Month: May 2018

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Disability groups oppose using botanist’s death to advance assisted suicide agenda

May 10, 2018 CNA Daily News 2

Bern, Switzerland, May 10, 2018 / 05:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Botanist and ecologist David Goodall ended his life May 10 in Switzerland by assisted suicide, a procedure which he had long advocated legalizing in his home country of Australia.

Goodall, 104, told journalists that he “looked forward” to ending his life and regretted not having ended it sooner, though he is not terminally ill. He also said he regretted that he had to travel all the way to Switzerland commit suicide.

Australia’s Victoria state has passed an assisted suicide law that will go into effect in 2019, but it only allows for terminally ill patients to end their lives – Goodall would not have qualified under the law.

Critics have said that Goodall’s death was not simply a personal choice, but a political one that could have devastating consequences on vulnerable populations such as the elderly, the poor, and the disabled.

“It was clear he wanted to go out while getting a lot of attention,” said Stephen Drake, a research analyst with the advocacy group Not Dead Yet, a disability rights group which opposes the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia “as deadly forms of discrimination.”

“If someone acts as he does, for people to call it a personal act is a lie; it was a political act,” Drake told CNA.

Only a handful of countries have legalized assisted suicide or euthanasia, including Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. In Switzerland, while assisted suicide is technically not legal, it is allowed under certain circumstances.

In the United States, assisted suicide is currently legal in Colorado, Vermont, Washington, California, Oregon, Hawaii, and the District of Columbia. The State Supreme Court of Montana decriminalized assisted suicide for physicians in 2009.

Currently, most legislation that allows for assisted suicide or euthanasia does so only in the cases of terminally ill patients.

However, Goodall’s case demonstrates that this is only the beginning for assisted suicide advocates, Drake noted.

Terminal illness is “the wedge issue that most people can agree on, that opens the door,” he said.

“Once you open the door, then the campaign becomes to kick it open as far as you can, and it shows that opponents in Australia who’ve been fighting to prevent the legalization of assisted suicide and euthanasia are right on target when they say that this will begin to expand in very short order,” he added.

“Now the cause will be: why are we preventing poor old people from ending their lives?” he said.

Other vulnerable and undervalued populations, such as the poor and disabled, will be similarly at risk, he noted.

Matt Valliere, executive director of Patients Rights Action Fund, told CNA in e-mail comments that it would “be a mistake” to use Goodall’s death as an example in advocating for legalized assisted suicide.

“We know that legalizing assisted suicide only places the vulnerable at greater risk. Mr. Goodall himself had no terminal illness and yet was given lethal medication,” Valliere said.

“That is why many sick, poor, elderly and persons with disabilities oppose these laws – they will be the first to suffer from them.”

What concerns disability and advocacy groups most about legalizing assisted suicide and euthanasia is the potential for coercion and corruption – that suicide will become a “rational choice” for some undervalued populations, and their deaths seen as a duty rather than an unpreventable tragedy, Drake said.

“They will no longer be viewed as preventable tragedies but rational (ways) to end a life of suffering,” he said.

“But if you talk to people with disabilities, the suffering they will cite is not the disability itself, but the barriers and discrimination and open hostility they encounter in the culture they live in.”

Studies have shown that the majority of patients who request assisted suicide will withdraw that request when they are treated for depression. There have also been several cases of botched deaths in Oregon, in which a patient’s doctor was not present during the assisted suicide. Oregon has seen many abuses since since its legalization of assisted suicide, such as cases of pills changing hands, either intentionally or unknowingly, with lethal results.

Another concern is that suicide for vulnerable populations will be seen as a smart economic choice, Drake said.

Derek Humphry, founder of the Hemlock Society (now two organizations – Compassion and Choices, and Final Exit Network), wrote in 2000 about the “unspoken argument” for assisted suicide – that it would be cheaper to let the elderly and disabled die than to keep them alive.

“As technology advances, as medical costs skyrocket out of control, as chronic diseases predominate, as the projected rate of the eighty-five-and-older population accelerates, as managed care seeks to cut costs and as Medicare is predicted to go bankrupt by 2007, the impetus of cost containment provide impetus, whether openly acknowledged or not, for the practicalities of an assisted death,” Humphry wrote in his book Freedom to Die: people, politics, and the right-to-die movement.

