Vatican City, Sep 22, 2020 / 03:45 am (CNA).- In a new document released Tuesday, the Vatican’s doctrinal office reaffirmed the Church’s perennial teaching on the sinfulness of euthanasia and assisted suicide, and recalled the obligation of Catholics to accompany the sick and dying through prayer, physical presence, and the sacraments.
The document also addressed the pastoral care of Catholics who request euthanasia or assisted suicide, explaining that a priest and others should avoid any active or passive gesure which might signal approval for the action, including remaining until the act is performed.
Samaritanus bonus: on the Care of Persons in the Critical and Terminal Phases of Life is a new document by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), published Sept. 22.
The 45-page text, approved by Pope Francis on June 25, is signed by CDF prefect Cardinal Luis Ladaria and secretary Archbishop Giacomo Morandi.
The letter presents Catholic teaching on a range of end-of-life issues, affirming the intrinsic value and dignity of every human life, especially for those who are critically sick and in the terminal stages of life.
The document’s introduction noted that “it is widely recognized that a moral and practical clarification regarding care of these persons is needed.”
Pastoral accompaniment of those who expressly request euthanasia or assisted suicide “today presents a singular moment when a reaffirmation of the teaching of the Church is necessary,” Samaritanus bonus said.
It explained that closeness to a person who has chosen euthanasia or assisted suicide is necessary, but must always be ordered toward the person’s conversion.
The document recalled that a person who has made this decision, “whatever their subjective dispositions may be, has decided upon a gravely immoral act and willingly persists in this decision.”
This state “involves a manifest absence of the proper disposition for the reception of the Sacraments of Penance, with absolution, and Anointing, with Viaticum.” In this situation, the congregation explained, the priest must withhold absolution.
“Here it remains possible to accompany the person whose hope may be revived and whose erroneous decision may be modified, thus opening the way to admission to the sacraments,” it continued.
It added that “to delay absolution is a medicinal act of the Church, intended not to condemn, but to lead the sinner to conversion.”
The Church’s position in this situation “does not imply non-acceptance of the sick person,” the letter emphasized. Withholding absolution “must be accompanied by a willingness to listen and to help, together with a deeper explanation of the nature of the sacrament, in order to provide the opportunity to desire and choose the sacrament up to the last moment.”
“The Church is careful to look deeply for adequate signs of conversion, so that the faithful can reasonably ask for the reception of the sacraments,” it said.
The purpose of the new letter, the CDF explained in the introduction, is to enlighten pastors and the Catholic 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.”
It said that there were particular situations today which require “a more clear and precise intervention on the part of the Church,” to reaffirm the message of the Gospel and its expression in the basic doctrinal teachings of the Magisterium, especially for the sick and dying and those who come into contact with them.
Euthanasia, the CDF letter affirmed, is “an intrinsically evil act, in every situation or circumstance” and “any formal or immediate material cooperation in such an act is a grave sin against human life.”
“Euthanasia and assisted suicide are always the wrong choice,” it said, because, as St. Pope John Paul II wrote in Evangelium vitae, “euthanasia is a grave violation of the Law of God, since it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human person. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.”
There is also “no right to dispose of one’s life arbitrarily,” it continued, which is why “no health care worker can be compelled to execute a non-existent right.”
It is also “gravely unjust to enact laws that legalize euthanasia or justify and support suicide,” the congregation stated, and “such laws strike at the foundation of the legal order: the right to life sustains all other rights, including the exercise of freedom.”
“The existence of such laws deeply wound human relations and justice, and threaten the mutual trust among human beings,” the document continued. “The legitimation of assisted suicide and euthanasia is a sign of the degradation of legal systems.”
The CDF explained that according to Church teaching, euthanasia “is an act of homicide that no end can justify and that does not tolerate any form of complicity or active or passive collaboration.”
It said: “Those who approve laws of euthanasia and assisted suicide, therefore, become accomplices of a grave sin that others will execute. They are also guilty of scandal because by such laws they contribute to the distortion of conscience, even among the faithful.”
To take one’s own life breaks one’s relationship with God and with others. “Assisted suicide aggravates the gravity of this act because it implicates another in one’s own despair,” it said.
