News Briefs

How this convert ‘fell in love with Jesus’ through the Byzantine Catholic Church

October 1, 2019 CNA Daily News 3

Tucson, Ariz., Oct 1, 2019 / 04:00 am (CNA).- At Easter, Jessica Rider entered the Church through an avenue with which most Catholics are unfamiliar – she became a member of the Ruthenian Catholic Church.

Rider, 33, was welcomed into St Melany’s Byzantine Catholic Church in Tucson, Arizona at Easter. She described the experience as both intimate and engaging.

“It set a fire in me when I became a part of the Byzantine church. I never experienced so much longing to want to know as much as I possibly can,” she told CNA.

“I fell in love with Jesus Christ when I went to the Byzantine church.”

Some background: Most people think of the Catholic Church as a singular structure and institution. The reality is a little more complicated. The universal Catholic Church is actually a union of 24 different Churches, each of which is in communion with one another and with the pope, who is the visible head of the Church. The largest of those 24 Churches is the Latin Catholic Church, which has more than 1 billion members. The other Churches are much smaller; the second largest, the Ukranian Greek Catholic Church, has 4.4 million members.

The Ruthenian Catholic Church, the one Rider encountered in Arizona, has almost 500,000 members. It is sometimes referred to as the Byzantine Catholic Church, although that term can also be used to describe some of the other Churches in the Catholic communion.

Rider didn’t know most of that when she first stepped into St. Melany’s. But by Easter 2019, she had learned a lot about Byzantine rite Catholicism. It was then that she became a Catholic.

During the Divine Liturgy at the Easter Vigil, she stood with her pastor, Fr. Robert Rankin. They were surrounded by beautiful icons, an eastern tradition of gold leaf and painted wood which often depict biblical stories or images of Christ and the saints.

Rider received the sacraments of baptism, confirmation, which Byzantine Catholics call “chrismation”, and holy communion. She was anointed with chrism on her forehead, her hands, feet, chest, mouth, nose, and eyes.

While her parents had shied away from their Catholic faith when they were young, Rider said she grew up attending Christian services.

Her parents had “experienced something traumatic” in the Church, Rider said. Though their experience led them away from the Catholic faith, they were cautiously supportive of her decision to become Catholic, she explained

“My mom was exposed to the Roman Catholic Church at a very young age and she kind of steered away from it,” she said. “My father also was raised Roman Catholic as well.”

Before she became Catholic, Rider attended Calvary Chapel, an association of evangelical Christian communities.

But when she experienced a trial of suffering, she began looking for answers. The search led her to St. Melany’s.

Two years ago, her brother died in a motorcycle accident. Around the same time, Rider was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, a disease involving fatigue and musculoskeletal pain.

Before those hardships, Rider said, she had begun drifting away from Christianity. But once she started experiencing loss, she began to look at her priorities.

“I made a choice that day when it happened, either fall prey to sin or change your life and go back to Jesus, [my] first love. I chose Jesus and my whole life transformed after that,” she said.

It was after her brother’s accident that Rider met Jacob, the man who last month became her husband. Jacob himself had converted from Protestantism to the Byzantine Catholic faith before he met Jessica.

When they met, Jessica said, she was awakened to something beautiful and mysterious. She told CNA that Jacob did not push his Byzantine faith on her, she said, but politely encouraged her to join him at Divine Liturgy. 

“There was something different about him that I have never seen in anybody else. I was intrigued by that,” she said.

“There was something about him that was just a lot of wisdom. He was also very patient and he wasn’t anxious. He wasn’t an anxious or stressed person at all. So I was just really curious on what happened in his life.”

She said meeting Fr. Rankin was also an inspiration for her conversion. Not only did he speak with wisdom, she said, but the priest had an incredible zeal for Christ.

“I love Fr. Rankin. The way he talks about Lord and the saints, he talks smiling through his eyes…I have never seen anybody talk about God or anything in this manner. So it was kind of hypnotizing to listen to him talk about it.”

The choice she made to follow Christ more closely after her brother’s death has changed everything in her life, Rider said.

“I mean, literally, I got a new job, I have a husband, I have a faith and a church,” she said.