Drake noted: “It’s one thing for me to say that, it’s another thing for Derek Humphry, who embodies the assisted suicide movement, to say it.”

Drake said that advocates for assisted suicide “either discount those concerns or frankly they don’t care, they figure the people who might be hurt by this won’t be them, and I think that’s what it boils down to.”

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Taiwan’s bishops gather at the Vatican for first time in 10 years

May 10, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, May 10, 2018 / 10:29 am (CNA/EWTN News).- The bishops of the Republic of China, also known as Taiwan, arrived in Rome earlier this week ahead of meetings with the pope and other Vatican officials – the first such visit in 10 years, and their first meeting with Francis since his election.

The delegation of seven bishops will meet with the pope next week for an ad limina visit – a customary meeting for diocesan bishops to give an update on the state of their dioceses – which typically takes place every five years.

The bishops of Taiwan last made an ad limina visit in December 2008 with Benedict XVI.

The bishops have brought two gifts for the pope: a painting by Giuseppe Castiglione, an Italian missionary to China who served as a painter in the court of three emperors in the late 17th and early 18th centuries, and a painting titled “Merciful Sun Shines on Taiwan,” by Tawanese artist Chia Shen-chen.

Before leaving for Rome, the bishops met with Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, and with Vice President Chen Chien-jen – a devout Catholic who visited the Vatican for the canonization of St. Teresa of Calcutta in 2016 – who held a farewell dinner to express the government’s respect for the Church and the importance of Vatican-Taiwan relations.

The ad limina visit comes during a time of increased pressure from mainland China on Taiwan.

The Holy See has recognized the Republic of China since 1942, and does not have diplomatic relations with the People’s Republic of China, which consolidated control of the mainland at the conclusion of a civil war in 1949.

The People’s Republic insists that Taiwan is a rebel province, and place heavy pressure on countries not to recognize the island as a sovereign state. The Holy See is among the most prominent sovereign entities to do so.

Vatican journalist Francis Rocca reports in the Wall Street Journal that recent negotiations between the Holy See and mainland China may have stalled as the government has cracked down more severely on religious institutions, starting with the implementation of new regulations in February.

The Holy See has been in negotiations with the communist Chinese government in recent months that could eventually lead to Vatican recognition of seven illicitly ordained bishops aligned with Beijing, but which could end up sidelining the Church in Taiwan if an agreement leads to diplomatic ties being formed between the Holy See and Beijing.

Archbishop John Hung Shan-chuan of Taipei, speaking to Reuters in March, said the Church in Taiwan did not anticipate that the Holy See and mainland China would establish diplomatic relations, because to do so requires sharing “common values with each other.”

“The values the Vatican holds are different from those of the Chinese Communist Party. Building ties with the Vatican requires values including freedom and democracy,” Archbishop Hung said.

Taiwan has fewer than 300,000 Catholics – two percent of the population – and seven dioceses. There are seven active bishops, and six who are retired.

Bishop Bosco Lin Chi-nan of Tainan and Archbishop Hung are both close to turning 75, when they will be required to submit their retirement, potentially opening up two sees to new bishop appointments if Pope Francis accepts their resignations.

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Pope tells lay movements to be bold, persevere in living the Gospel

May 10, 2018 CNA Daily News 0

Vatican City, May 10, 2018 / 05:17 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Pope Francis Thursday paid a visit to two small Catholic communes in central Italy dedicated to living solidarity and promoting ecumenical unity, telling members that their “prophetic” way of living the Gospel must continue with boldness and perseverance.

Speaking to members of the Nomadelfia community and commune, the pope said theirs is “a prophetic reality that proposes the creation of a new civilization, implementing the Gospel as a form of a good and beautiful life.”

Similarly, he told members of the Focolare Movement, which has a Marian spirituality and places an emphasis on ecumenism, that their community is “an illustration of the mission of the Church today, as traced by the Second Vatican Council.”

He told members they should not stay locked inside, but must “go out, to encounter, to take care of, to throw the leaven of the Gospel in the pasta of society, above all where there is most need, where the Gospel is awaited and invoked: in poverty, in suffering, in trials, in the search and in doubt.”

