER, September 24, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) - The Vancouver Sun reports today that Archbishop Adam Exner has ended the participation by four diocesan Catholic schools in an otherwise excellent VanCity Credit Union program because the financial institution actively supports a pro-homosexual agenda.  The decision was finally prompted, says the Sun, after the large credit union launched an ad campaign with two men sitting cheek-to-cheek, saying, “I want to bank with people who value all partnerships”. This was the most recent in a series of pro-homosexual actions taken by VanCity. Paul Schratz, spokesman for the archdiocese explained to the Sun that VanCity helped sponsor a homosexual film festival, gave an Ethics in Action award to Little Sisters lesbian bookstore and last year launched what VanCity called a “groundbreaking” effort to “become the first company in Canada” to publicly support the homosexual community.  Schratz noted that the problems started in 1998 when VanCity began programs to stop discrimination against homosexual employees, end harassment based on sexual orientation and provide benefits to same-sex partners.  In an interview with LifeSite today, diocesan spokesman Schratz said that the Sun article appeared to be a fair report on the issue. His only regret, he said, is that the article was not able to cover some of the Archbishop’s four pages of theological reasoning for the decision which were sent to the schools in a document titled “Archbishop’s Decision on The VanCity Credit Union Issue”.  LifeSite obtained a copy of the paper which begins with the question “Since VanCity through statements and funding supports causes that are in conflict with Catholic moral teachings, is the presence of a VanCity credit union in a Catholic school morally justifiable?” The document goes on to discuss the Catholic moral theology principle of double effect which states, writes Exner, “that an action having two effects, one good and one bad, is licit when four conditions are verified.” After discussing how the good of the VanCity program and the bad of the corporation’s homosexual agenda policy might be evaluated by the theological principle, the archbishop says, “solving moral dilemmas by the use of the principle of double effect is not always easy”. He continues, though, in the case at hand, two additional principles must also be considered:  “1. We must not only do what is right but must also appear to be doing what is right. 2. many things may be lawful, but because of circumstances not all things that are lawful are expedient.”  The archbishop concludes, “VanCity in its advertising and by its sponsorship has publicly manifested its support for agendas which are worrisome and harmful to the Church and to society. In this context, any cooperation with an organization that publicly supports such agendas appears unacceptable.”  Finally, the Vancouver bishop notes that the decision to withdraw from the VanCity program would be consistent with “the archdiocese’s withdrawal some years ago from the United Way because of its support for morally unacceptable causes” and also consistent with the Vatican’s example of ending its co-operation with UNICEF for the same reason.  See the Vancouver Sun article at http://www.canada.com/vancouver/vancouversun/story.asp?id=869E7587-2F68-4CBF-B33E-A83CE2644DFE   See the complete archdiocesan document at http://www.rcav.org/ http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/vancouver-diocese-exits-credit-union-program-over-institutions-support-for-/

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