A bit of a controversy in Alberta over gambling and Catholic school funding:

Calgary bishop Fred Henry has threatened to blacklist Catholic schools that continue to depend on gambling as a source of "immoral" fundraising for cash-strapped schools.

The Globe and Mail reports that Calgary’s influential bishop has issued a damning indictment of a local school board’s decision to continue to use gambling as a source of fundraising for its cash-strapped schools.

In a letter sent last week to each of the 97 schools in the Calgary Catholic School District, Bishop Henry threatened "blacklisting" of schools that engage in "immoral fundraising," as well as stripping them of their Catholic designation, and announced that he won’t preside at the liturgy to open the school year.

"It is morally wrong for a Catholic institution to formally cooperate in an industry that exploits the weak and the vulnerable," he wrote. "The end does not justify the means."

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