Letter "Samaritanus Bonus", of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith -- On the Care of Persons in Critical or Terminal Phases of Life

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Letter

SAMARITANUS BONUS

on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life

Introduction

The Good Samaritan who goes out of his way to aid an injured man (cf. Lk 10:30-37) signifies Jesus Christ who encounters man in need of salvation and cares for his wounds and suffering with “the oil of consolation and the wine of hope”.^[1] He is the physician of souls and bodies, “the faithful witness” (Rev 3:14) of the divine salvific presence in the world. How to make this message concrete today? How to translate it into a readiness to accompany a suffering person in the terminal stages of life in this world, and to offer this assistance in a way that respects and promotes the intrinsic human dignity of persons who are ill, their vocation to holiness, and thus the highest worth of their existence?

The remarkable progressive development of biomedical technologies has exponentially enlarged the clinical proficiency of diagnostic medicine in patient care and treatment. The Church regards scientific research and technology with hope, seeing in them promising opportunities to serve the integral good of life and the dignity of every human being.^[2] Nonetheless, advances in medical technology, though precious, cannot in themselves define the proper meaning and value of human life. In fact, every technical advance in healthcare calls for growth in moral discernment^[3] to avoid an unbalanced and dehumanizing use of the technologies especially in the critical or terminal stages of human life.

Moreover, the organizational management and sophistication, as well as the complexity of contemporary healthcare delivery, can reduce to a purely technical and impersonal relationship the bond of trust between physician and patient. This danger arises particularly where governments have enacted legislation to legalize forms of assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia among the most vulnerable of the sick and infirm. The ethical and legal boundaries that protect the self-determination of the sick person are transgressed by such legislation, and, to a worrying degree, the value of human life during times of illness, the meaning of suffering, and the significance of the interval preceding death are eclipsed. Pain and death do not constitute the ultimate measures of the human dignity that is proper to every person by the very fact that they are “human beings”.

In the face of challenges that affect the very way we think about medicine, the significance of the care of the sick, and our social responsibility toward the most vulnerable, the present letter seeks to enlighten pastors and the faithful regarding their questions and uncertainties about medical care, and their spiritual and pastoral obligations to the sick in the critical and terminal stages of life. All are called to give witness at the side of the sick person and to become a “healing community” in order to actualize concretely the desire of Jesus that, beginning with the most weak and vulnerable, all may be one flesh.^[4] It is widely recognized that a moral and practical clarification regarding care of these persons is needed. In this sensitive area comprising the most delicate and decisive stages of a person’s life, a “unity of teaching and practice is certainly necessary.”^[5]

For the record: Cardinal Müller's letter to Bishop Fellay on the necessary conditions for "full re-establishment of communion" with the SSPX

Last weekend, as rumors swirled of Cardinal Müller's imminent dismissal from his post as Prefect of the CDF, the French website Medias-Presse.Info published what it claimed to be an excerpt from an important letter sent by the Cardinal to Bishop Bernard Fellay regarding the conditions for an accord between the Vatican and the SSPX. Today the Remnant published an English translation of this excerpt; we reproduce the entire Remnant article below, followed by a note on the 1988 Professio Fidei mentioned in it.  

Rorate's own sources have confirmed the authenticity of this text. 

Commentary: CDF instruction on cremation - affirming the status quo while opening the door to further concessions.Zenit report: Cardinal Müller clarifies -- "not a mortal sin", "not prohibited" to scatter ashes of the deceased or turn these to mementos

Merely a preference.

The new CDF instruction on burial and cremation, which was released yesterday, is being hailed in the Catholic media as a reaffirmation of the Church's "strong preference" for burial. One finds headlines that speak of the document as putting "restrictions" on cremation, or as instituting "strict conditions" upon it. Unfortunately, after a careful reading of the document and considering the pervasive culture of permissions and exceptions in the Church, we are compelled to come to different conclusions.

To put the new instruction in context, we need to revisit the first document by which the Holy See relaxed the traditional ban on cremation on a global scale: the instruction Piam et constantem, issued by the Holy Office in 1963 and published in L' Osservatore Romano and Acta Apostolicae Sedis the following year. (An English translation of this document can be found here.) Written with the customary brevity and clarity of the old Holy Office, it speaks of the various temporal reasons that compelled the Holy Office to "relax somewhat the prescriptions of canon law touching on cremation". Henceforth, cremation was permitted, as long as it was not chosen due to "anti-Christian motives". However, it remained officially discouraged (even if no longer forbidden). This was made abundantly clear in the first and fourth articles of the instruction:

All necessary measures must be taken to preserve the practice of reverently burying the faithful departed. Accordingly, through proper instruction and persuasion Ordinaries are to ensure that the faithful refrain from cremation and not discontinue the practice of burial except when forced to do so by necessity. For the Church has always maintained the practice of burial and consecrated it through liturgical rites.

