India’s supreme court building is pictured in New Delhi on July 9, 2018. / Credit: SAJJAD HUSSAIN/AFP via Getty Images
New Delhi, India, Aug 22, 2024 / 16:00 pm (CNA).
Catholic leaders in India have lauded the country’s high court for rejecting a plea for “passive euthanasia” from the parents of a 30-year-old man who has been in a vegetative state for 11 years.
Commenting on the August 20 verdict issued by a three-judge bench led by Chief Justice Dhananjaya Chandrachud, Archbishop Raphy Manjaly of the Archdiocese of Agra, the chairman of the doctrinal commission of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of India, said: “We would like to congratulate the Court for its unambiguous verdict while calling for support for the family facing a serious crisis.”
“We are extremely happy that the sacredness of life has been upheld by the court,” the prelate told CNA on Aug 22.
When the lawyer for the distressed parents of the 30-year old man — who fell from a hostel balcony in 2013 while studying for engineering and had been comatose since then — told the Supreme Court that the family had sold their house to pay for their son’s treatment, the chief justice admitted the court was “moved by the plight of the parents.”
“Can some alternative be introduced?” Chandrachud asked. “Both parents are aging. Is there any facility where [the patient] can be lodged, and the expenses covered? He is suffering from bed sores.”
Yet the court “cannot permit passive euthanasia as he is not on a life support system,” the justice said. The patient is fed through a nasal tube.
In 2018 the Supreme Court said Indian law “prohibits anyone, including a physician, from causing the death of another person by administering any lethal drug, even if the objective is to relieve the patient from pain and suffering.”
“Passive” euthanasia, meanwhile, is allowed in cases where doctors remove patients from mechanical life support. The removal of nasal feeding tubes is not allowed under that rule.
Archbishop Manjaly noted that “while taking a clear pro-life stance, the judgment acknowledges that there is definitely a crisis.”
“The suffering family cannot be pushed into a corner. We are happy that the court insists on community support for the distraught family,” he pointed out.
The prelate of the Taj Mahal city of Agra also recounted how Aruna Shanbaug, a nurse brutalized by a janitor while on hospital duty in 1973, remained in vegetative condition for 41 years with the nursing community in the Mumbai hospital taking care of her until her death in 2015.
“Society needs such compassion to care for the needy. The Church stands for that,” Manjaly said.
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Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone of San Francisco. / Dennis Callahan, Archdiocese of San Francisco.
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Jacob Matham’s portrait of Leo XI, who reigned April 1-27, 1605. / public domain
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Blessed John Paul I did not serve as Roman Pontiff for long, but 10 other popes had shorter pontificates than he did. Their stories are a microcosm of the history of the papacy. Some were friends of saints and worked for the good of the Church, while the qualifications of others might be a bit questionable. Through all these more or less flawed men who sat in the Chair of Peter, the Catholic Church teaches that the connection to St. Peter and his profession of faith in Christ endures.
Urban VII was pope for 13 days, Sept. 15–27, 1590.
He was born Giambattista Castagna at Rome, the home city of his mother. His father was of Genoan nobility. His uncle was a cardinal, whom he served at points during his long career in the Church. He held doctorates in civil and canon law.
Castagna worked in government and diplomacy on behalf of the papacy, which at the time held civil power over parts of Italy. He led several commissions during the Council of Trent and helped organize the military alliance against the Ottoman Empire, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia. He was appointed archbishop in 1553 and became a cardinal in 1583.
He had a reputation for genuine piety, intelligence, and ability to govern.
Jacopino del Conte’s portrait (c. 1590) of Urban VII. public domain
After his election as pope, he made sure to address the needs of the poor in Rome. His initial plans included expanded public works to employ the poor.
As God’s providence allowed, he did not have time to do much more than plan. He died of malaria at the age of 69. In his will, he left his personal fortune to support poor girls.
Celestine IV reigned for 15 days, Oct. 25–Nov. 10, 1241.
The future pope was born Goffredo da Castiglione in Milan. He spent time with the Cistercian religious order and was a cardinal bishop of Sabina. He was a nephew of Pope Urban III. He was already in poor health when he was elected, at a time when the papacy was a center of political conflict between backers and opponents of Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II.
Boniface VI reigned for 16 days, April 11–26, 896.
He was born in Rome. Not much is known about this pope, though records indicate that during his life he was canonically deprived of holy orders on two occasions: the first time as a subdeacon, and the second as a priest. His irregular past caused controversy over his election, the New Catholic Encyclopedia says.
Theodore II reigned for 20 days in December 897.
Another little-known pope, it is said that his clergy loved him, that he loved peace, and that he lived a life of chastity and charity to the poor. He came to power soon after a low point of the papacy. Pope Theodore annulled the acts of the “Cadaver Synod,” which had put on trial the corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus. He recovered the dead Roman Pontiff’s body from the River Tiber and gave it a proper burial. He also reinstated clergy who had been forced to resign.