Rider chose St. Faustina Kowalska as her confirmation saint. She said she related to Faustina’s trials and felt connected to the Divine Mercy Chaplet. She said Faustina, who trusted in Christ despite pains, helped her find a purpose in her illness, which still gives her chronic pain.

“The picture of Divine Mercy…was important because it’s my path. Without his mercy, I wouldn’t be here right now,” she said. “[It] truly hit home for me when I was making the choice because I was going through [my trial] …When I saw the image and when I heard her story, there was just no way that she wouldn’t be a part of what I would choose because I felt like that was me.”

“I’ve had to learn that everything comes from his hands and trusting in that there’s a purpose. If I am going to suffer as Christ suffers, then I will do so,” Rider added.

When she heard about the Church’s sexual scandals, Rider said, the crimes, though disturbing, did not dissuade her from entering the Church. She said her faith relies on Christ.

The scandals, she said, are opportunities to pray for Church leaders who have “fallen away, because there’s so much responsibility and authority they have in Church.”

Coming from a Protestant background, Rider said the idea of praying to Mary and the saints was a difficult concept to grasp. But the Byzantine community was a source of information for all her questions, she said. Rider added Catholics should not “sugar coat” the faith for new converts.

“I felt supported in a lot of ways. Any questions that I had, I didn’t feel that I was inconveniencing anyone to explain [it] to me or that it may have been a silly question.”

“I don’t feel like we need to change [Church teaching]…because that’s not what Jesus Christ is about. Sometimes being obedient, it’s hard and it hurts,” she added.

Rider said she fell in love with the Ruthenian Church’s beautiful traditions, songs, icons and community. She described the experience as intimate and captivating. She also mentioned that her parish community was welcoming to her, which has made her feel like she belongs.

“When I came in, I was welcomed,” she said. “It’s always been really important since I’ve come in the church, that we all support each other.”

“It’s very intimate. Everybody that is with you, we’re worshiping and praising, and we’re all holding fast and true to scripture.”

Since she became a Catholic, she said, the Holy Spirit has prompted her to share Christ with her coworkers, who have asked her about an image of St. Padre Pio she wears as a necklace. Although her friends do not fully understand her decision to convert, she said, they are inspired by her faith.

“My coworkers don’t get it. They don’t understand,” she said. “[But,] I have a lot of people ask me because I wear the icon of Padre Pio. It kind of opens up conversation. So it’s an opportunity for me to talk about it.”

“Every day I print out words of wisdom and then I connect the scripture to it and I hand them out to my coworkers … They love it. I mean, if I don’t give it to them by lunchtime, people are asking me where is that? So … he must be moving in a way that I could never.”

 

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Family questions criteria after euthanization of Canadian man

September 30, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

Vancouver, Canada, Sep 30, 2019 / 05:01 pm (CNA).- After Alan Nichols’ death by voluntary euthanasia at a British Columbia hospital in July, his family have questioned the imprecision of Canada’s requirements for euthanasia and assisted suicide, which include having “a grievous and irremediable medical condition.”

They doubt Nichols was able to give informed consent to his euthanization, and maintain his natural death was not reasonably foreseeable.

According to a Sept. 24 article in CTV News based on accounts from Nichols’ family and a neighbor, Nichols was admitted to Chilliwack General Hospital, about 60 miles east of Vancouver, after he was found in poor physical condition at his home in mid-June.

Nichols, who was 61, was euthanized July 26 at the hospital by medical staff who delivered three injections.

“He didn’t have a life-threatening disease. He was capable of getting around. He was capable of doing almost anything that you had to do to survive,” his brother, Gary Nichols, told CTV News. “I didn’t think he had a sound mind at all.”

Nichols had received brain surgery at age 12, and had lost his hearing and had a cochlear implant. He developed depression, and took medication to treat it. But after the death of his father in 2004, he was inconsistent about taking his antidepressants.

Gary Nichols, Alan’s brother, told CTV News: “He would have maybe a period, a year, he would be very easy to deal with and make some decent changes. But then he would fall back into a very depressed state. Not going out in public, not seeing anybody, not eating properly.”

