Are Catholics allowed to have iPhones, etc.?

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As I understand it, remote cooperation with evil involves a decision on how proximate is the cooperation to the evil. However, as I understand it, it also involves proportionally grave reason for even a very remote cooperation.

So, then, with that in mind: Can Catholics own iPhones, iPads, etc since money from companies like Apple often goes to “causes” which Catholics do not approve of?

It would seem that the convenience of having an iPhone when there are other (albeit less convenient in many ways) alternatives, would not be permitted, since this convenience, it would seem, does not compare with the gravity of, say, abortion.

Indeed, it would seem that the Church is OK with Her members buying/owning iPhones, since there are plenty of Catholic apps out there made specifically for the iOS platform.

Can someone please clarify this problem for me?

Also, if you own an iPhone, etc., how do you justify it in the light of this?

Thanks.
 
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I once fretted about buying Coca-Cola because they spend a minute amount of their money on abortion, but then again I pay taxes in a country with universal healthcare and abortion is free here.

I honestly think this would be straining gnats. I have bigger moral issues to deal with.
 
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MysticMissMisty said:
Can Catholics own iPhones, iPads, etc since money from companies like Apple often goes to “causes” which Catholics do not approve of?
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Of course we can.

I don’t think you have quite grasped what cooperation with evil is and isn’t if you think otherwise.
 
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Please, then, don’t just leave it at that. Do lcarify for me what I don’t understand. I have been doing a lot of reading and inquiring about this precisely because of the issue I raised above.
 
Pardon me and please do not take offense, but…Oh Brother.
This theory of yours could be applied to everything in life.
Should we eat vegetables since people who pick vegetables may have at one time or another have been exploited by growers?
What about clothing or furniture manufactured in countries who exploit workers?
Automobiles had taken lives in traffic mishaps, so don’t buy a car?
Hey, should we quit going to Church since there have been some priest defrockings?
 
MysticMissMisty said:
As I understand it, remote cooperation with evil involves a decision on how proximate is the cooperation to the evil. However, as I understand it, it also involves proportionally grave reason for even a very remote cooperation.

So, then, with that in mind: Can Catholics own iPhones, iPads, etc since money from companies like Apple often goes to “causes” which Catholics do not approve of?

It would seem that the convenience of having an iPhone when there are other (albeit less convenient in many ways) alternatives, would not be permitted, since this convenience, it would seem, does not compare with the gravity of, say, abortion.

Indeed, it would seem that the Church is OK with Her members buying/owning iPhones, since there are plenty of Catholic apps out there made specifically for the iOS platform.

Can someone please clarify this problem for me?

Also, if you own an iPhone, etc., how do you justify it in the light of this?

Thanks.
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I would say if you support Apple and purchase their products specifically because you support such causes then that would be problematic. I’m guessing that might be true for a very tiny minority and that’s all.
 
MysticMissMisty said:
Please, then, don’t just leave it at that. Do lcarify for me what I don’t understand. I have been doing a lot of reading and inquiring about this precisely because of the issue I raised above.
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It’s just common sense. Your theory would literally mean Catholics must live on a commune in the woods. It’s impossible to avoid the fact that someone you do business with might use your money for something you don’t approve of. You’d literally have to get rid of the idea of commerce itself and go back to a hunter-gatherer society.
 
Those who have brought up counterexamples against my proposition have mostly brought up those things that are essential to life, e.g., eating bread or vegetables. Now, the examples of buying from specific bands of whatever product that have occasionally been brought up so far might come closer, since there are alternatives to buying from those brands.

However, nowadays, finding alternatives is becoming harder and harder unless we look to specifically Catholic companies where they exist.

However, again, there is the matter of convenience and options offered. That is at the heart of my inquiry. Is convenience/choice/etc. sufficiently “grave” reason in light of companies’ support of, say, abortion to making buying products from them not sinful? Why or why not?
 
Rob2 said:
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I will have to find it, but someone posted a similar picture showing men standing on a street corner, all absorbed in their newspapers and not making eye contact with eachother - it is from the 1920s or 1930s - i forget. Ditto when i used to ride a subway – everyone had a nose in a book or paper. The photo is not showing anything inherently new.
 
But, what if you know that some of your money is going to causes you don’t support? Is it still morally correct to buy from such companies because of the benefits they provide?
 
MysticMissMisty said:
But, what if you know that some of your money is going to causes you don’t support? Is it still morally correct to buy from such companies because of the benefits they provide?
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I don’t think morality is relevant in such a decision unless like I said, you are buying from these companies specifically because of these causes. As far as I’m concerned, if I buy an iPhone, there’s a far better chance my $ is being used for “morally right” causes such as to pay salaries, pay for R&D, innovate in green technology and on.
 
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Do you realize how interconnected the global economy is? There’s no entity you can do business with where your money will be guaranteed not to end up somewhere unsavory eventually. At some point the connection is so remote it’s basically “meh”.

Material cooperation would be like “this store is selling a particular style of t-shirt and announcing that 100% of the proceeds will go to funding abortions.” Something remote like buying toothpaste at a drug store that also sells condoms doesn’t qualify.
 
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All of you have, so far, avoided the issue of the graveness of matters like abortion vs. the convenience of owing a specific major brand like Apple’s iPhone.

How would you answer to the charge that abortion is far graver than the positive aspect of obtaining convenience through purchasing an iPhone?

(Now, guys, I myself have an iPhone! This is why this issue concerns me so much.)
 
MysticMissMisty said:
All of you have, so far, avoided the issue of the graveness of matters like abortion vs. the convenience of owing a specific major brand like Apple’s iPhone.

How would you answer to the charge that abortion is far graver than the positive aspect of obtaining convenience through purchasing an iPhone?
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No one is avoiding it. You’re avoiding the fact that “cooperation” can more or less remote. That’s why it specifically says “material” cooperation.

There’s no bright line here or specific list. You just have to use your common sense as to when remote cooperation with evil becomes material.
 
Apple does not provide abortions.

Whether to buy a specific product that is itself morally neutral from a company that is itself not engaged in immoral activity is a prudential matter.
 
MysticMissMisty said:
All of you have, so far, avoided the issue of the graveness of matters like abortion vs. the convenience of owing a specific major brand like Apple’s iPhone.

How would you answer to the charge that abortion is far graver than the positive aspect of obtaining convenience through purchasing an iPhone?

(Now, guys, I myself have an iPhone! This is why this issue concerns me so much.)
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See my reply above. If you didn’t buy the phone specifically to support abortion (not sure what Apples’ stance is on that but just as an example) then no you are not supporting abortion, nor are you in material cooperation with it.
 
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I get the issue of formal/material and how remote/proximate one is to evil, but I also thought there was language in this aspect of moral theology that dealt also with the gravity of the evil vs. the gravity of the good that can result from even remote cooperation, or am I wrong about this?
 
While companies like this may not stick a sugrical instrument, well, you get it, it could be argued that they support the provision of abortion by providing funding to organizations that do more directly participate.
 
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