He said “frankness” and “perseverance” – in Greek “parresia” and “hypomone” – were two keywords members should to keep in mind going forward.

Parresia, or frankness, he said, speaks of the “courage and sincerity in bearing witness to the truth” that a disciple of Jesus needs to have, even in prayer.

“Prayer must have frankness, to say things face-to-face,” he said, and, pointing to how Abraham bartered with God to continue lowering the number of righteous people needed to save Sodom and Gomorrah from destruction, told members to “fight with God in prayer.”

Perseverance, he said, means learning to move beyond the difficult situations that life presents and not get bogged down by challenges.

“This term expresses the constancy and firmness in carrying forward the choice of God and of new life in Christ. It means keeping this choice firm, even at the cost of difficulty and opposition, knowing that this constancy, this firmness and this patience produce hope, and hope does not disappoint,” he said.

Referring to the image of the “Maria Theotokos” housed in a shrine in Loppiano, which is the epicenter of the Focolare Movement, the pope noted that “the first disciple of Jesus was his mother,” and told members, most of whom are laypeople, not to forget that “Mary was a laywoman.”

Pope Francis met briefly with members of the Nomadelfia and Focolare communities during a May 10 half-day trip to Grosetto and Loppiano, where each of the movements operate.

Nomadelfia – which in Greek means ‘where brotherhood is law’ – is a small community and commune within the Tuscan city of Grosseto consisting of practicing Catholics seeking to live a life inspired by the events in the biblical book of the Acts of the Apostles.

The community was founded by Fr. Zeno Saltini, who after his ordination to the priesthood in 1931, spiritually adopted as his “son” a 17-year-old boy who had recently left prison.

Saltini continued to welcome more and more troubled and abandoned youth. Eventually, as more young people knocked on his door, the community grew and laywomen came as “mothers” to care for the youth who arrived. Soon couples also began to arrive who welcomed the children and raised them as a family.

The first commune of Nomadelfia was located on the grounds of a former concentration camp in Fossoli following the German occupation of Italy during the Second World War, before later transferring to Grosseto.

There is no private property in the commune; everything is shared, and children who come are required to attend school until the age of 18. Today there are some 5,000 youth who have been welcomed into the Grosseto commune. Many of the couples in the community have welcomed children and youth as foster-parents.

The last pope to visit Nomadelfia was St. John Paul II in 1989, just eight years after Fr. Saltini’s death in 1981.

After arriving around 8a.m. May 10, Pope Francis was welcomed by Saltini’s successor, Don Ferdinando Neri, and the president of the community, Francesco Matterazzo.

He visited the commune’s cemetery and led the community in a prayer at Saltini’s tomb, leaving a stone with his name on it, as other inhabitants of Nomadelfia have done, before visiting the tombs of the first members of the community.

Francis then made his way to the chapel of the main house of the community, where he entrusted two children into the care of two separate families, after which he met with the wider community.

In his speech, Pope Francis pointed to the meaning of their name, Nomadelfia, saying the “law of brotherhood” they live was the life-goal of their founder.

Saltini, he said, understood when he saw abandoned and suffering youth that “the only language they understood was that of love.”

Because of this, the priest was able to identify a unique type of society “where there is no space for isolation or solitude, but the principle collaboration between different families is in force, where the members recognize their brothers in faith.”

Francis also pointed to the care shown toward the elderly in the commune, who even when in poor health are not abandoned, but are supported by the entire community.

“Continue on this path, incarnating the model of fraternal love through visible works and signs in the many contexts where evangelical charity calls you,” the pope said, telling members that when faced with a world that is often hostile to Christ and his Church, “do not hesitate in responding to the joyful and serene witness of your lives, inspired by the Gospel.”

After his brief visit to Nomadelfia, Pope Francis made another short stop in Loppiano, heart of the Focolare Movement launched by Chiara Lubich in 1943 as a means of spiritual and social renewal.

The movement, which places an emphasis on universal brotherhood and ecumenical unity, and promotes a Marian spirituality, is currently present in 182 countries around the world.

Although the movement was established by a Catholic, it embraces and welcomes members of other religions who do not necessarily share Catholic beliefs. Focolare has around two million Catholic members as well as thousands of members from other Christian churches and religious traditions, including Jews, Muslims, Buddhists and Hindus.

