[Question]{.underline}: May Catholics patronize thrift stores owned by and benefiting false religions (e.g., Salvation Army)?
[Answer]{.underline}: This is a case of material cooperation with a false religion and is really an application of the principle of double effect, otherwise known as the indirect voluntary. This is permissible for as long as the act is not in itself evil, as would be the active promotion of a false religion, and provided that there is a sufficiently grave reason to justify the material help that such patronage would give to a false religion. The sufficiently grave reason would be the need of poor people to obtain cheap clothing.
In effect, the act of purchasing cheap clothes to provide for one’s family is a good act, done with an upright intention. The help that the organization receives from this is not willed in itself. It is true that a Catholic cannot directly will to benefit such an organization. However, the duty to prevent any possible profit to such an organization does not bind under pain of grave inconvenience. It would be unreasonable to expect this, especially in items of small value, in which no one stands to make much profit. Consequently, although it would be preferable to support a Catholic organization, such as the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, a person would not be bound to do so under pain of grave inconvenience, such as a long drive to the other side of town.
Consequently, a person ought not to have a scruple about taking advantage of such thrift stores. Moreover, the desire to help the poor could be a sufficient reason to donate items to them, provided that there was no other practical way to help the poor and no Catholic charity readily available to take them and perform the same acts of mercy. The act of charity is good, and the support of the false religion not directly willed; but since there is a much closer material cooperation in donating items, a much greater effort would have to be made to find a Catholic charity than if one were simply purchasing items for one’s own family. Hence the real need for Catholics to organize their own works of charity so as to avoid, as much as possible, material cooperation with false religions.
The same principles apply to yard sales and fundraisers that are organized to benefit a false religion. Formal cooperation is sinful, as in the case in which one would actively participate in making it a success---for example, by working a stall or seeking out donated items. However, the fact of simply purchasing cheaply some items of which one is in need is in itself only material cooperation, and is permissible provided that there is a proportionate reason (e.g., a real need for these items) and that they are not conveniently available from another source that does not support a false religion.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.