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AURORA, Ontario, June 3, 2013 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An Ontario Catholic school board has told LifeSiteNews.com that it is working with the Toronto archdiocese to find “appropriate” funding partners, after being confronted with the fact that one of its schools was raising money for the social justice group CARE. Among other things CARE is known to promote and/or provide abortion, sterilization, and contraception in developing countries as part of its “sexual and reproductive health” advocacy.

Drama, Religion, and History students at St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School in Aurora participated in the “One Million Bones” project to raise awareness of ongoing genocides and mass atrocities in third world countries. Each bone handcrafted by the students generated a one dollar donation towards CARE. 

However, CARE does not keep secret its promotion of what pro-life leaders call the “Culture of Death” to the developing world. It states on its website: 

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“Effective programming in sexual and reproductive health (SRH) is a vital component of CARE's work to reduce poverty and social injustice. Improving SRH and addressing the unmet need for family planning are central to CARE's commitment to poverty reduction and gender equity.”

CARE’s provision of contraceptives and support for abortion are explicit. In a statement on International Women’s Day, the CARE website declared: “…CARE instituted community-based distribution systems to make contraceptives available at clients’ doorsteps”. 

While claiming that “CARE does not fund, support or perform abortions,” CARE notes its partnership with leading abortion-provider Marie Stopes International (page 4). 

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CARE also provides abortifacient emergency contraception. “Together with governments and other partners,” the CARE website states, “we are focusing on emergency obstetric care, family planning (including emergency contraception)…” 

Pro-life groups on the international scene have also testified about the strident anti-life activism of CARE at the United Nations. In an article titled “A Request for President Obama” on the CARE website, CARE clearly expressed its hostility to the Mexico City Policy, a pro-life policy which forbade U.S. government funds from going to abortion-promoting or performing organizations. 

York Catholic District School Board (YCDSB) states on its website that “Catholic values must permeate our system.” A document titled “Expectations of the Ontario Catholic School graduate” hosted on the school’s site states that the YCDSB graduate is expected to be a “discerning believer formed in the Catholic Faith” who “[d]evelops attitudes and values founded on Catholic social teaching and acts to promote social responsibility, human solidarity and the common good.” 

When LifeSiteNews asked St. Maximillian principal Domenic Scuglia why a Catholic school is financially supporting a social justice group that is at odds with Catholic teaching, he responded: “I’m not going to comment on that. I’m going to speak to my teachers and will go from there.” 

However, May Moore, YCDSB’s Communications Manager, told LifeSiteNews.com that the board is “careful to lend our support to those organizations whose goals, values and efforts are aligned with Catholic teachings. On rare occasions, there may be some aspect of a charitable organization’s work that, as you say, are at odds with Catholic teachings and we work to address those situations when/if they arise.” 

Moore said that the board is “currently in dialogue with the Archdiocese of Toronto regarding appropriate fundraising partners moving forward.” 

During his pontificate, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI expressed concern for the kind of organizations that Catholic organizations fund, teaching in his 2009 encyclical Caritas in Veritate — which was codified in a Motu Proprio on Dec. 2, 2012 — that Catholic agencies must remain faithful to Church teaching in their funding relationships. Benedict emphasized in his encyclical that “openness to life is at the centre of true development,” and decried the effort by Western nations to export abortion to the developing world. 

Organizers of the “One Million Bones” project hope to collect one million bones — symbolic of genocide-produced mass graves — from across the globe and install them as a “social arts practice” next weekend in Washington, D.C. at the National Mall. 

“The installation will exist as a collaborative site of conscience to honor victims and survivors, and will also serve as a visual petition against ongoing conflicts and a resounding call for much need [sic] and long overdue action,” stated a school news bulletin. 

Funds raised for CARE by the project will be donated by the Bezos Family Foundation, an pro-education organization with the following axiom on its website: “There are no rules here. We are trying to accomplish something.” 

Steven Mosher, President of the Population Research Institute, wrote in an article last August that CARE’s position on the third world amounts to: the “best way to ‘empower’ poor women … is to disable their fertility.” 

“If you know anyone who has been donating to CARE, you might ask them to reconsider. No person of conscience should be supporting an organization that is engaging in this sort of contraceptive imperialism around the world,” he wrote.
 

Contact information:

St. Maximilian Kolbe Catholic High School
Domenic Scuglia, Principal
Ph: 905 727 5652
Fax: 905 727 1884
Email: [email protected]

Elizabeth Crowe, Chair, Board of Trustees
Ph: 905 713 1211 ext. 17131
Email: [email protected]

York Catholic District School Board
Patricia Preston, Director of Education
Via Silvana Greco, Secretary to the Director of Education
Ph: 905 713 1211 ext.13102
Email: [email protected]

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