(di David Ward. Fonte: The Guardian)
There will be no red noses in three Catholic schools in south Wales on Friday because church leaders claim money raised by Comic Relief will be used to fund abortions. Pupils will be encouraged instead to raise money for a Catholic international aid charity. The move follows the decision last week by the head of a primary school in Birmingham to ban red nose collections, branding them an “insidious attempt” to provide cash for organisations involved in “a moral evil”. In Wales, three large schools in the diocese of Menevia, which has had a policy of not supporting Comic Relief for 15 years, will be affected: St Joseph’s in Port Talbot, Bishop Vaughan in Swansea and St John Lloyd in Llanelli. “We have advised the schools not to raise money for Comic Relief this year simply because in the past money raised has gone to agencies supporting abortion,” said Father Michael Burke, spokesman for the diocese. He said the organisation had not been able to satisfy itself that no money raised would go towards abortion, which is against the ethos of the Catholic church. “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.” 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.” Comic Relief was launched in 1985 to raise money to help alleviate famine in Africa. The first red nose day was held three years later. Its television appeal, hosted by Lenny Henry, Griff Rhys Jones and Jonathan Ross, raised more than £15m. Over the last 17 years, the organisation has collected more than £250m from eight red nose days.