The Christian response to these actions is to offer the help necessary for a person to shake off this despair, it emphasized, and not to indulge “in spurious condescension.”
“The commandment ‘do not kill’ … is in fact a yes to life which God guarantees, and it ‘becomes a call to attentive love which protects and promotes the life of one’s neighbor,’” the letter said.
“The Christian therefore knows that earthly life is not the supreme value. Ultimate happiness is in heaven. Thus the Christian will not expect physical life to continue when death is evidently near. The Christian must help the dying to break free from despair and to place their hope in God.”
The letter affirmed that it is “a supreme act of charity” to spiritually assist the Christian at their moment of death.
“Death is a decisive moment in the human person’s encounter with God the Savior. The Church is called to accompany spiritually the faithful in the situation, offering them the ‘healing resources’ of prayer and the sacraments.”
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Sex is permissible only between a married man and woman.
This is not a difficult concept nor is it a new one.
Fr Martin, a noted homosexualist, should be excommunicated for continually repudiating this basic tenet of Roman Catholicism.
I think his excommunication will be coming soon; soon as hell freezes over.
Yes and hell will freeze over before this pope welcomes Cardinal Zen. Sick to the teeth of this circus.
Given his constant blatant public disregard of Church doctrine and laws – not that he is the only one (hint hint) I think he has already taken care of that.
Yes, the Holy Father has forgotten one of the mainstreams of His teachings, “deny yourself and take up your cross.”
Just like the insurance industry, the Church now has what is called “underwriting” below the main policy language – we just add “except for……..”
Even more than “permissible.” Honored and celebrated as at Cana, even sacred and a sacrament. Sharing the copyright of a loving Father in both personal union and the procreation of new lives.
For our current moment, however, we are living in a real and ex-Christian Dark Age, with a long way forward (not “backward”) to the reality of the human person, and Humanae Vitae and the richness of the Theology of the Body.
When will more and real Church leadership find its voice, beyond the present accommodations to the Zeitgeist? With the same courage of many violated women, to admit that the penetration of the LGBTQ agenda into the Church is not consensual—by publicly “walking together (synodally!)” on the healing path of “Me Too”?
You so Right! fr martin is cut from the same Cloth, as Theodore McCarrick
AMEN
The Reverend Jimmy is the voice of the voiceless. May his tribe increase.
No, he uses loudmouth radical LGBTQ Catholics as cover to push his agenda to undermine Catholic teaching, in order to ease his own conscience about being gay himself.
The real voiceless in the Church are those who uphold its teachings.
Oh, you mean the tribe of non-Catholics.
The obfuscating ‘dr’ comments again…how many active homosexual souls has ‘jimmy’ or Francis brought back to Christ, ‘dr’?
The homosexual tribe has been anything but voiceless for the last few decades.
More likely, Martin wants to give sodomy – under the guise of false compassion – a voice.
This Pope would never do so.
James Martin LGBTQWXYZSJ is the pied piper of sodomy. He and his enablers – the Pontiff being one of them – need to repent and amend their lives before it’s too late.
Which “voiceless” would that be? Surely not LGBTQ activists such as Fr. Martin, who are championed by the secular media and now apparently the Pope as well. On the other hand, I’m not expecting any of the writers and commenters at CWR and similar sites to be summoned to a Papal audience anytime soon.
Huh? The LGBTQWERTY chorus is the loudest sound on the planet.
Repent of yooir promotion of sodomy now while you still have a chance. James Martin S.J. and Pope Francis are playing with hellfire.
God created them – male and female He created the. Woman was created for man and man for woman. Yes, Alan, clear enough for most of us to understand but this does not apparently apply to Jesuits.
The Church does not hate gay-identifying people. Indeed, we love them and hope for their healing.
Just as we love and want others with malformations to be aided — those with clubbed feet, for example, or cleft palates.
I can just imagine what Saint Peter Damian, Doctor of the Church, would have to say about the views of the two smiling, ordained celebrities depicted above.
I’ve not yet had my audience with the Pope and, if invited, I’d politely decline. Instead, I’ll take my malfactions to the Confessional rather than Domus Marthe or wherever the Jesuits hang out at the Vatican these days.
