The President of the Pontifical Academy for Life: "Personally I would not practice assisted suicide, but..."

It is pretty safe to say that, since its "reform" in late 2016, the Pontifical Academy for Life has become a withered husk of its former self, embroiled in controversy after controversy under its current president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia - from damaging statements on abortion, to suggestions that the Church's teaching on contraception in Humanae vitae is "reformable", to some of its members (even the 'Catholic' ones!) being openly against Church teaching on life issues. 

Perhaps, then, it should not come as too much of a surprise that the Academy's president is in favour of the liberalisation of euthanasia laws. Archbishop Paglia, in a speech to the International Festival of Journalism in Perugia, Italy, said on April 19 that: 

[I]t cannot be excluded that in our society a legal mediation is feasible which allows assisted suicide in the conditions specified by the [Italian] Constitutional Court's Judgment 242/2019... The bill approved by the Chamber of Deputies (but not by the Senate) basically followed this line. Personally I would not practice assisted suicide, but I understand that legal mediation can constitute the greatest common good concretely possible in the conditions in which we find ourselves. (Italian text; video)

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]

De Mattei - Forty years against life: from abortion to euthanasia (1978-2017)

Roberto de Mattei

Corrispondenza Romana

December 20, 2017

 

The Renzi-Gentiloni governments will go down in history as those that imposed two of the most wicked laws in the Italian Republic: pseudo-homosexual-marriage, called “Civil Unions” (May 20^th 2016) and euthanasia, under the name of the “living will" or DAT (Dichiarazione anticipata di trattamento [Declaration Advance of Treatment]), approved definitively by the Senate on December 14^th 2017. This law will be registered in the Official Journal on the fortieth anniversary of the legalization of abortion, which  passed on May 22, 1978 with Law 194.  Thus the circle closes.

The Great Division: End-of-Life measures, French-style -- “L’Osservatore Romano” in favor of France's "camouflaged Euthanasia"

Now, even regarding such a delicate (and yet clear-cut) issue as euthanasia, lack of clarity leads to division, even in Rome itself. Regarding the new French euthanasia bill, the Italian Bishops' Conference daily, Avvenire, says one thing (condemning it), and the official paper of the Holy See, L'Osservatore Romano, says another.

From Sandro Magister's Italian-only blog:

"Taking care does not mean killing": anti-euthanasia protest by pro-life activists in Paris

The End of Life, French-Style: “Avvenire” votes against it. “L’Osservatore Romano”, in favor.

Sandro Magister

Settimo Cielo*

March 19, 2015

“A balanced response” . With this title. in large bold letters, “L’Osservatore Romano” [edition] of March 19th positively acknowledged the approval by the French National Assembly (with 436 votes against 34) of the bill on the end of life, which took the name of the two senators who presented it: Jean Leonetti and Alain Claeys.

Pope Francis: "When a society loses its memory, it's over: we need to help Europe find her roots once again!"

The Pope returns once again to the issue of the preservation of memory.

When the elderly are discarded, when the elderly are isolated and sometimes pass away without affection, it is a very bad sign! ... A people that does not take care of its elders, that does not take care of its young people, is a people without a future, a people without hope. Because young people -- children, the youth -- and the elderly advance History forward. Children, young people, true, with their biological force. The elderly, by giving them memory. But when a society loses its memory, it's over, it's over! It's sad to see a society, a people, a culture that has lost its memory. ...

In order to maintain the current balance, in which, at the center of the world economy, one finds not man and woman, but the idol of money, it is necessary to discard things. Children are discarded: hence, no children. Just think about the [population] growth rate of children in Europe: in Italy, Spain, France... And the elderly are discarded, with attitudes behind which is hidden euthanasia, a kind of euthanasia. They are not needed, and what you do not need, you discard. ...

And now the crisis is so great that young people are discarded. when we think of these 75 million young people aged 25 years and under, who are "neither-nor", neither working nor studying. They lack it. It is happening today, in this tired Europe ... . In this Europe that is tired; she's not old, no, she's tired. I don't know what to do.

A friend of mine made me a question some time ago: why don't I speak of Europe. I pointed out the ruse, I told him: "Have you heard me speaking of Asia?", And he realized it was a ruse! Today, I do speak of Europe. Europe is tired. We have to help her rejuvenate, find her roots. It's true she has disowned her roots. It 's true. But we need help her find them anew.

Franciscus

Visit to Basilica of Santa Maria in Trastevere [in italiano]

June 15, 2014

[Note: colloquial style kept]