Year: 2017

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New Zealand inquiry doesn’t recommend legalizing assisted suicide, euthanasia

August 4, 2017 CNA Daily News 2

Wellington, New Zealand, Aug 4, 2017 / 11:39 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A long-term inquiry submitted to New Zealand’s parliament Wednesday did not recommend that assisted suicide and euthanasia be legalized in the country.

“We’ve tried to distil all the arguments and our recommendation to both the Parliament and the people of New Zealand is to read this report and come to a deeper understanding of what’s been asked around assisted suicide and euthanasia,” Simon O’Connor, chair of the parliament’s health committee, which prepared the report, said Aug. 2.

The report was an investigation of euthanasia and assisted suicide and attitudes toward them, prompted by a request from former New Zealand Labour Party MP and assisted suicide advocate Maryan Street.

A bill to legalize voluntary euthanasia has been introduced in the New Zealand parliament, but it is unlikely to be passed before the end of the legislature’s term later this month, according to the New Zealand Herald.

Having faced moral opponents and concerns about safeguards in the past, euthanasia bills have previously failed in the country. The effort was renewed, however, in 2014 after a Wellington lawyer’s battle with brain cancer gained political and media attention.

Lecretia Seales had petitioned New Zealand’s High Court for the right to assisted suicide, and died from her cancer. Street introduced a petition in favor of legalizing assisted suicide shortly thereafter.

The health committee’s subsequent inquiry heard from some 22,000 submitters, 80 percent of whom were opposed to a change in legislation that would allow for assisted suicide and euthanasia.

“But I don’t think this is simply a numbers game. It is about actually understanding the arguments for and against and making a decision about which ones are correct,” O’Connor said.

The primary argument against legalization, the report concluded, was that “the public would be endangered.”

“They cited concern for vulnerable people, such as the elderly and the disabled, those with mental illnesses, and those susceptible to coercion. Others argued that life has an innate value and that introducing assisted dying and euthanasia would explicitly undermine that idea. To do so would suggest that some lives are worth more than others. There were also concerns that, once introduced, eligibility for assisted dying would rapidly expand well beyond what was first intended.”

The report noted that “some of remain unconvinced that the models seen overseas provide adequate protection for vulnerable people.”

O’Connor commented that “it probably comes down to the simple question of ‘How many errors would Parliament would be willing to accept in this space?’”

Other opponents, including the Care Alliance and Prime Minister Bill English, a practicing Catholic, have expressed concern that the bill would lead to the abuse of elderly, mentally ill, and disabled citizens, as well as undermine the dignity of the human person.

The health committee wrote in its report that “we were concerned to hear that there is a lack of awareness about the role of palliative care, that access to it is unequal, and that there are concerns about the sustainability of the workforce.”

They recommended that the government consider how “it can better communicate the excellent services that palliative carers provide, address the unequal access, consider how palliative care is funded, and address the workforce shortages.”

They also encouraged the government to improve access to grief counselling and similar services for those at risk of suicide.

The bill to legalize voluntary euthanasia was introduced by David Seymour, an MP of ACT New Zealand and the party’s only MP. The bill would allow euthanasia for mentally sound adults suffering from grievous and incurable medical conditions who request it.

Voluntary euthanasia is supported by the Green Party of Aotearoa New Zealand.

The New Zealand National Party, which is the center of New Zealand’s coalition government, has ruled out legalizing euthanasia.

The Labour party has said legalizing euthanasia is not among its priorities, and New Zealand First has said a change in the law should go through a referendum rather than parliament.

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Study finds more Americans are approving of polygamy

August 4, 2017 CNA Daily News 1

Washington D.C., Aug 4, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- A new poll shows that seventeen percent of people in the U.S. now find polygamy to be morally permissible, citing an increase of acceptance among non-religious people as a major factor.

“Though polygamous societies often justify their lifestyle on religious grounds, it is Americans who do not identify with any religion who are most accepting of the practice,” said Andrew Dugan, an analyst for Gallup.

“Between 2011 and 2017, 32 percent of Americans who do not associate with a particular religion or have no religion at all said polygamy was ‘morally acceptable,’” he said in a July 28 statement.

In a Values and Beliefs poll issued May 3-7, Dugan commented that while public opinion hasn’t shifted greatly on certain moral issues such as abortion, polygamy’s approval rating has steadily increased 10 percent since 2003.

Despite the practice of polygamy being often found in fundamentalist sects of religion, it grew most of its acceptance from non-religious people due to LGBT and pro-abortion advocacy gaining cultural traction.  

Yet no legislation has yet been passed in polygamy’s favor, with the state of Utah in fact passing a bill increasing the penalty for convicted polygamists.

Statistically those actually practicing polygamy are usually in small sects of the Muslim and Mormon faith, but Dugan suggested that the raising sympathy has been a byproduct of the media.