Sisinnius was pope for 21 days, Jan. 15–Feb. 4, 708.
This pope was born in Syria. His health troubles included disabling arthritis, and he was unable to feed himself. The papacy was responsible for the military defense of Rome at this time, with Lombards invading from the north of Italy and Muslim armies advancing from the south. Sisinnius ordered the walls of Rome to be reinforced as his first act, the New Catholic Encyclopedia says. Before he died, Pope Sisinnius ordained one priest and consecrated a bishop for Corsica.
Marcellus II was pope for about 22 days in April and May, 1555.
He was born Marcello Cervini, at Montefano in Tuscany. Like the sainted Pope Marcellus of the fourth century, he kept his baptismal name as his papal name.
His father worked under several pontificates as a scribe and secretary.
Before Cervini was elected pope he served various roles as a secretary to popes and cardinals, including work to correct the Julian calendar. He was actively engaged with the “New Learning” of Renaissance humanism. He served as protector of the Vatican Library and helped improve and expand its collection. Cervini served the Vatican at the time of its response to the Protestant Reformation. He was a president at the Council of Trent, which continued through his short pontificate.
He gained a reputation as a Church reformer and had hoped to pursue this path during his papacy. He was not consecrated a bishop until the day after he was elected pope.
Pope Marcellus reputedly became sick from overwork during the celebrations of Holy Week and Easter, and the illness turned fatal.
The Missa Papae Marcelli of Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina was composed in his honor.
Damasus II reigned for 24 days in July and August, 1048.
This pontiff was named Poppo. He was born in Bavaria and was of German extraction. He served as Bishop of Brixen in Tyrol, in what is now western Austria.
Popes at the time could be nominated in an unusual manner. Pope Damasus II was named by Holy Roman Emperor Henry III. The pope, however, soon died of malaria.
Pius III was pope for 27 calendar days, Sept. 22–Oct. 18, 1503.
He was born Francesco Todeschini in Siena. He was the nephew of Pope Pius II, a famous Renaissance-era pope. His uncle took him into his household and became his patron, allowing the young man to add the pontiff’s family name Piccolomini to his own last name.
Francesco studied canon law. His uncle named him to become administrator of the Archdiocese of Siena and later made him a cardinal-deacon.
The future Roman Pontiff had a reputation of living an upright life as a cultured, gentle man, the New Catholic Encyclopedia reports. He took part in several conclaves of his time, including that which elected Alexander VI.
His service to the papacy included several diplomatic appointments to Germany, France, and Perugia.
Francesco’s own papal election took place amid ruling Italian families’ disputes over control of Rome and included an unsuccessful power play by the Borgia family.
Pius III was known to be in poor health. At the time of the papal coronation he was already suffering from a diseased leg, which developed into a septic ulcer. He died at the age of 64.
Leo XI was pope for 27 days, from April 1–27, 1605.
The Florentine-born Alessandro de Medici was a member of the famous Medici family. He was grand-nephew to Pope Leo X. He sought to become a priest from an early age, but because his mother objected he was not ordained until after she died, according to the New Catholic Encyclopedia. He served as an ambassador to Rome on behalf of Tuscany, before he began to advance in the Church. He would eventually become a bishop, then archbishop of Florence, before being named a cardinal.
He served as a papal legate to France and was head of the Congregation of Bishops.
Among his great friends was St. Philip Neri, founder of the Oratorians.
He was elected pope at the age of 69 and became sick almost immediately.
Benedict V served as pope for 33 days, May 22–June 23, 964.
He was born in Rome and had a reputation for great learning.
He reigned at a time of great turmoil in the Church. Holy Roman Emperor Otto I had interfered with the pontificates of his predecessors. The emperor had forcibly deposed a pope and installed his own nominee on the See of Peter. There were rival claimants to the papacy under Benedict V and Otto again interfered, laying siege to Rome and taking the pope away from Rome by force. Benedict either renounced the papacy or was forcibly deposed. He lived in exile in Hamburg for another year.
John Paul I served as Roman Pontiff from Aug. 26–Sept. 28, 1978, 33 calendar days.
His beatification on Sept. 4 renewed attention to his life. He had a reputation for humility and for teaching the faith in an understandable way.
The future John Paul I took part in the Second Vatican Council and was named patriarch of Venice.
As a cardinal, Luciani published a collection of “open letters” to historic figures, saints, famous writers, and fictional characters. The book, “Illustrissimi,” included letters to Jesus, King David, Mark Twain, Charles Dickens, and Christopher Marlowe, as well as Pinocchio and Figaro, the barber of Seville.
He was the first pope to have two names. He took his papal name from his immediate predecessors, Sts. John XXIII and Paul VI.
Remember that, in addition to the Church’s moral arguments against euthanasia, there is a practical one: The life you save could be your own. 1.7% of deaths in Belgium and the Netherlands are attributed to “involuntary euthanasia” where doctors euthanize the patient against their will. A doctor in the Netherlands was acquitted of murder after instructing his “patient’s” family to hold her down to prevent her from resisting so he could euthanize her. In Canada, the National Health Service refused to pay for upgrades to a disabled military veteran’s home to make her life easier, but did offer to pay for her euthanasia.
