Job-related morality

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giuseppe96

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Sorry I couldn’t think of a good title. I work as a delivery driver for a local florist in the Dallas area. Tomorrow, one of my deliveries is for a funeral at a well-known Protestant homosexual church in downtown Dallas (Cathedral of Hope). I can’t exactly opt out of taking deliveries to certain locations (unless it’s a high crime area after dark). Am I morally bound to refuse to take this delivery? I don’t want to show that I condone the homosexual lifestyle.
 
No, you are delivering a product to a funeral home. You didn’t create the order or participate in the service.
 
It’s a funeral. Sending/delivering flowers to a funeral in no way violates any teaching of the Church, nor does it necessarily have anything to do with condoning anything. Dead people, regardless of sexual orientation, can and should receive flowers at their passing. Secondly, it’s your job and most people can’t afford to leave their job, jeopardizing their legitimate responsibilities and obligations on the turn of a dime like that. Thirdly, if you are concerned about delivering flowers to celebrate a SS marriage or surrogacy parenting, it would be something to pray over and discern, followed by a time period where you weigh your options, continue to meet your obligations and try to find alternate and equal employment. JMO
 
You’re helping to honour the dead and bring comfort to bereaved people. The fact that Protestantism and homosexuality are involved is beside the point. If you work for a florist you will probably deliver flowers for all sorts of people and occasions. For example, you will probably at some point deliver flowers to or for somebody having an extramarital affair. That is not your problem any more than it is the bus driver’s problem if one of his passengers commits a sin when he reaches his destination.
 
Bury the dead is a work of mercy. Assisting with a funeral in almost any capacity is a good thing.
 
Please refrain from comments like these. These issues may be clear-cut to some of us Catholics, but not for others.
 
No, you aren’t morally bound to refuse this delivery. Someone has passed away and you are merely providing something that could help in honoring the person that has passed. You can put aside your feelings on sexual ethics for the deceased. God alone will judge them in death, that is not for you to do. We should show empathy for those who have lost someone they love, regardless of whether they’re Protestant and weren’t living by what the Church teaches.
 
I’m serious, but also scrupulous it would seem. I strive for perfection, and I’m still young and ignorant. I’ve never had to deliver to a homosexual occasion before.
 
Because it is at a church that openly celebrates homosexuality. Again, I’m young and inexperienced.
 
What does any of that have to do with this funeral for which you’ll be delivering these flowers? Even if this weren’t a funeral. Let’s say they ordered flowers from your company to decorate their altar. So what? What is it to you? What does that have anything to do with you and your own personal culpability in sin?
 
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I’ve never been in this scenario before. I don’t know what to think. I’ll take the delivery, but I wanted to check with more experienced Catholics on their thoughts regarding this matter.
 
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As Catholics we should be concerned with the extent to which we might be cooperating with the evil actions of another, and the Church has defined these and has judged when it is morally licit to engage (e.g. Formal Cooperation vs. Material Cooperation, Immediate vs. Mediate Cooperation, Proximate vs. Remote Cooperation, etc.) The thing is you have to start with an actual evil act that you might be facilitating. Funerals are not evil. Even funerals for gay people. Even funerals held in churches that otherwise “embrace homosexuality”. Indeed, burying the dead is a corporal work of mercy!
 
How are you condoning any “lifestyle” by delivering flowers in memory of a person who is dead? You’re not delivering flowers for a gay orgy.

The person is dead, they have gone before the final judge, they are not living any “lifestyle” any more, it’s over. The people at the funeral are going to be there praying and mourning, not living any “lifestyle” except the human one of grieving their lost loved one or friend.

Burying the Dead is one of the Catholic corporal works of mercy. Providing funeral flowers is part of burying the dead. You should be helping to send this person off to his final rest and also saying a quick prayer for his soul.
 
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Just wanted to add, if you didn’t want to deliver the flowers to a gay wedding, that would be different and I would understand you refusing to do it then.
 
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