Covenant House Scandal

A Toronto Catholic agency – Covenant House – set up to help street kids rehabilitate themselves hands out condoms and does abortion referrals.

While condom distribution is a matter of public record and is sanctioned by the Archdiocese of Toronto, abortion referrals are made quietly and depend on which worker a girl seeks at the House.  The distribution of condoms is approved by Auxiliary Bishop Leonard Wall of the Toronto Roman Catholic Archdiocese.  Both practices have been publicly justified by several Canadian theologians on the grounds of “the lesser of two evils.”

Covenant House, founded by Franciscan Father Bruce Ritter of New York, has been a high-profile Catholic charity in Toronto for the past six years.  Garnett, the executive director of ShareLife Toronto, told The Interim that a million dollars a year comes from Toronto’s ShareLife, and one-and-a-half million dollars comes from Covenant House, New York.  The balance of the over $3 million yearly budget is supplied from provincial and municipal funds.

Mr. Garnett defended the practice of giving out condoms to high-risk street kids.  He described many of them as homosexuals who were possibly AIDS carriers, and claimed this provided some measure of protection from them.  He said the policy had been approved by the Catholic board of Covenant House after extensive consultations with moral theologians whom he would not name.

The condom news first appeared on December 27, 1987, in a full-page Toronto Sun feature on Toronto’s street kids.  Sheila Scott, a nurse with the Covenant House “street outreach” (a $60,000 van, which parks nightly on the Yonge Street strip), was quoted as saying, as she handed out a strip of five condoms to a male prostitute, “Remember, these are for health precautions.”  Added the Sun, “its ironic that a Catholic-based organization gives out condoms.  Thankfully though, it is based on a reality of street workers who know the threat of AIDS to such a high-risk group.”

Mary McConville, the executive director of Covenant House confirmed the policy.  She stated that Covenant House handles the “highest risk” kids who are vulnerable because of their lifestyle.  She defended giving out condoms to high-risk, sexually active street kids in order to prevent infection by AIDS.  She said she resented the Sun article because it gave the impression that Covenant House was distributing condoms “to just anybody at all.”

Ms. McConville explained that Covenant House was dealing with a small youth group who were not prepared at this time of their lives to change their lifestyles.  In six years of operation in Toronto, she said, they have helped over 15,000 kids who were disconnected from society.  Some have come back again and again for help.  A third of these kids are involved in prostitution, drugs, and petty theft and are “too far gone to be helped,” she added.

Ms. McConville insisted that condoms supplied to the high-risk group gave some measure of protection, and were not given out for contraceptive reasons but for disease control.  Bishop Wall, she stated, confirmed and approved the practice of supplying these particular youths (in these circumstances) with condoms together with education on their usage.

Kids exploited

“I know that abstinence is their best bet.  I know it!”  exclaimed Ms. McConville, “but when this group absolutely refuses to disengage in these immoral acts, our nurses or counselors will provide them with condoms from the van or in our clinic.  We consider it therapeutic action trying to deal with a lethal disease.”

“These are not your suburban school kids,” she insisted, “these are street kids, girl prostitutes whose pimps take 90 per cent of the money they make.  It’s johns from the suburbs that come down here – that exploit them – they’re the ones who should be charged.  I know that condoms aren’t the answer but we’re dealing with a difficult problem.”

Margaret McLoughlin, spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Toronto, confirmed that Bishop Leonard Wall, the Chancellor of the Archdiocese of Toronto, and a former professor of moral theology at St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto, approves of Covenant House giving out condoms to high-risk street kids in the Archdiocese of Toronto for the purpose of preventing AIDS.  She said that there would be no direct statement from the Cardinal.

Covenant House in New York City does not give out condoms t street kids because of a ruling by John Cardinal O’Connor, Archbishop of New York.  Despite repeated contacts by The Interim, Covenant House in New York declined to comment on the Toronto policy.  The central organization in New York apparently oversees procedures and policies in all Covenant Houses and provides large annual funding.

Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the Archdiocese of New York told The Interim that Covenant House is run as an “independent operation”; however, he added, “we would be very surprised if they were doing anything contrary to Catholic Church teaching.”

Msgr. John G. Woolsey, of the Christian and Family Office of the Archdiocese of New York, stated that it was “repugnant and outrageous” to give out condoms to street kids in order to prevent AIDS.  “Would you give out clean needles as an alternative to the “dirty” needles that drug addicts use to shoot up?”  he said.  He added that it was “faulty advice” to condone giving condoms to street kids.

Complex problem

Jesuit Father Bela Somfai, professor of Christian Ethics at Regis College in the Toronto School of Theology, said that the issue of giving condoms to high-risk street kids was a very complex problem, and couldn’t be, or shouldn’t be, handled in a simplistic way.  There was much confusion on the subject, he said, and referred us to an article he wrote in Compass, a Jesuit magazine, in November 1987, entitled “Aids, Condoms and the Church.”  Here he describes AIDS as a modern-day plague for which only prevention from exposure to the virus offers satisfactory protection.

Rev. Somfai predicts that modern health systems will not be able to cope with AIDS “without substantial reduction of services in other areas.”

He points out that what is “intrinsically evil” with the use of contraceptives is not the device, but the separation of the “unitive” and “procreative” meanings of the conjugal act for the purpose of preventing pregnancy.  He argues that the use of a condom to prevent the possibility of transmitting AIDS is not a contraceptive act, therefore, it is not illicit birth control, which is condemned by the Church.

Rev. Somfai writes that, “even if one fails by not living up to the exigencies of a moral value, the obligation remains to minimize the harmful consequences of the wrong choice.”  As an example, he writes:

“to engage in prostitution is a morally wrong choice, but to use prophylactics in the course of such activity in order to avoid the transmission of venereal diseases or the possibility of extramarital pregnancy is not.  The absurdity of the alternative judgment is the best argument to support this conclusion: a prostitute, even though engaged in an immoral activity, should remain open to the possibility of procreation and thus face the danger of extramarital pregnancy.

Eating words

When he was questioned about the anti-condom policy in New York, Rev. Somfai said: “Cardinal O’Connor will have to eat his words, and with all due respect, so will Bishop Tonnos.” (The latter is the R.C. Bishop of Hamilton, Ontario, who opposes AIDS lessons in schools which develop discussion about condoms).

Harold Adams, 37, a trustee with the Metropolitan Toronto Separate School Board who holds two theology degrees, believes that giving condoms to high-risk street kids is wrong.  “What did Jesus say to the prostitute?” Adams asked.  “GO and sin no more.”  Jesus said it to her gently and kindly but He said it.  He didn’t say carry on with what you’re doing.”  Mr. Adams added that funds collected for ShareLife should not be spent on condoms.

Ad hoc basis

Rev. James Wingle a professor of moral theology and Rector of St. Augustine’s Seminary in Toronto, said in an interview that giving out condoms to street kids is a “complex problem.”  “I have been consulted by Covenant House on a number of occasions in the past six months and it is my opinion that we can never formally cooperate to do evil or to participate in an evil act,” he said.

“The crunch question is, you don’t agree with high-risk street kids immoral behaviour, but I feel that it would be legitimate to give high-risk street kids condoms on an ad hoc basis – not blanket approval – to avoid a greater evil – AIDS.  But you can’t appear to be saying” ‘Go ahead and do it!’

Father James Wingle observes that Covenant House staff “are dealing with polyglot people on the street who have their own views and aims in life that are contrary to ours.”

“Intervention in their lives is necessary to establish a sane, virtuous and wholesome outlook,” he says.  “We must be clear about that and quite specific; we can’t trade away the truth.”

“Having said that, there is some ambiguity.  We often find ourselves in a double bind – they don’t want to be helped in the way we want to help them.  The effort to reach the high-risk street kids is a noble endeavour.  We invite them to alter their way of life.  However, this requires great discretion and judgment by Covenant House staff.”

