Q. Is it okay to support charities run by other faiths?
A. There are a lot of human needs in the world! Christians are called to see the poor as Christ (Matthew 25:40), but we also know that, no matter how much we help, the need for help will never entirely disappear (Matthew 26:11).
How best to help is a matter of prudence and discernment. Some so-called “charitable” organizations actually promote evil instead of charity, by “helping” people commit sin! Organizations that primarily promote abortion, euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, or sinful lifestyle choices of whatever type would fall into this category. Cooperating with a “charity” like that would be sinful.
Most charities, however, don’t fall into this category. Most charities are run by concerned people, who see a legitimate need and decide they’re going to do something about it. They see poverty, educational problems, vulnerable people, prejudice, a need for beauty, or a host of other problems, and gather people and money to make good things happen. We might want to help them all, but of course, we can’t. So we have to choose. We ask questions. “How much of my donation goes to overhead costs vs. actual help?” “How important to me is this organization’s particular cause?” “Do I agree with everything this organization is doing, or just some of it?” “Is this a Catholic charity?”
Human beings are complicated! Even a Catholic charity might not be one we want to give to. It could be badly run, devoted to an unimportant cause, or not as Catholic as it claims to be. Similarly, a non-Catholic charity might support an excellent cause with excellent work. Can we support such a non-Catholic charity?
As we saw above, we would not want to support a charity that had a sinful purpose as its primary purpose. But that word “primary” is vitally important! No human organization is completely free from evil. We are not somehow “tainted” if we help a mostly good organization, that also ends up doing some evil.
When we are discerning whether to help a non-Catholic charitable organization, therefore, we don’t need to immediately rule it out just because it’s not Catholic. If it has a good primary purpose and is a well-run organization in other ways, we may very well be contributing to something very good! In many cases, especially in small rural communities, there might not be Catholic organizations that are addressing the need we want to address. They’re not perfect, but they’re probably not secretly proselytizing for their problematic religion, either.
The Second Vatican Council in fact encouraged such cooperation in its document Unitatis Redintegratio. “Cooperation among Christians vividly expresses the relationship which in fact already unites them, and it sets in clearer relief the features of Christ the Servant. This cooperation, which has already begun in many countries, should be developed more and more, particularly in regions where a social and technical evolution is taking place be it in a just evaluation of the dignity of the human person, the establishment of the blessings of peace, the application of Gospel principles to social life, the advancement of the arts and sciences in a truly Christian spirit, or also in the use of various remedies to relieve the afflictions of our times such as famine and natural disasters, illiteracy and poverty, housing shortage and the unequal distribution of wealth. All believers in Christ can, through this cooperation, be led to acquire a better knowledge and appreciation of one another, and so pave the way to Christian unity.”
This question was answered by a Fr. Evan Winter, pastor of St. John the Baptist Parish in Minden and Holy Family in Heartwell. Write to Ask the Register using our online form, or write to 3700 Sheridan Blvd., Suite 10, Lincoln NE 68506-6100. All questions are subject to editing. Editors decide which questions to publish. Personal questions cannot be answered. People with such questions are urged to take them to their nearest Catholic priest.