I just want to make sure I am understanding this correctly. Devout believers who would like to celebrate a traditional form of the mass are discouraged and maligned. Faithful priests who preach about sin are silenced. Cardinals who hold politicians accountable are ignored. But a homosexualist priest who actively, intentionally, and consistently undermines and denies church teaching about sexuality gets an audience with the pope. Twice. This would be laughable if it wasn’t so reprehensible. This is shameful.
@Athanasius,
Of the points you raise, I was uncertain only of the number of times Pope Francis and the Rev. James Martin, S.J., have met in private, but according to an article published today in America, titled “Pope Francis received Father James Martin in private audience for the second time”, you are correct.
Thanks for the response. That was what stood out to me most clearly. This was the second visit!
@Athanasius,
Of the points you raise, I was uncertain only of the number of times Pope Francis and the Rev. James Martin, S.J., have met in private, but according to an article published today in America, titled “Pope Francis received Father James Martin in private audience for the second time”, you are correct.
I’d say you hit the bullseye.
“Pope Francis meets with Father James Martin at Vatican”. Of course.
Francis will always make time for Fr. Jimmy but is way too busy for Cardinals Burke and Zen. This is yet another example of how the Holy Father speaks without words. In this case, the message is “God wills a diversity of sexual orientations.”
Apostasy in the papacy.
Lord, please have Mercy on Your suffering Church.
The Kingdom of Queerdom is ascendant.
Bestiality reigns in Rome.
Lord, where shall we go?
We arm ourselves as St.Paul suggests at Ephesians 6:10-18, and we fight the good fight. God is the victor, and His army does ALWAYS win.
“Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.
In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord’s people.
Where shall we go? Not to Oregon apparently.
Let us not forget that it is not just the Pope but the Society of Jesus – the Jesuits – who continue to support and praise Fr. Martin, give him honorary degrees from Catholic universities and use him to conduct retreats and speak in public with the approval and support of the Superiors of the order. Apparently what he is saying and writing is now the official policy of the Society of Jesus.
James Martin has done his impression of Joe Biden in reporting the pope’s encouragement, but we have only his word for what happened between the two men. I believe in the message of Jesus that we need to love the sinner, but Martin goes further in apparently defining “love” as acceptance of sinful behavior when St. Thomas’ definition is to “unselfishly will the good of the other,” which doesn’t include supporting an inauthentic life. Martin’s writings proclaim an approval of an inauthentic, immoral life and shouldn’t be ignored by Francis.
We live in the most confused and rebellious age in the history of the Christian Church. Pope Francis is called to be nothing less than the custodian of the full and eternal Truth of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Instead, Pope Francis is adding to the confusion and rebellion through inference, insinuation, de-emphasis of Truth, emphasis of falsehood – and his mixing of truth and truisms and falsehoods to create the Modernist “Super Lie”.
Fr. Martin is like Mariana Mazzucato: they are hubs of the wheel and their spokes describe “journeys” and “destinations” the Holy Father would like to make.
Actually he can get access by other means! Let’s call this point 1.
Jesus got to people in many ways, He never singled out the meeting with the Samaritan woman at the well as the one way for priests. Nor did she get an appointment. Scroll through John and the other Evangelists, it will immediately become clear to you.
And look back in the OT: Elisha asked the Shunammite woman what she might want and she said: “I am with my people.” Elisha revealed her humility. When, in Acts, Philip revealed the sincerity of the Ethiopian Eunuch, he didn’t tell him “Tell your homosexuals stick with what they know and we have them covered.”
Five other points come to me:
2. doing things ONE WAY and trying to turn it into general principles and/or THE ONLY WAY, is fraught with errors;
3. if you conclude everything in advance there could be no merit, everything would be routine-ized and Jesus did no such thing;
4. however, these general principles can’t root or they’ll become fundamentalist, they must remain discretionary in some sense only the Holy Father must sanction -that makes no sense;
5. there is a presumption that “this way that saves people to the saving way”, catches onto those with good will; and
6. if we have to correct the Holy Father on everything, we will deny him merit and we will deny ourselves merit!
Well, I am going to make a coffee.
Memory of the classic series Dallas JR haranguing his gay son seeking his understanding, JR hollering, Do you expect me to accept Queerdom? Today coming out is cheered, elation, the same sex person called heroic. A cultural reversal so inherently antithetical to nature that it defies reasoned explanation.