Voluntary euthanasia opens the door to involuntary euthanasia, and eventually compulsory euthanasia.
In Fides et Ratio (Faith & Reason: on the Relationship between Faith and Reason, 1998), where he explores the fit between distinct human philosophizing and unique divine revelation, St. John Paul II develops the case that “cultures” aspire together to the meaning of things, and even that Christian culture can discern philosophical support from other cultures.
A point, a quote, and some questions:
FIRST, fortunately for today’s readers, St. John Paul II did not speak/misspeak (?) of a “pluralism” of apparently equivalent religions as being willed, rather than only permitted by the creating and self-disclosing Triune God.
(So, incarnational, not re-incarnational; philosophical, not Pachamama in St. Peter’s Basilica; Christ, not an accepted Marxian cross in Peru; at the 1998 World Youth Day, not exchanging the papal crozier for a Wiccan Stang; and not a Fiducia Supplicans blessing that is also said to be not a blessing, and for irregular “couples” that are also said to be not couples.)
SECOND, as St. John Paul II reflects, still at the beginning:
“Although times change and knowledge increases, it is possible to discern a core of philosophical insight [!] within the history of thought as a whole. Consider, for example, the principles of non-contradiction [!], finality and causality, as well as the concept of the person as a free and intelligent subject, with the capacity to know God, truth and goodness. Consider as well certain fundamental moral norms [!] which are shared by all” (n. 4).
THIRD, what, then about the clear contradiction of euthanasia and abortion, now widespread within post-Christian culture?
Or about the synodal “principle” or fluid notion or whatever, that “time is greater than space”?
Or the philosophically-undiscerning relator general Hollerich for the Synod on Synodality who philosophizes the contradiction that a thing can be both black and white at the same time? “In Japan, I got to know a different way of thinking [?]. The Japanese don’t think in terms of the [only] European logic [?] of opposites. We say: It is black, therefore it is not white. The Japanese say: It is white, but maybe it is also black. You can combine opposites [Hegelianism in the West?] in Japan without changing your [decapitated?] point of view.” https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/who-is-cardinal-hollerich.
Remember that, in addition to the Church’s moral arguments against euthanasia, there is a practical one: The life you save could be your own. 1.7% of deaths in Belgium and the Netherlands are attributed to “involuntary euthanasia” where doctors euthanize the patient against their will. A doctor in the Netherlands was acquitted of murder after instructing his “patient’s” family to hold her down to prevent her from resisting so he could euthanize her. In Canada, the National Health Service refused to pay for upgrades to a disabled military veteran’s home to make her life easier, but did offer to pay for her euthanasia.
Voluntary euthanasia opens the door to involuntary euthanasia, and eventually compulsory euthanasia.
In Fides et Ratio (Faith & Reason: on the Relationship between Faith and Reason, 1998), where he explores the fit between distinct human philosophizing and unique divine revelation, St. John Paul II develops the case that “cultures” aspire together to the meaning of things, and even that Christian culture can discern philosophical support from other cultures.
A point, a quote, and some questions:
FIRST, fortunately for today’s readers, St. John Paul II did not speak/misspeak (?) of a “pluralism” of apparently equivalent religions as being willed, rather than only permitted by the creating and self-disclosing Triune God.
(So, incarnational, not re-incarnational; philosophical, not Pachamama in St. Peter’s Basilica; Christ, not an accepted Marxian cross in Peru; at the 1998 World Youth Day, not exchanging the papal crozier for a Wiccan Stang; and not a Fiducia Supplicans blessing that is also said to be not a blessing, and for irregular “couples” that are also said to be not couples.)
SECOND, as St. John Paul II reflects, still at the beginning:
“Although times change and knowledge increases, it is possible to discern a core of philosophical insight [!] within the history of thought as a whole. Consider, for example, the principles of non-contradiction [!], finality and causality, as well as the concept of the person as a free and intelligent subject, with the capacity to know God, truth and goodness. Consider as well certain fundamental moral norms [!] which are shared by all” (n. 4).
THIRD, what, then about the clear contradiction of euthanasia and abortion, now widespread within post-Christian culture?
Or about the synodal “principle” or fluid notion or whatever, that “time is greater than space”?
Or the philosophically-undiscerning relator general Hollerich for the Synod on Synodality who philosophizes the contradiction that a thing can be both black and white at the same time? “In Japan, I got to know a different way of thinking [?]. The Japanese don’t think in terms of the [only] European logic [?] of opposites. We say: It is black, therefore it is not white. The Japanese say: It is white, but maybe it is also black. You can combine opposites [Hegelianism in the West?] in Japan without changing your [decapitated?] point of view.” https://www.pillarcatholic.com/p/who-is-cardinal-hollerich.
From womb to tomb life is sacred and a precious gift. Long live life.