***

The devout attitude of the faithful toward the ecclesiastical tradition must be kept from being harmed and the Church's adverse attitude toward cremation must be clearly evident. Therefore the rites of ecclesiastical burial and the ensuing suffrages may never be carried out at the place of cremation itself, not even simply to accompany the body as it is being brought there.

Iuvenescit EcclesiaLetter Regarding the Relationship Between Hierarchical and Charismatic Gifts in the Life and the Mission of the Church

CONGREGATION FOR THE DOCTRINE OF THE FAITH

Letter “Iuvenescit Ecclesia” to the Bishops of the Catholic Church

Regarding the Relationship Between Hierarchical and Charismatic Gifts

in the Life and the Mission of the Church

Introduction

The gifts of the Holy Spirit in the Church in mission

1. The Church rejuvenates in the power of the Gospel and the Spirit continually renews her, builds her up, and guides her “with hierarchical and charismatic gifts”.[1] The Second Vatican Council has repeatedly highlighted the marvelous work of the Holy Spirit that sanctifies the People of God, guides it, adorns it with virtue, and enrichens it with special graces for her edification. As the Fathers love to show, the action of the divine Paraclete in the Church is multiform. John Chrysostom writes: “What gifts that work for our salvation are not given freely by the Holy Spirit? Through Him we are freed from slavery and called to liberty; we are led to adoption as children and, one might say, formed anew, after having laid down the heavy and hateful burden of our sins. Through the Holy Spirit we see assemblies of priests and we possess ranks of doctors; from this source spring forth gifts of revelation, healing graces, and all of the other charisms that adorn the Church of God”.[2] Thanks to the Church’s life itself, to the numerous Magisterial interventions, and to theological research, happily the awareness has grown of the multiform action of the Holy Spirit in the Church, thus arousing a particular attentiveness to the charismatic gifts by which at all times the People of God are enriched in order to carry out their mission.

Important - Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith responds: Transsexual cannot be Godparent

The Bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta, Spain, Bp. Rafael Zornoza, was the object of intense media persecution in his country after he refused the request of a lady (now claiming to be a "man") from being the "godfather". In early August, it seemed that he had caved in. As Breitbart reported on August 8, "A Spanish bishop has caved in to pressure and allowed a transsexual man to become a godfather. The Bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta will now allow Alex Salinas, who was born a woman, to become godfather to his nephew, his local parish priest has said."

Alas, thankfully, that was not exactly the case. Today, the Bishop of Cádiz and Ceuta published a long communiqué, which includes this central excerpt (first translation in English of the relevant CDF response):

[Bishop:]... Considering the disorientation caused among some of the faithful by some words having been attributed to me that I had not pronounced, and due to the complexity and media relevance of this subject, taking into consideration the possible pastoral consequences of any decision regarding it, I raised up a formal consultation before the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, whose response was:

On the 25th Anniversary of the CDF's Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian

On May 24, 1990, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith published one of the most important documents of the postconciliar period: the Instruction on the Ecclesial Vocation of the Theologian,or more succinctly, Donum Veritatis.

Four Days After Synod Closes, CDF responds officially: NO COMMUNION FOR "REMARRIED" DIVORCEES WHO LIVE AS IF THEY WERE MARRIED, PERIOD. - Full text -

INDISSOLUBLE MEANS INDISSOLUBLE

Father Claude Barthe

[French Catholic periodical] L'Homme Nouveau

November 12, 2014

Nova et Vetera Publishes Multilingual Response to Cardinal Kasper - And an explosive revelation on the upcoming Synod

A reliable source has informed us that a certain bishop in Germany is worried about the direction preparations for the upcoming Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family are taking. The bishop is said to have claimed that supporters of Cardinal Kasper's proposals have taken steps (apparently successfully) to limit the involvement of the Cardinal Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. To understand why some have pushed Cardinal Müller aside, remember this.

Meanwhile, the Journal Nova et Vetera has published a response to Cardinal Kasper's proposals by eight American theologians, seven of them Dominicans, and most of them professors at Pontifical faculties of theology. The response, simultaneously published in English, German, Spanish, French, and Italian, comprehensively refutes the innovations proposed by Cardinal Kasper, showing point for point how they contradict the perennial Tradition of the Church.

_________________________

- DEUTSCH - Neue Vorschläge für die pastorale Sorge bezüglich der Geschiedenen und Wiederverheirateten: Eine theologische Bewertung

- ENGLISH - Recent Proposals for the Pastoral Care of the Divorced and Remarried: A Theological Assessment

- ESPAÑOL - Propuestas recientes para la atención pastoral de las personas divorciadas y vueltas a casar: un análisis teológico

- FRANÇAIS - Récentes propositions pour l’accompagnement pastoral des personnes divorcées remariées - Évaluation théologique

- ITALIANO - Recenti proposte per la Pastorale dei divorziati risposati: Una valutazione teologica