Moral Dilemmas for a Catholic Contractor

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I am not a contractor myself, but I work with them a great deal, and I was thinking about this at work today. In this scenario, a Catholic contractor has the opportunity to bid on the following construction projects:
  1. An abortion clinic.
  2. An office for an abortion provider. This office is purely for administration; no abortions are performed and no contraception is provided.
  3. A venue where homosexual marriage ceremonies will take place; the venue is secular, and heterosexual ceremonies, traditional or otherwise, will also take place.
  4. A Mormon church.
  5. An Orthodox church.
  6. A sedevacantist Catholic church.
Which of these projects, if any, will it be sinful for the contractor to accept?
 
None, with perhaps the exception of the Orthodox Church since it is a part of a true particular Church. But, it would depend because is some places the Orthodox discriminate against and supress the practice of the Catholic faith, such as countries where they retain political influence and have pressued governments to expel Catholic priest or forbid the erecting of Catholic Churches. In such a country, no a Catholic should not take such a job.
 
1ke said:
None, with perhaps the exception of the Orthodox Church since it is a part of a true particular Church. But, it would depend because is some places the Orthodox discriminate against and supress the practice of the Catholic faith, such as countries where they retain political influence and have pressued governments to expel Catholic priest or forbid the erecting of Catholic Churches. In such a country, no a Catholic should not take such a job.
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You said “none”, but I suspect you meant “all”.

I hope I’m right!!
 
The_Iambic_Pen said:
I am not a contractor myself, but I work with them a great deal, and I was thinking about this at work today. In this scenario, a Catholic contractor has the opportunity to bid on the following construction projects:

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Which of these projects, if any, will it be sinful for the contractor to accept?
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What would be the sin that is committed by the contractor? Also, what level of knowledge does the contractor have for the purpose of the buildings, other than the actual churches?

In a similar vein, new public sidewalks on city streets might be required to access these structures. (Public) Utilities would need to be installed to the site (not within the site). Police and fire protection would be required for the new structures. Insurance would need to be provided. You see where I am going. All of these may be provided by Catholic workers, supervisors and maybe contractors. At what point is there NO sin?
 
Catholic builder/contractor should turn down the job, with the possible exception of the Orthodox church.

Subcontractors…different postion, methinks. The facility doesn’t get built without a contractor/builder agreeing to build it, but a subcontractor works on a project already in the works. The argument could be made that it’s easy to find an electrician or plumber to do the site work, and that the project will be completed with or without their help (the builder could use any one of a number of subcontractors for the project).

Now it could be agued the same applies to a builder/contractor, and I can see that side too. However, I think that a subcontractor is similar in moral responsibility in such a situation as, say, someone who is supplying the office supplies for such a facility.

Since it is possible that the structure could someday be used for a different, “better” purpose i.e. the abortion clinic could go out of business and be used by a morally upright medical purpose, that may be a factor as well. I would say that a special-purpose building that could have no other use would be less of a moral “mitigator”, although I can’t think of any specific examples of how a building could be of such a special purpose that it could not be easily modified for a more moral use.

So the question is, is it sinful? I think this is a prudential matter where conscious plays a big role i.e. that it’s not clearcut matter, especially for those not in charge of the entire project.

Personally, given the choice between such a project and another project, it would seem prudent to go with another project.
 
Thank you for the replies. I wonder if it would be different for a laborer, who did not choose the project. If I was, for example, a bricklayer, I could see myself refusing to build the abortion clinic or the abortion office, but I would probably work on the other projects. We still have to be in the world, if not of it.

Perhaps intent matters. If one’s intent is simply to build a building, and the best building one can, that would not be the same as wanting to enable abortion, heresy, or schism.
 
mark_a said:
You said “none”, but I suspect you meant “all”.

I hope I’m right!!
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Yes, I misread the phrasing of the final question.

You are correct. They should refuse all, take none (except possibly the Orthodox church building).
 
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