After arriving to Loppiano, the pope immediately went to the shrine of “Maria Theotokos,” where he sat in adoration of the Blessed Sacrament, and prayed in front of the image of the Mary the “Theotokos” – the “God-bearer” or “Mother of God” in Greek.

In an audience with members of the movement in the sanctuary’s churchyard, the pope responded to three questions on how to live a life of true charity amid modern challenges; how academic and formational entities can grow and build new forms of leadership in society, and what the mission of Focolare is in the New Evangelization.

Speaking of frankness and perseverance, Pope Francis said these qualities mean “to have a heart turned toward God, believing in his love so that his love casts out every false fear, every temptation of hiding oneself in a quiet life, in respectability or even in a subtle hypocrisy.”

“One must ask the Holy Spirit for frankness – always united to respect and tenderness – in bearing witness to the great and beautiful works that God has done in us and in our midst,” he said, and encouraged members to be honest and sincere in their relationships, but to avoid sowing discord and murmuring through gossip.

As he often has in the past, Francis called a gossiper a “terrorist” who “destroys the community, destroys the Church, and also destroys oneself.”

He also stressed the need to persevere amid modern challenges, saying perseverance is a sign of God’s love. “which precedes us and renders us capable of living with tenacity, serenity and positivity,” as well as a sense of humor, “even in the most difficult moments.”

In order for the community to go forward, it also needs memory, he said, because it “allows you to go forward and bear fruit. If you don’t have memory, the tree won’t bear fruit because it doesn’t have roots.”

Speaking of the numerous centers for education and formation run by the movement, the pope urged them to give the entities “a new momentum, opening them to even more vast horizons and projecting them to the frontiers.”

A special emphasis, he said, should be placed on the courses that connect children, older youth, families and people from different vocations.

In terms of the movement’s role in the New Evangelization, Pope Francis said that at 50 years old, the life of the Loppiano community is just beginning in terms of their service in announcing the Gospel, which requires “humility, openness, synergy and the ability to risk.”

“We need men and women – young people, families, persons from all vocations and professions – to trace new paths to follow together,” he said.

Francis then said the big challenge in this regard is to have a “faithful creativity,” which means being faithful to their charism while also being open to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, courageously interpreting new paths forward.

Discernment is necessary for this “faithful creativity” to be successful, he said, adding that :we are all called to be artisans of communitarian discernment. This is the path so that also Loppiano can discover and follow, step by step, but path of God in service to the Church and to society.”

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Outreach or outrage: Catholics react to Met Gala fashion

May 9, 2018 CNA Daily News 1

New York City, N.Y., May 9, 2018 / 05:07 pm (CNA).- The papal pomp and Catholic circumstance on display at this year’s Met Gala in New York (aka the ‘Oscars of the East Coast’) was met with a combination of confusion and optimism from Catholic thinkers and writers.

The theme for this year’s annual gala, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination”, inspired equally creative and controversial attire, including the bedazzled, skin-bearing papal ensemble worn by Rihanna, a pregnant Cardi B dressed up as Mary Queen of Heaven, and a Sistine chapel-inspired dress worn by Ariana Grande, among many other outfits emblazoned with crosses and icons and other Catholic-inspired paraphernalia.

The event kicked off the Met exhibit with the same theme, which features Church garments borrowed from the Vatican, religious art from the Met collection, and 150 designer fashion pieces that were intended to pay homage to Catholicism.

Considered by some to be a perverse and often baffling event, many Catholic writers seemed reluctant to dub the gala as either completely sacreligious or as a stroke of New-Evangelization genius – most fell somewhere in the middle.

Ross Douthat, a Catholic columnist at the New York Times, called the gala a “beautiful and blasphemous spectacle” and noted that “When a living faith gets treated like a museum piece, it’s hard for its adherents to know whether to treat the moment as an opportunity for outreach or for outrage.”

While he lamented the lack of faith behind the fascination with Catholicism, Douthat did wonder whether there was a lesson for the present-day Church contained in the secular world’s enamoration with the trimmings and trappings of an older Catholic aesthetic – one that he said has largely taken a back seat in the Church since the Second Vatican Council.

