Catholic Schools in Wales Ban Comic Relief amid Abortion Controversy

It has been reported that three Catholic Schools in south Wales have banned Red Nose Day this coming Friday. The Guardian newspaper has alleged that the ban has been imposed by the schools because certain church leaders have claimed that the money raised by the charity day would be used to fund abortions.

Instead of raising money for the famous fund raising day, which uses comedy as the theme of raising money for the UK and Africa, the schools will be encouraging their pupils to raise money for a Catholic International Aid Charity.

The three schools that are opting out of Red Nose Day, are from the diocese of Menevia in Wales, which has continued its policy of not supporting the charity day for 15 years.

The news follows the decision made last week by a primary school in Birmingham, which banned collections for Red Nose Day, also known as Comic Relief. The Head of the school was reported by the Guardian newspaper as labelling the fund raiser as an "insidious attempt" to provide cash for organisations involved in "moral evil".

The spokesperson for the diocese of Menevia, Father Michael Burke said, "We have advised the schools not to raise money for Comic Relief this year because in the past money raised has gone to agencies supporting abortion."

The Catholic Church is strictly against abortions, and Burke went on to say that they could not be sure that no money raised would go towards abortion, hence the reason for the diocese’s decision.

Father Burke said, "The Catholic faith holds all life as sacred. Some Catholic schools in the UK have won the assurance from Comic Relief that any money they contribute will not go to fund abortions and are supporting the cause. We [too] have asked that no money raised should support abortions but they could not give us that assurance. If people want to raise money we would suggest they send any money to organisations such as Cafod [the Catholic Fund for Overseas Development] instead."

In response to the decision by the three Catholic schools, a spokesman for Comic Relief said, "In 2000 we opened dialogue with the Catholic bishops of England and Wales to help communicate the facts. They issued a statement confirming that after careful examination of our records, they were satisfied with Comic Relief's assurance that we do not fund and have never funded abortion services or the promotion of abortions."

This year is also the tenth anniversary of Comic Relief. Since its launch in 1985, Comic Relief has raised over £337 million, and during the last Red Nose Day in 2003, the total funds raised in the UK topped 60 million pounds. 40% of the money raised through Red Nose Day is allocated to work in the UK and 60% goes directly to work in Africa.

The boycott of collections for Comic Relief will be held in St Joseph’s in Port Talbot, Bishop Vaughan in Swansea and St John Lloyd in Llanelli.