United Way of Ottawa has decided to give Planned Parenthood $44,000. The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Ottawa, Joseph Plourde, felt obligated to explain his position in a letter printed as an advertisement in the Ottawa Citizen (Saturday, March 12, 1986). The Archbishop’s letter was very defensive about the decision not to withdraw Catholic agencies from the United Way but, instead, to recommend a donor policy of “negative designation.”
The Archbishop’s as explains that representatives of the United Way gave him to understand that not only were they under pressure to accept Planned Parenthood, but that they were even threatened with a law suit under Article 15 of the Charter of Rights. On being asked what he would do if they accepted Planned Parenthood, the Archbishop decided “that there was no way the donations made by Catholics and those who are against abortion could be used to finance Planned Parenthood.” Instead he approved the United Way’s proposal to encourage donors opposed to PP to continue United Way support but to designate their donation away from PP. Wrote the Archbishop:
“When one withdraws support from an organization by asking people not to finance it as I have consistently done – and will continue to do – with Planned Parenthood, one neither approves of it nor enhances its image. However, if people do wish to finance this agency, as United Way has decided to do for whatever reasons – who am I to stop them? Meanwhile, it is ridiculous to say that I have approved this decision. How can one approve and deny support at the same time?
“Furthermore, I fail to see what boycotting United Way would achieve. Negative designation will certainly ensure that a contributor will not support any agency of which he or she does not approve. Why cause greater division in the community for nothing?”
People more knowledgeable about United Way funding than the Archbishop of Ottawa know that “negative designation” has practically no meaning. Instead of that person’s donation going to support that group, someone else’s donation will so it. As an editorial in (Ottawa’s) Action Life News of April 1986 points out, “if $100,000 in donations is ‘negatively designated,’ then PP’s allotment will be reduced by 1% ($440.00) WOW!”
The ineffective nature of negative designations has not misled other Catholic bishops in cities where United Way decided to support PP. In Toronto (1976), Vancouver (1981) and Edmonton (1984), Catholic agencies withdrew from the United Way as the only effective and principled way of witnessing to unalterable values. In the process the Catholic agencies have done quite well financially.
The Ottawa Archbishop, after noting that negative designation is a “golden opportunity to stand up for what (we) believe in,” concluded by saying that he
“…was saddened at the lack of charity and rash judgments that surfaced on this occasion. This, in my opinion, is a greater offence before God than that of which I have been accused. However, I forgive my detractors.”
Since the advertisement Archbishop Plourde has refused to meet with representatives of Pro-life. While personally fully anti-abortion and opposed to anti-family organizations – as often expressed in his diocesan paper – like many other R.C. bishops, he has never understood the need for firm liaison with the grassroots Pro-life movement.
Stop support
Meanwhile Action Life encourages donors to stop support for the United Way. States the editorial:
“We will only support organizations whose philosophy and actions engender a genuine respect for every human life…In the ensuing months we will familiarize you with a number of deserving charities whose mandates meet this criteria.”
Among those, of course, will be neither the United Way nor PP.
One of the latest pamphlets distributed by PP Ottawa is entitled “Understanding Homophobia.” It is an attempt to show that what society should reject is not homosexual activity, but the standards and values of those who oppose homosexual activity.
