Month: July 2018

Würzburg, Germany, Jul 6, 2018 / 09:58 am (CNA).- The Bishop of Würzburg issued an open invitation to all Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist on July 5 and 6 while attending Masses celebrated for married couples at the Cathedral of St. Kilian.

Referring to inter-denominational marriages as “denomination-uniting,” a press release published by the diocese says that Würzburg Bishop Franz Jung “especially invited” couples in which one spouse is Protestant to receive the Eucharist in his sermon on July 5.

Jubilee Masses are usually celebrated for couples who have been married for 25, 50 years or longer.

In May, the Vatican rejected a set of norms proposed by the German bishops’ conference on the question of intercommunion. Those norms were subsequently published by the conference as “guidance.”

Bishop Jung announced July 5 that he would discuss in detail the “recommendations made by the German bishops’ conference with his diocesan councils.”

“Today however, on the day of jubilees, I would like to express an invitation to receive the Eucharist to all denomination-uniting marriages in which the two partners have been faithful to one another for such a long time,” Jung continued.  

The 51-year-old Jung was installed as Bishop of the Bavarian diocese of Würzburg in June 2018. He is the fifth German bishop to announce an implementation of the bishops’ “orientation document” thus far.

While that document does not universally allow for Protestant spouses of Catholics to receive the Eucharist, it does allows the practice “under specific circumstances” and “in individual cases.”

The Code of Canon Law permits baptized Protestants to receive the sacraments of penance, Eucharist, and anointing in “danger of death,” or in another circumstance of “grave necessity,” determined by a diocesan bishop or bishops’ conference. However, the Church’s law requires that those receiving them “manifest Catholic faith in respect to these sacraments and are properly disposed.”

The other bishops to announce an “implementation plan” of the German bishops’ guidelines are Archbishop Hans-Josef Becker of Paderborn, who introduced the change with immediate effect on Sunday, July 1st, as did Archbishop Stefan Heße of Hamburg a few days later. Archbishop Ludwig Schick of Bamberg has also followed suit, describing certain requirements in addition to the document. Meanwhile Bishops Gerhard Feige of Magdeburg and Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabrück have declared their intentions but have not implemented the move just yet.

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Portsmouth, England, Jul 5, 2018 / 04:01 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- In a pastoral letter last Friday, Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth challenged Catholics to review England’s end-of-life care after a report tied negligent drug prescriptions to hundreds of elderly deaths.  

An independent panel reported June 20 that at least 450 patients at Gosport War Memorial Hospital died amid “an institutionalised regime of prescribing and administering ‘dangerous doses’ of a hazardous combination of medication not clinically indicated or justified, with patients and relatives powerless in their relationship with professional staff” between 1989 and 2000.

The report added that there had been a “disregard for human life” at the hospital.

Bishop Egan wrote June 29 that “Whilst the lessons to be learnt in this case will be many, it seems clear that as a society we need urgently to review our geriatric care and our end of life care, specifically in relation to fundamental moral principles.”

He urged prayers “for the repose of those who have died, for their families, and for justice and reconciliation” and extended “love, sympathy and prayers” to the bereaved families.

The bishop cited the failed campaign for assisted suicide in Guernsey, and the case of Alfie Evans, as evidence that “we cannot leave awkward decisions to the courts alone. We need to reprise our basic human values.”

He expressed disease with the concept “quality of life”, saying it “seems to invest experts and judges with power over the life and death of an individual.”

Better, he said, is the term “‘dignity of life,’ which reminds us of the absolute good of the person and their infinite worth.”

While the National Health Service is a “huge blessing,” he added that “we must ever be vigilant to the policies, values, priorities and procedures that operate within it.”

He noted the Liverpool Care Pathway for the Dying Patient, guidelines for palliative care developed in the 1990s and widely used until an independent review led to its abandonment in 2013.

Bishop Egan commended the “noble intentions” of the LCP, but added that in England’s busy hospitals, “the pressure to save money and to utilise beds, together with an emotive empathy for those suffering, might suggest the need to hasten death.”

“We need to go back to basics,” he urged. “As Catholics, we believe that life from conception to natural death is a gift of God. It is sacred, and so every person on earth has an inviolable dignity as God’s creation. Frailty, pain and sufferings are always a difficult trial.”

We must both unite these sufferings with those of Christ, and “turn to doctures and nurses in the hope that … they can alleviate and heal our condition.”

“Indeed, in today’s world, we can thank God for amazing advances in modern health-care, and not least in palliative care and pain-management at the end of life.”

The bishop made three concluding points, beginning with an exhortation to pray daily “for our doctors, nurses and health-care professionals, asking God to bless and guide the wonderful and generous work they do. Pray too for the sick, the dying, those in hospital, and anyone suffering pain mental, emotional or physical. If a Catholic is seriously ill … please call the priest so that s/he can be offered the sacraments.”

Bishop Egan then recommended that “if you or a loved one is terminally ill, consider whether it might be praticable to die at home. Ask whether it is possible for drugs to be used that do not totally withdraw consciousness and a chance to pray and commune with family and friends. As next of kin, gently insist on being involved in decisions. It might be appropriate to ask staff for a second opinion or a re-evaluation of treatment.”

While life “cannot be prolonged indefinitely … it is not morally permissible until the very last to withdraw feeding and hydration. If the medical team suggests there is little more they can do, that is the moment, if not done already, to call the priest to offer the sacraments.”

Finally, he urged that everyone pray daily “for a happy death, that is, to die in a state of grace, aided by the sacramental care of Mother Church and supported … by family and friends.”

“Let us accept whatever death the Lord has prepared for us … let us prepare ourselves by persevering in the practice of our Faith, by attending Mass and making a regular confession, by daily prayer and faith-formation, and by living a good life in justice and charity.”

“Indeed, as a child, I was taught every night to pray the following prayer, which I also commend to you: Jesus, Mary and Joseph, I give you my heart and my soul. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, assist me in my last agony. Jesus, Mary and Joseph, may I breathe forth my soul in peace with you.”

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