ok to use a cffunction to output a query ?

Is it ok to pass a parameter to a cffunction, perform a select query, then finally output the result ?

Can someone show me how to call the function and output the result of the query ?

<cffunction name="func_getCats" returntype="query">

  <cfargument name="department">

  <cfset var getCat=""/>

  <cfquery name="getCat" datasource=#APPLICATION.datasource#>

    SELECT category

    FROM test

    WHERE department = #arguments.department#

    </cfquery>

  <cfreturn getCat/>

</cffunction>