Aquinas condemned it as an abomination since it defied nature as ordained by God. He did admit to ‘accidents’ of nature, some rare impediment. So, it’s understandable that unlike JR the Church asks we not harangue the person [we may of course advise and counsel] who admits to homosexuality, either in their entirely freely chosen acts some persons ‘feel it’s cool’, or by some interior predilection, or both.
Fr James Martin SJ meeting with Pope Francis SJ is of itself not a terrible thing. Although what the majority of comments criticize is the anticipated affirmation of Francis as previously indicated in favorable comments addressed to Martin. Elsewhere the pontiff has counseled, This is how God made you. That, the crux of the drama with our pontiff and his favorite same sex advocate Francis often affirming both spiritual reaching out, and implicitly at times overtly of the behavior itself [appointment of Card Hollerich SJ as Synod relator is no accident of judgment].
Resistance, however futile insofar as affecting change at this Vatican is nonetheless imperative, because we’re citizens of a contemporary Christendom of faith and reason, not Queerdom. There is no substitute, better existential interpretation, compassionate embrace, voice from heaven [or from Hades] that can contradict the eternally spoken Word.
“Resistance?” But the truth changes! Take for example this obsolete remark by a cardinal to Napoleon and his marching armies:
“If in 1,800 years we clergy have failed to destroy the Church, do you really think that you’ll be able to do it?”—Cardinal Ercole Consalvi to Napoleon Bonaparte, after the general had threatened to crush the Roman Catholic Church.
Now, after a full 2,000 years even the cardinals have stepped in line. You know, “walking together” under cover of synod-ism.
Resistance as you rightly suggest is dwindling. Cardinals Hollerich, Grech, and many others perhaps a majority smitten, some wildly agog with the newly revised gospel.
Although we have the morally sane Gerhard Muller, Willem Eijk, Raymond Burke, Daniel DiNardo [silent but still alive] and a host of archbishops who are denied the cardinalate because of their orthodoxy. These as you’re aware are the likely leadership nuclei of a Ratzingerian wittled down faithful Catholicism called to stand fast by Christ. We resist. We, true to our adherence to Christ’s eternal doctrine, pray for the conversion of the apostates. We resist simply by living and preaching the Gospel.
I disagree on one point: PF meeting James Martin is a terrible optic. It is also an extreme bias choosing to give him 45 minutes twice but not a second to the dubbia Cardinals and poor Cardinal Zen for whom PF has said nothing. The whole thing is scandalous. Many on other sites see it that way too.
Cardinal “Newman had a jaundiced view of the papacy, especially an ageing one. “It is anomaly,” he wrote, “and bears no good fruit. He [the Pope] becomes a god, has no one to contradict him, does not know facts, and does cruel things without meaning it.”
If he were alive today, how active might his pen be in explaining Bergolio?
Is there anyone out there who would want either one of these men as a confessor?
I know that I certainly wouldn’t, and to me that is the ultimate test, the ultimate question.
Would the Holy Father consider carefully the observation made, that there is the appearance of grooming and reverse grooming.
Inconsistent with spiritual direction (among other things).
I suppose if Catholics were effective at confrontational evangelization, producing Acts 2:37 moments at every turn, they would have a beef with Fr Martin. “You gay people are wicked and evil.”
“Gosh! We are cut to the quick and y’all are so right.”
Like that will ever be effective. Meanwhile, the Catholic Right simmers in “scandalization” of its own making, leading into the usual behaviors: calling names, inventing reasons to be disobedient and detracting. It’s like nobody’s ever read as far as #2478 in the Catechism.
Who cares who’s meeting with the pope and what they’re talking about? Does it affect any of us? Impact our prayer life? Our efforts at evangelizing? Of talking our adult children into coming back to church with us on Sunday?
This is not the Church. It has nothing to do with it.
There is plenty of nastiness, name-calling, and disobedience across the spectrum. The Catholic Left, for decades, has been insulting popes and directly attacking Catholic doctrine, morality, and practices. And it continues apace on social media. There’s plenty to go around. As we all know, Pope Francis himself is a font of insults and passive-aggressive demonization. In fact, your caricature here is simply a more subtle (congrats!) and passive form of the same. As we’ve come to expect.
