[Question:]{.underline} Can a Catholic telephone operator give out telephone numbers to Planned Parenthood and immoral movie theaters?
[Answer:]{.underline} This is a question of material cooperation. A person who would willingly and knowingly give out such numbers would be guilt of formal cooperation, and would consequently have the guilt of the sin, and if it concerned a woman seeking an abortion, the guilt and the excommunication of the subsequent abortion, if it took place. However, the moral dilemma arises when the Catholic telephone operator abhors such crimes, and would do anything to avoid them.
Clearly, such a person ought to do his utmost to avoid even material cooperation, and should, if possible, refuse or side step giving out such numbers. However, this is not always possible, for he could easily lost his job by such a refusal. In such a case, the principles of the indirect voluntary apply. It is permissible to perform an act in itself good or indifferent (giving out a telephone number), provided that the evil is not willed, and comes from the good (doing one’s job), and provided that there is a proportionately grave reason, depending upon the gravity of the sin and the proximity of the material cooperation. Such a grave reason could be the necessity to do this to keep one’s job and to support one’s family. It would much more easily apply to the giving out of a number for an immoral movie theater, since the evil is not so great nor the cooperation so immediate as giving out the number of Planned Parenthood, effectively an abortion mill.
It would consequently seem possible, in order to keep one’s job, to give out numbers to places where sins are frequently but not necessarily committed, such as movie theaters. It would also be possible to give out numbers to a person making a general request, for example for advertising purposes, even to Planned Parenthood. However, it would be illicit to use the principle of material cooperation to give out the number of Planned Parenthood to a woman suspected to wanting to have an abortion performed. In such case, one would have to risk losing one’s job, rather than performing this action.
It goes without saying that a person who is regularly placed in such qualms of conscience through known material cooperation in evil actions, ought to seek a different employment.
Answered by Father Peter Scott, SSPX.