Are Catholics allowed to have iPhones, etc.?

  • Thread starter Thread starter MysticMissMisty
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So, which platform doesn’t support “causes” Catholics don’t approve of? Google/Android? Microsoft?

Methinks you may want to consider doing away with mobile phone use altogether.
 
MysticMissMisty said:
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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No I really can’t be argued that that results in the type of cooperation with evil that would require one to cease doing business with them because it would rise to the level of formal, immediate, or proximate cooperation. I don’t believe these types of scenarios rise even to remote cooperation with evil.
 
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 think it would be different if Apple said they were now a non-profit raising money by selling their products to fund Planned Parenthood.

Or if they said “abortion will be the only charity we support.”

Most corporations donate to groups like planned parenthood through an employee donation match program. They typically do not choose such groups as a primary charity recipient.

Groups like Apple usually choose groups like educational/scholarship organizations, the United Way, disaster relief funds, and human rights organizations.

They rarely give directly to controversial groups like Planned Parenthood or religious charities. But when they do, it’s usually due to employee matching programs.
 
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Well, if we only chose to use technologies and buy from companies that were lockstep in line with Catholic morality, none of us would be having this online conversion right now.
 
Actually, I will concede that what you say here makes the cooperation even more remote. Still, the companies do permit donations to such organizations as PP…

At any rate, it is difficult to find anything more grave than abortion these days as far as something that is widely supported by companies in various ways, and I agree that it is very hard to find companies that absolutely in no way support abortion “causes”.

Still, would we be required to support smaller companies, since less money would likely be available to support abortion, even if convenience is reduced?
 
Point taken, but my concern is pri8marily with very grave matter such as abortion or other sexual sins.
 
Interesting point…

It’s kind of like Catholic organizations such as EWTN offering apps for iPhone…

Again, this is what would suggest to me that the Church is fine with this kind of thing, but I’d just like to know why, given the issue with comparative gravity of evil vs. good that results…
 
MysticMissMisty said:
Interesting point…

It’s kind of like Catholic organizations such as EWTN offering apps for iPhone…

Again, this is what would suggest to me that the Church is fine with this kind of thing, but I’d just like to know why, given the issue with comparative gravity of evil vs. good that results…
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Because the corporation is remote.

If Planned Parenthood was selling iPhones as a fundraiser, it would be immoral to buy one from them.

But not buying an Apple product because employees are offered up to $10,000 in matching charitable donations is isn’t a really good reason.

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What is a smartphone alternative of a company that would not have any involvement with issues contrary to Catholic moral code?
 
most of the time I post on CAF with my dear I phone. It is a wonderful piece of technology made by a secular company I don’t particularly care for.
 
This flowchart does seem to confirm the OP’s theory I hadn’t heard of before, where in addition to formal/material and remote/proximal there is an axis of the relative sizes of good and evil

But to calculate the size of the evil we can’t just say “how bad is abortion”, we’d need to know how much of the money is going into abortion. If one cent from a $400 phone goes to abortion, that doesn’t seem like a big evil
 
MysticMissMisty said:
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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Whaat? 🤔 What are you even asking? I don’t understand.

Abortion is far graver than the positive aspect of obtaining convenience through purchasing an iPhone.
 
Irishmom2 said:
Abortion is far graver than the positive aspect of obtaining convenience through purchasing an iPhone.
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That’s her point. She’s wondering how we can justify buying an iPhone, having some of the profits going to abortion when abortion is so grave.
 
As someone stated earlier, Apple is not providing abortions. If I buy an Apple phone, I am not doing so to support Apples charities, I am buying a product.
 
FWIW, there’s a list of companies who support Planned Parenthood and Apple is not one of them.

They do however give money by employee matching to “anti-hate” groups like the SPLC which are certainly on the far left side of the spectrum and who have butted heads with the pro life movement.
 
Exactly what I’ve been saying all along. I’m glad someone finally picked up on it.

So, then, are Catholic organizations violating moral law when they associate themselves in any way with Apple or companies like it who have connections bo abortion because this sin is so grave in comparieson with convenience gotten from these companies? I have yet to receive a good answer to this one…which worries me. Should we, then, all give up our iPhones, etc. and/or refuse to buy these things in the future because of he “gravity clause” situation here?

This subject, including reference to the “gravity clause” first came up on an EWTN show and that is what encouraged me to post this topic. The host did state that, if one’s company made people use iPhones for their work, this would be morally licit, but he made NO reference to buying/using one personally – a stark omission, in my view, because I thought it was clear that was what I was getting at. (I was also not given a chance to follow up with this aspect of the matter, so that’s why I’m posting here.)

Any help with this topic is still appreciated.
 
I’m also wondering if all facotrs must be taken into account at the same time.

I was reading an article on this subject a bit ago and it seemed that the author might have been stating that both the distance from the sin AND the gravity must be taken into account TOGETHER so that, according to my understanding, something can be proportionally more grave, but, if the distance is very great, it is not considered a sin (?).
 
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