Nichols’ family tried to get guardianship over him in 2015, but could not get permission to do so.

Once Nichols was in hospital, his family said that the staff were reticent to speak to them about his status.

A doctor phoned July 22 to say that Nichols was scheduled to be euthanized in four days.

Gary said he “never thought [Alan] would ever be approved even if he applied” for euthanasia or assisted suicide.

The family indicated they did not support the decision, and were unable to stop it from being carried out.

According to CTV News, Nichols’ family were told two doctors had approved his application for euthanasia “and that a psychologist and psychiatrist were there to assess Nichols’ competence.”

In British Columbia, the death certificate of those who are euthanized or commit assisted suicide list Medical Assistance in Dying as the immediate cause of death, with antecedent causes giving rise to the euthanization or assisted suicide listed subsequently.

Nichols’ death certificate lists stroke, seizure disorder, and frailty as causes antecedent to his euthanization, according to CTV News.

Trish Nichols, Alan’s sister-in-law, said that “Alan did not fit the criteria. Alan was capable of talking, he was sitting up, he was eating, he was going to the bathroom, we were laughing, he was out of bed. I knew by looking at him that he still had living to do. He was not near the end of his life.”

“How can you allow this with Alan, knowing his background of mental anguish and depression?” Trish asked.

“We spent 50 years helping Alan live, and in one month they signed his death warrant. How can that happen in that period of time? Where’s the legislation to protect us?”

The family have asked the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to investigate Nichols death; they say the police service directed them to the provincial health ministry.

Nichols’ case highlights the lack of clarity over the criteria for euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada, which have also been pointed out by disability advocates, pro-life groups, and bioethicists.

Eligibility is restricted to mentally competent Canadian adults who have a serious, irreversible illness, disease, or disability. While to be eligible a patient does not have to have a fatal condition, they must meet a criterion variously expressed as they “can expect to die in the near future”, that natural death is “reasonably foreseeable” in the “not too distant” future, or that they are “declining towards death”.

Fraser Health, which oversees Chilliwack General Hospital, lists on its website 10 criteria for eligibility for euthanasia or assisted suicide. In addition to having “a serious and incurable illness, disease or disability” and suffering “unbearably from my medical condition”, one criterion is that “My doctors have told me I can expect to die in the near future.”

The first step toward receiving euthanasia or assisted suicide, according to Fraser Health, is to “talk with others”. It instructs patients to “Talk to your family, loved ones and other people in your life who can support you.”

Fraser Health says that two doctors or nurse practitioners “assess you separately to make sure you are eligible for an assisted death and are capable of deciding. They must agree you meet all the criteria.”

Among the statements that a patient must confirm on a euthanasia-assisted suicide request form provided by the BC Ministry of Health is that “I believe that my medical condition is grievous and irremediable, my suffering is intolerable, there are no treatments that I consider acceptable, I am in an advanced state of irreversible decline, and my death is reasonably foreseeable.” The form also includes a space for the “Medical Diagnosis Relevant to Request for Medical Assistance in Dying”.

According to Health Canada, among the eligibility criteria for euthanasia or assisted suicide are that you “have a grievous and irremediable medical condition” and “give informed consent to receive medical assistance in dying”.

The national health ministry says that to have a grievous and irremediable medical condition, you must “have a serious illness, disease, or disability”; “be in an advanced state of decline that cannot be reversed”; “experience unbearable physical or mental suffering from your illness, disease, disability or state of decline that cannot be relieved under conditions that you consider acceptable”; and “be at a point where your natural death has become reasonably foreseeable”, which “takes into account all of your medical circumstances and does not require a specific prognosis as to how long you have left to live”. It specifies that “you do not need to have a fatal or terminal condition to be eligible for medical assistance in dying.” It adds that “your natural death must be foreseeable in a period of time that is not too distant”.

The Canadian health ministry also says that “you must be mentally competent and capable of making decisions” both “at the time of your request” and “immediately before medical assistance in dying is provided.”

According to the health ministry, many of the drugs commonly used in euthanasia and assisted suicide “are already marketed in Canada and are prescribed at lower dosages for common purposes,” such as nausea, pain control, and anaesthesia.