“Chastity is the predominant principle to observe,” he said.  “The promotion of life must reign and be the dominant factor.  Covenant house is under the auspices of the Catholic Church and they’re obviously not just paying lip service to the Catholic faith.”  But how Catholic is Covenant House?

When it was suggested to Rev. Somfai that it would be simpler to say that Covenant House is a Catholic outfit and cannot give out condoms, he replied that Covenant House wasn’t “really” Catholic.

Certainly there are no visible signs of religion in Covenant House.  Apart from a large and tasteful poster of Cardinal Carter in the waiting room there are no religious pictures or crucifixes to be seen.  There are no Catholic publications among the magazines displayed for visitors.  Nothing indicates that this is a social service agency run and largely funded by Catholics.

“We don’t openly proselytize the Catholic faith,” said Mary McConville.  “we’re not the Salvation army where you’re asked to go in the chapel to pray before they’ll give you something to eat.

It was not always so.  When Covenant House was first established in Toronto, every attempts was made to adhere to strong pro-life and pro-family policies.  These ideals have clearly eroded over the years as staff have changed.

The Interim has contacted several people who have worked at Covenant House.  They report tat attempts to bring Catholic moral principles into action when counseling distressed teenagers is now viewed an “inappropriate.”  Although pro-life policies were laid down when the agency was first established, these have been bypassed on occasion by staff who disagree with such principles.

Counseling

Counseling given to sexually-active teens, our sources charge, uses the “non-judgmental” approach.  If the teen indicates that he or she does not want to change lifestyles, then any health problems are attended to – many of them have contracted any number of venereal diseases – and they are sent on their way.

Our sources cite instances where pregnant girls who wanted an abortion were referred to Toronto hospitals.  Some years ago, the agency was billed for hospital abortions obtained by their clients.  Covenant House management refused to pay such bills, stating they were not authorized expenditures.

Father Bela Somfai, a theologian often consulted on such matters, has publicly counseled such other agencies as the Catholic Children’s Aid Society that it is right to choose abortion as the “lesser of two evils.”

But, according to Mary McConville, “If a 15-year-old kid decides to have an abortion, we make a strong pro-life statement, but we don’t get involved.  We tell her we can’t support what she is planning to do.  But she makes her own choice.  If she goes ahead and has an abortion, we expel her from the residence.”

Trustee Harold Adams argues that it is never permissible for Catholics to step away from Church teaching.  “The heart of the moral teaching of the Catholic Church is being gutted,” he said.  “Cafeteria Catholicism is being promoted – accept what you want, leave the rest.  Marriage and the family are the very foundation on which our society was built, and it is being undermined.  It is almost as if they were teaching promiscuity.”

One former Covenant House worker said, “Sure they do good things there for the street kids, but what do they do that’s any different from any secular-run operation?”

Those comments were echoed by others with whom we spoke, who view Covenant House as not really helping many kids at all.  The system “sets them up for failure,” they charge, arguing that the kids need to develop some self esteem and to be removed from the down town core where it is too easy to be contacted by the pimps and drug pushers.

(Ironically, this news about the practices at Covenant House has come to light at a time of year when the annual ShareLife campaign is in its early stages in the Toronto area.  The ShareLife appeal began over 15 years ago when the archdiocese withdrew from the United Way appeal, because Planned Parenthood had just been admitted as a member.  At that time, it was felt that Catholics could not cooperate in an appeal where any of the money raised would be used to promote condoms and abortion.)

Catholic money

An American observer notes that the Church in the United States seems to be saying in effect, ‘If you insist on sinning, sin safely.’  Next, they may proclaim, abortion is wrong but if you plan to have one, for God’s sake, don’t endanger your life, here is the bus fare, go to a good hospital.’

A final comment comes from another former Covenant House worker.  “What I say to them,” he said, “is tell the Catholic people what you’re doing.  You’re not running a Catholic operation, stop taking Catholic money!”