“The path forward for the Catholic Church in the modern world is extraordinarily uncertain,” Douthat wrote. “But there is no plausible path that does not involve more of what was displayed and appropriated and blasphemed against in New York City Monday night, more of what once made Catholicism both great and weird, and could yet make it both again.”

Also lamenting the lack of real faith behind the display was Matthew Schmitz of First Things, who said that people should pay attention to the real Catholic imagination and the meaning behind it, and not the overly sentimental and shallow aesthetic Catholicism that was on display at the gala.

“The same faith that gave rise to these beautiful baubles proposed views on sexuality and social order that are contrary to the spirit of the age. It is foolish to suppose that either the Church’s teaching or its relics are mere artefacts that now have lost their power,” he said.

“These beautiful copes, stoles, clasps, and rings still move men—still have the power Leo XIII acknowledged in Testem Benevolentiae when he advised priests in America to spread the faith ‘by the pomp and splendor of ceremonies’ as well as ‘by setting forth that sound form of doctrine.’ In the Met’s carnival atmosphere, their splendor seems all the more radiant.”

Some writers noted that the gala also revealed a double standard of what is acceptable to culturally appropriated, following an uproar last week over a Utah teen who wore a Chinese dress to her high school prom even though she was not Chinese herself.

Daniella Greenbaum, writing for Business Insider, said that while she finds the whole concept of cultural appropriation “deeply misguided,” she did think that the Met revealed a double standard over what qualifies as offensive, given the outrage over the Chinese dress and the lack thereof over the Catholic costumes at the gala.

“It highlights the unfairness. Social-justice warriors inevitably create distinctions — they have appointed themselves the arbiters of which cultures deserve protecting. And in the meantime, it seems, they’ve left Catholics out to dry,” she wrote.

However, others saw the cultural appropriation as a neutral or even positive part of the event, creating opportunities for further conversation.

Madeleine Kearns, writing for The Spectator, a UK publication, said that Catholics ‘can cope’ with cultural appropriation, and that being offended by it is a “counter-productive, ideological dead-end; a festival of victim culture. As far as I’m concerned, if people want to dress up as the Pope, or drape rosary beads over their car mirrors — why ever not? It starts a conversation about a culture I’m proud of.”

Eloise Blondiau, writing for America magazine, said that “If nothing else, the theme of this year’s exhibition and gala shows a willingness to engage with religion that is healthy and promising in a climate where polarization is rife.”

While the event was organized in cooperation with the Vatican, Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York was one of a few prelates in attendance, joking later that he ordered in “street meat” – hot dogs from to a pushcart – to the posh event after finding the refreshments insufficient, and joking that Rihanna borrowed her miter from him.  

The cardinal, who some criticized for attending the event, said in a press conference for the opening of the exhibition that he came because the ‘Catholic imagination’ honors “the true, the good, the beautiful.”

In the ‘Catholic imagination,’ the True, the Good, and the Beautiful have a name: Jesus Christ, who revealed Himself as ‘the Way, the Truth, and the Life,’” he said. “In the ‘Catholic imagination,’ the truth, goodness, and beauty of God is reflected all over… even in fashion.  The world is shot through with His glory,” he said, adding a thanks to the organizers of the event, as well as to the Vatican “for its historic cooperation.”  

Dolan later told SiriusXM’s The Catholic Channel that as a self-proclaimed “JCPenney’s Big and Tall man” his personal interest in the event was not for the fashion, but for the chance to engage with people about the Catholic faith.

“There were some aspects that looked like kind of a masquerade party, a Halloween party,” he said. “I didn’t really see anything sacrilegious, I may have seen some things in poor taste, but I didn’t detect anybody out to offend the church.”

However, “A number of people came up and spoke about their Catholic upbringing and things they remembered and it was a powerful evening.”

The exhibition itself will run May 10 – Oct. 8, 2018 and is hosted at the Anna Wintour Costume Center, the medieval rooms at the Met on Fifth Avenue, and the Met Cloisters in uptown New York City. It is the Met Costume Institute’s largest show to date.

Church garments and liturgical vestments, many of which are still in use, will be displayed separately from the fashion exhibit, out of respect. The items in the separate exhibit come from the Sistine Chapel sacristy’s Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff and range in age from the mid-1700s to the pontificate of Saint John Paul II.

 

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