The national health ministry says there are safeguards to insure that those requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide “are able to make health care decisions for themselves” and “request the service of their own free will”.

According to the practice standard of the College of Physicians and Surgeons of British Columbia, “the federal government has indicated that MAiD is intended to be restricted to those individuals who are declining towards death, allowing them to choose a peaceful death as opposed to a prolonged, painful or difficult one.”

The practice standard also notes that the patient requesting euthanasia or assisted suicide “must be competent and able to give free and informed consent,” and that both of two independent medical assessors “must be satisfied that the patient is mentally capable of making a free and informed decision at the time of the request and throughout the process.”

It adds that “if either MA is unsure that the patient has capacity to consent to MAiD, the patient must be referred to another practitioner with current expertise in capacity assessment, such as a psychologist, psychiatrist, neurologist, geriatrician, or FP/GP with additional training or experience for a further in-person capacity assessment.”

At least 6,749 Canadians have died of euthanasia or assisted suicide since legislative enactment (Dec. 10, 2015 in Quebec, and June 17, 2016 in the rest of Canada), according to Health Canada.

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After 15 months, Missionary of Charity accused of child trafficking granted bail

September 30, 2019 CNA Daily News 0

New Delhi, India, Sep 30, 2019 / 02:05 pm (CNA).- A religious sister with the Missionaries of Charity has been released on bail 15 months after her arrest. She is accused of cooperating with the sale of a child from a home for unwed mothers, although her supporter argue that she was coerced into confessing.

Sister Concelia Baxla, 62, was arrested in July 2018, along with Anima Indwar, an employee at the Nirmal Hriday home in Ranchi.

Sr. Concelia was released Sept. 27 on a 10,000 rupee bail, the equivalent of $150, and two sureties of the same amount, ucanews reports. The sister was also instructed to leave her passport at the court.

The religious sister, who suffers from diabetes, had been denied bail twice previously – once last October on the grounds that her release could interfere with the investigation into her congregation, and again in January because charges had not yet been pressed, according to ucanews.

Her lawyer argued that Sr. Concelia should be granted bail because she is not facing direct charges, and noted that Indwar was granted bail shortly after her initial arrest.

Sr. Concelia had been sister-in-charge of the unwed mothers section at the home since June 2017. Indwar was entrusted with escorting the unwed mothers, their babies, and their guardians to hospital and to the Child Welfare Committee office when the religious sisters were engaged with other duties.

Police said a couple reportedly paid 120,000 rupees ($1,760 USD) to Indwar for a baby from the home. The couple complained that Indwar took their money in exchange for a child, and that she later took the child back from them without returning money.

Initial reports suggested that three other infants may also have been sold.

Indwar has admitted that she sold children. Sr. Concelia said that she found out about the sale later, after a baby was missing during a Child Welfare Committee check. The sister says she informed authorities and that she did not take any money from the sale.

A police source said that Indwar provided to police a handwritten note from Sr. Concelia asking Indwar to take the blame on herself, Matters India reports.

Sr. Concelia’s defenders, including the bishops of India, are asking whether she was an accomplice, or the victim of a coerced confession.

Bishop Theodore Mascarenhas, Auxiliary Bishop of Ranchi, said shortly after the arrest that Sr. Concelia’s lawyer was only permitted to meet with her for 10 minutes, during which time, she said she was forced by police to give her statement, according to the Hindustan Times.

Sister Mary Prema Pierick, superior general of the Missionaries of Charity, said in July 2018 that the congregation was “deeply saddened and grieved” by news of the alleged sale, adding that they were coopering fully with the investigation.

However, a spokesperson for the Missionaries of Charity said that the order stopped dealing with child adoption in India back in 2015.

The Albanian-born Mother Teresa founded the Missionaries of Charity in Kolkata in 1950. She was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979, and canonized in 2016. There are now 5,167 Missionaries of Charity sisters, both active and contemplative, around the world. The order has 244 houses in India.

In addition to the vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience, members of the Missionaries of Charity take a fourth vow pledging “wholehearted free service to the poorest of the poor.”

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