He pointed that the approval rating really only increased after a polygamy reality show started to air in 2010. Now in the middle of its seventh season, Dugan said the show “Sister Wives” has drawn sympathy from the public by humanizing a polygamist family.

Additionally, Dugan said the increase after 2010 followed a change in the meaning of the word, switching from patriarchal and masculine centered idea to a gender neutral definition – a married individual has more than one spouse.

He doubts the practice of polygamy has increased much, but expressed it is the results of “the general tendency for those who are less religious to be more liberal on social issues.”

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Vatican urges Venezuela to suspend constitutional revision

August 4, 2017 CNA Daily News 1

Vatican City, Aug 4, 2017 / 05:26 am (CNA/EWTN News).- As tensions and deaths continue to rise in Venezuela over the government’s push to re-write their constitution, the Holy See has urged the country’s leaders to hold off on the constitutional assembly, focusing instead on alleviating the nation’s crippling humanitarian crisis.  

“The Holy See expresses again her profound concern for the radicalization and aggravation of the crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, with the increase in the number of deaths, wounded and those who have been detained,” read an Aug. 4 Vatican communique.

Pope Francis, both directly and through Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin, “closely follows that situation and it’s humanitarian, social, political, economic and even spiritual implications, and assures of his constant prayer for the country and for all Venezuelans,” while inviting faithful around the world “to pray intensely for this situation.”

At the same time, the Holy See asked all political actors, and governments in particular, to ensure that “full respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms” are respected, “as well as the existing Constitution.”

The Holy See asked specifically that political and governmental agents “avoid or suspend ongoing initiatives such as the new constitutional assembly which, instead of fostering peace and reconciliation, foments a climate of tension and conflict and mortgages the future.”

It also asked them to create the conditions “for a negotiated solution” in line with the requirements Cardinal Parolin spelled out in his Dec. 1, 2016, letter to the Venezuelan government, asking that: provisions be made to alleviate the crisis in the supply of food and medicine; that parties agree on a timetable for elections allowing Venezuelans themselves to decide their future; that the country’s National Assembly be reinstated as soon as possible and its role provided for in the Constitution; and that legal procedures accelerating the release of detainees be implemented.

In addition, the Holy See also asked the government to bear in mind “the serious suffering of the people due to the difficulty of obtaining food and medicine, and a lack of security.”

The statement closed by making a “firm appeal” to society as a whole “to overcome all forms of violence, inviting, in particular, security forces to abstain from the excessive and disproportionate use of force.”

The statement comes days after July 30 nation-wide elections, which approved a constitutional assembly to reform the country’s 1999 constitution. However, some reports and members of Venezuela’s opposition have disputed the fairness of the elections, which were boycotted by the opposition.

Although the government claims that more than 8 million voters attended, the Democratic Unity Table, an organization monitoring the election, reported that only 2.4 million votes, or 12 percent of eligible voters, were cast, of which a quarter would have voted “no”.

Furthermore, in the days leading up to and following the election, uprisings and protests swept throughout the country. Conflicts between protesters and the country’s Bolivarian National Guard have resulted in the death of at least 15 people, including two minors.

Reports also indicate that at least 300 people were arrested for protesting the government in the days surrounding the vote.

The constitutional revisions have been rejected by the Venezuelan bishops for being not only “unconstitutional, but also unnecessary, inconvenient and harmful for the Venezuelan people.”

In a July 27 message, the bishops said Maduro’s initiative “has not been convened by the people, has unacceptable commissions, and only the partisans of the ruling party will be represented there.”

“It will be a biased and biased instrument that will not solve, but will aggravate the acute problems of high cost of living, the shortage of food and medicines that suffer the people, and deepen and worsen the deep political crisis we currently face.”

Two opposition leaders, Leopoldo López and Antonio Ledezma, have been re-arrested following the vote.

Frustration in Venezuela has been building for years due to poor economic policies, including strict price controls coupled with high inflation rates, which have resulted in a severe lack of basic necessities such as toilet paper, milk, flour, diapers, and medicines.

Venezuela’s socialist government is widely blamed for the crisis. Since 2003, price controls on some 160 products, including cooking oil, soap and flour, have meant that while they are affordable, they fly off store shelves only to be resold on the black market at much higher rates.

On Aug. 1 Cardinal Parolin addressed the situation with local Italian media, saying he and Pope Francis are “very committed” to seeking a peaceful solution to the crisis in Venezuela. The Vatican has been “seeking to help all, indiscriminately, and calling each person to fulfill their own responsibility.”

“The criteria should be only the good of the people,” he said. “The dead are too many and I do not think there are other criteria to follow that is not in the common good of the people,” he insisted.

With that in mind, the cardinal said that “it is necessary to find a peaceful and democratic way to get out of this situation, and the only way is always the same: we must find, talk, but seriously, to find a way to solution.”

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Proposed legal immigration limits draw strong criticism from US bishops

August 3, 2017 CNA Daily News 2

Washington D.C., Aug 3, 2017 / 04:21 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- A Senate proposal for immigration limits backed by President Donald Trump would hurt family unity and exclude too many vulnerable people, the U.S. Catholic bishops have said.

“Had this discriminatory legislation been in place generations ago, many of the very people who built and defended this nation would have been excluded,” said Bishop Joe S. Vasquez of Austin, the chairman of the U.S. bishops’ Committee on Migration.

Bishop Vasquez voiced strong opposition to the legislation introduced by Sens. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) and David Perdue (R-Ga.). The proposed bill is called the Reforming American Immigration for a Strong Economy Act, also known as the RAISE Act.

The legislation announced on Wednesday would cut by half the number of legal immigrants the U.S. accepts each year. It would limit green cards for foreign nationals seeking to reunite with their families, and halve the number of refugees allowed to enter the country. The diversity visa lottery, which gives visas to countries with low rates of immigration to the U.S., would also be eliminated, National Public Radio reports.

“The United States supports families and should not throw up obstacles to their unity,” Bishop Vasquez said Aug. 2, charging that the legislation “would have our nation turn its back on this long and storied tradition of welcoming families setting out to build a better life.”

The bishops objected to the permanent cap on the number of refugees who are allowed safe passage through the country, saying this would prevent the flexibility needed to respond to humanitarian crises.

“As a Church, we believe the stronger the bonds of family, the greater a person’s chance of succeeding in life. The RAISE Act imposes a definition of family that would weaken those bonds,” Bishop Vasquez said.

The bishops urged the Senate to reject the measure and asked Congress and the president to enact comprehensive immigration reform.

“I believe that such reform must recognize the many contributions that immigrants of all backgrounds have made to our nation, and must protect the lives and dignity of all, including the most vulnerable,” said Bishop Vasquez.

President Donald Trump said the bill would reduce poverty, increase wages, and save “billions and billions of dollars” in taxpayer money. The bill would bar new arrivals from receiving welfare.

The president said the proposal would favor applicants “who can speak English, financially support themselves and their families, and demonstrate skills that will contribute to our economy.”

The prospects for the bill’s success are not clear and at least two Republican senators are likely opponents, National Public Radio reports.

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News Briefs

Canadian robot spider on cathedral spawns Twitter fame

August 3, 2017 CNA Daily News 3

Ottawa, Canada, Aug 3, 2017 / 03:12 pm (CNA).- On July 27, an enormous spider was seen descending from the Notre Dame Cathedral in Ottawa, Ontario.

But rather than the stuff of horror movies, the robotic spider was part of an event for the French street theater company La Machine, which was opening their Canadian show in celebration of the country’s 150th anniversary that night. The spider’s name is Kumo.

All necessary permissions were secured from Archbishop Terrence Prendergast for the show, who saw it as an opportunity to give back to the local Ottawa community.

“This once in a lifetime event celebrates the 150th Anniversary celebration of Canada’s Confederation,” the archbishop said in a statement.

“It offers an opportunity for the archdiocese, the Catholic community and Notre Dame Cathedral Basilica to cooperate with the city and the organizers to foster a positive relationship with the community at large.”

The statement from Archbishop Prendergast website calls the event “an opportunity for a positive civic relationship by joining in the Capital’s celebrations of our 150th, Ottawa 2017.” He also notes the chance “to foster a positive relationship with the community at large as well as with many tourists.”

Some, however, derided the event as sacrilegious and even blasphemous or demonic, complaining to the archdiocese. Archbishop Terrence dismissed such concerns, but did see some symbolic value in the event.

“To the extent that we did see symbolism, it was that, afterward, Our Lady would continue to reign, something I mentioned in a tweet right after the Thursday performance, as people I respect began to make their objections known.”

Planning for the event began last year. Organizers hoped to give the impression that Kumo was approaching another large spider sculpture, named “Mama,” in front of the National Art Gallery across from the cathedral. The performance began with Kumo “waking up” to organ music from within the church.

It is worth noting that in medieval times, performances in front of churches were common, often depicting biblical events.

Our Lady who in Revelation defeats Dragon (& fulfills Genesis promise of crushing serpent) reigns again undisturbed pic.twitter.com/7hXaJbEzQ5

— Terrence Prendergast (@archterentius) July 28, 2017

The giant robot spider garnered quite a lot of attention on Twitter, where it spawned a parody account at the suggestion of Catholic Twitter user Tommy Tighe.

Oh, thank God. https://t.co/Jq9A63uLo3

— Kumo the RoboSpider (@CathRoboSpider) August 2, 2017

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