“Who cares who’s meeting with the pope and what they’re talking about?” Considering how ultramontanist and papal-centric has become, and considering the past ten years, many of us do care about such matters. Should it be the focus of our lives as Catholics? No, of course not. And that’s a problem.
But Paglia, Hollerich, and Martin (to name three obvious examples) are clearly part of Francis’ circle of trusted advisors. And all three have openly pushed for changes to the Church’s teaching about sexuality. And the issue, as I explain in my recent CWR editorial, is that they show little to no regard for Scripture and Tradition, the deposit of faith and the ordinary magisterium. The last two synods were not just messy (that happens), but manipulated with a crudity and cynicism that has, alas, become a hallmark of this pontificate. And all of that, if various ways, does have an effect on evangelization.
To some, it appears that Papa has run amok. If he were a CEO of a large corporation, how long would he have lasted?
Wailing and gnashing of teeth won’t persuade a man like this to leave. What recourse do the faithful have? Perhaps there is a good reason for the prohibition of a Jesuit being pope!
With all due respect to the outstanding Loyola and others of the SJ who are godly men.
Blessings upon blessings in your decisive work.
Clearly, I’d disagree with you on a few of these fronts, Carl. The whataboutism does the point little credit. The stirring up of passions over a minor visit does the Right little good and gains no real grace. To coin a similar term to Mr Macdonald’s above, this all feeds the eldersiblingontheporchists in the Church.
It’s not a question or right or left. It’s a question of truth or error, purity or perversion, and obedience or disobedience. This was not a minor visit, and it is not a trivial question.
Ah, I agree it’s not Right or Left. But the Right places itself often enough into Luke 15:28-32, and creates a scandal of its own perspective. The truth is a meeting is just a meeting. It’s not a medal, a free pass into heaven, nor should it be an occasion for dismay because someone else’s hero didn’t get invited. It’s a Galatians 5:15 moment.
Jesus rebuked the religious leaders of His day. We as followers look to His example. True compassion is speaking the truth, we care for the state of a mans eternal soul when we have courage to reproach.
2 Timothy 4:2 Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with complete patience and teaching.
1 Timothy 5:20 As for those who persist in sin, rebuke them in the presence of all, so that the rest may stand in fear.
Titus 2:15 Declare these things; exhort and rebuke with all authority. Let no one disregard you.
Revelation 3:19 Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline, so be zealous and repent.
Titus 1:13 This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith,
God bless you.
While this appears to be bad news as Pope Francis should always be and appear to be the pre-eminent proclaimer of the Kingdom, let us not assume he believes in a change in Church teaching. Rather pastoral accompaniment and an invitation to repentance and change of life. However, as I may be naive, it may also be a good time to visit your local Orthodox Church of America parish. The Orthodox will never embrace homosexuality.
“The conversation covered “the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties, of LGBTQ Catholics,” Martin added, writing: “It was a warm, inspiring and encouraging meeting that I’ll never forget.“”
And will we soon hear of a meeting with Pope Francis where someone rejoices at a conversation that covered “the joys and hopes, the griefs and anxieties, of murderer people Catholics,” or of “oppressed of the poor Catholics?” Or of defrauding the worker of his just wages Catholics?”
Pope Francis’ insistence on aiding those in the peripheries is inconsistent. Are not the tens of thousands of abused men not a part of that group… their lives have been destroyed, many driven to suicide. PF has never called out gay activity in the Church. He encourages it by praising the likes of PMartin who seems to spend most of his priesthood focused on gay life, avoiding the real gay life and what goes on there, avoiding all statitistics showing what a tragic lifestyle it is. Some abused people have even told me how devasting it is to see people like Martin praised. The crediblity of the Church, due to this in-bed relationship between PF and his gay friends and newly appointed bishops and Cardinals… is at a low unimaginable. Most Popes focus on the sacredness and holiness of life. With PF the issue seems to be how far you can walk in accompaning pushers of the LGTT community. I’m ashamed of PF, as his lack of compassion for the abused in preference to gay pushers in the Church. The studies on that topic are out and well within his reach. We will not be a credible Church until all of this goes away. Devastating.