Dear Lorie:

You are in a very difficult situation and I praise God that you are concerned about it enough to ask.

The first measure is that you cannot be involved in "directly" promoting abortion intellectually or literally. If you can avoid directly promoting and supporting abortion then you may be okay technically. If you are involved in giving "both sides" in a fair manner, that is not promoting or supporting abortion -- that is merely stating facts (assuming you are allowed to actually state the real facts).

While you may be technically in the clear from participating in the promotion and notion of abortion, the second issue is one of indirect complicity.

The catechism states:

1868 Sin is a personal act. Moreover, we have a responsibility for the sins committed by others when we cooperate in them:

- by participating directly and voluntarily in them;

- by ordering, advising, praising, or approving them;

- by not disclosing or not hindering them when we have an obligation to do so;

- by protecting evil-doers.

1869 Thus sin makes men accomplices of one another and causes concupiscence, violence, and injustice to reign among them. Sins give rise to social situations and institutions that are contrary to the divine goodness. "Structures of sin" are the expression and effect of personal sins. They lead their victims to do evil in their turn. In an analogous sense, they constitute a "social sin."

I have already mentioned the first of these points -- directly participating. You are not doing that.

You are also not doing the second point of advising, praising or approving of abortion.

You are not doing the fourth point -- protecting evil-doers.

The question you have to decide for yourself is whether you are involved in the third point -- failing to mention the sinfulness of abortion or hindering the arguments for abortion WHEN YOU HAVE AN OBLIGATION TO DO SO. That last phrase is the critical phrase.

Do you have an OBLIGATION to point out the sinfulness and evil of abortion on your job?

Other factors that must be considered and balanced in all this is your need for the income, can you get by without it, your obligations to family for their support, can you find another job that would not put you in this dilemma.

I cannot give you an answer. You must consider all these issues and in prayer decide for yourself, follow your conscience.

If you conscience will not allow you to stay within the limits imposed upon you by the school, then you ought to look for another job and change jobs at the earliest opportunity.

I was in a similar position once. I use to work for Kinkos. I worked the overnight shift. Oftentimes Planned Parenthood would come in at 3am and want workshop manuals printed and bound by 8am for a conference. I refused to work on Planned Parenthood jobs.

Although, technically, Kinkos had a policy that an employee could refuse to work on a job that was offensive to him, I was called to the manager's office and threated with firing. I told the manager that I would call him at 3am and he could come down and do the Planned Parenthood job, but that I will not touch it. When the manager continued to imply that I would be fired I told him that "I'd rather be fired by you than by God. I will not touch Planned Parenthood jobs."

I was not fired, but I was persecuted with bad treatment, lose of raises, and lowering evaluation scores (which could eventually lead to firing) all of which was designed to discourage me into quiting. I never did quit except on my own terms and only when my medical condition required it. But I was never fired.

What I did do with Planned Parenthood material is that I modified an exorcism prayer and prayed over the material and for the people who would be reading it. So I became an undercover agent for God sort-to-speak to pray over this material.

That is something that you could do -- pray over the students and material that you hand out (privately of course).

But, the bottomline is that you will have to decide what your conscience will allow and how much you can take and then you MUST act accordingly.

The Church teaches that we are obligated to follow our conscience.

1777 Moral conscience, present at the heart of the person, enjoins him at the appropriate moment to do good and to avoid evil. It also judges particular choices, approving those that are good and denouncing those that are evil. It bears witness to the authority of truth in reference to the supreme Good to which the human person is drawn, and it welcomes the commandments. When he listens to his conscience, the prudent man can hear God speaking.

1778 Conscience is a judgment of reason whereby the human person recognizes the moral quality of a concrete act that he is going to perform, is in the process of performing, or has already completed. In all he says and does, man is obliged to follow faithfully what he knows to be just and right. It is by the judgment of his conscience that man perceives and recognizes the prescriptions of the divine law:

Conscience is a law of the mind; yet [Christians] would not grant that it is nothing more; I mean that it was not a dictate, nor conveyed the notion of responsibility, of duty, of a threat and a promise. . . . [Conscience] is a messenger of him, who, both in nature and in grace, speaks to us behind a veil, and teaches and rules us by his representatives. Conscience is the aboriginal Vicar of Christ.

1779 It is important for every person to be sufficiently present to himself in order to hear and follow the voice of his conscience. This requirement of interiority is all the more necessary as life often distracts us from any reflection, self-examination or introspection:

Return to your conscience, question it. . . . Turn inward, brethren, and in everything you do, see God as your witness.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary