CNA Staff, Aug 28, 2020 / 12:01 pm (CNA).- The British Columbia Court of Appeal has agreed to hear a case of a hospice trying to preserve its historical opposition to participation in the provision of euthanasia.
The Delta Hospice Society is due to lose $1.5 million in funding from the Fraser Health Authority, a public health care authority in British Columbia, and its permission to operate as a hospice, in February 2021.
Euthanasia and assisted suicide were legalized federally in Canada in June 2016. As of April 2019, at least 6,749 Canadians had died of euthanasia or assisted suicide.
The hospice’s case regards its efforts to hold a meeting and vote on proposed changes to its constitution and bylaws that would define its Christian identity and exclude the provision of euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The Supreme Court of British Columbia ruled in June that the hospice had acted wrongly in its attempts to define its Christian identity and to exclude euthanasia, because it had not been indiscriminately approving new applications for membership during 2020.
The hospice’s actions were challenged by three of its members, Sharon Farrish, Christopher Pettypiece, and James Levin.
The Delta Hospice Society has appealed the June decision.
The hospice was founded in 1991 as a community organization. The legalization of euthanasia in Canada led to governance problems for the Delta Hospice Society, according to Madam Justice Shelley Fitzpatrick, the judge who wrote the June decision.
Farrish became executive director of the Delta Hospice Society in June 2019, when the society had about 160 members. In that year “which I take as principally arising from Ms. Farrish’s leadership, there was an increasing view that [Medical Assistance in Dying] should be offered by the Society,” Fitzpatrick wrote.
During the course of 2019, membership in the hospice society swelled; it was about 400 at the beginning of October, and 620 by the end of November.
“The clear inference is that the MAiD issue caused substantial interest in the community, and motivated people to get involved in the Society so that they could express their views at the [Annual General Meeting] as members of the Society,” according to Fitzpatrick.
At a general meeting in November 2019 “there were sweeping changes” to the hospice’s board; Pettypiece was among a group of directors who were elected but then resigned or were terminated.
According to Fitzpatrick, the new board opposed provision of euthanasia at the hospice’s facilities, and Farrish was terminated as executive director.
Delta Hospice Society has been opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide.
CNA reported in November 2018 that the hospice maintained physician assisted suicide was “incompatible” with hospice palliative care, and that it was being pressured to provide it was incompatible with its mission.
And in January, CNA described Delta Hospice Society as “not affiliated with a religion, but … opposed to euthanasia as a matter of principle.”
Angelina Ireland, president of the board of the hospice society, told CNA in February that the hospice has “worked really hard to have the people to trust us that when they come to hospice they will not be killed. We will take care of them, they will take care of their families. And now basically the government has said that any hospice that does not provide euthanasia, it’s not allowed to exist.”
Since then, the board of Delta Hospice Society has worked to preserve its character as an organization that allows for natural death.
Ireland sent a letter to members of the society in May saying it was “obvious that we must return to our roots and fully affirm our Christian identity,” and urging the acceptance of a new constitution and bylaws. Her letter also served as a notice of a June 15 meeting that was to effect these changes.
The proposed new constitution of the hospice society would call it “a Christian community” meant “to provide compassionate care and support for persons in the last stages of living, so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible, until their natural death.”
The existing constitution, last updated in 2017, says the society exists “to provide compassionate care and support for persons in the last stages of living, so that they may live as fully and comfortably as possible.”
Ireland interprets the existing constitution “as excluding the provision of MAiD by the Society,” Fitzpatrick wrote, adding: “However, it is clear enough that this interpretation is not shared by all members, including the petitioners.”
The members who challenged the changes in court sought to have the meeting cancelled or postponed, and argued that “the Board has improperly denied memberships to certain persons.”
Sine November 2019, according to Farrish and her fellow petitioners, the board has granted membership to applicants who oppose euthanasia, and denied the applications of those in favor of the practice, with the intent of preventing the acceptance of euthanasia by the Delta Hospice Society.
Ireland has confirmed that 310 applications were rejected.
The membership of the society was about 600 in March, and was 1,400 by mid-April, according to Fitzpatrick.
According to Farrish and her fellow petitioners, anyone who applied for membership and contributed the membership fee was accepted, until 2020.
Under British Columbia’s Societies Act, the directors of societies do not have discretion to deny membership on any self-determined basis unless criteria for membership are set out in the society’s bylaws.
Fitzpatrick wrote that “It is clear enough from Ms. Ireland’s affidavit alone that the Board has sought to screen membership, allowing only those that could be determined to uphold the Constitution as she and others on the Board interpret it. However, what the Board has also effectively done is deny membership to people who, in the past, would have been granted membership. The Board has done so with the express intention of preventing those who would have become ‘new’ members from voting on what is to be a very important decision in the direction of the Society.”
She rejected the Delta Hospice Society’s argument that its board has full discretion to determine membership, and found that the board “has not been acting in good faith in terms of admitting members on a proper basis.”
The hospice society has appealed Fitzpatrick’s ruling.
The British Columbia Court of Appeal held a hearing on the case Aug. 17 that was adjourned.
Ireland said that the appeal is a welcome chance “to argue on constitutional grounds why it’s wrong for the courts to force us to let a hostile group take over the Society, change its foundational purposes, and seize the assets built up for over 30 years.”
She has said that Fitzpatrick’s ruling that the rejected applications must be accepted “gave carte blanche to organized groups to perform hostile takeovers of private societies that hold minority views.”
She added that “it would mean thousands of societies can now be taken over by any organized group of a few hundred people. That is not how a free society is supposed to work.”
She has said there is a “public and coordinated campaign to infiltrate the Delta Hospice Society and overwhelm the existing membership with those who do not share our constitution. Their whole purpose was to reverse our policy on euthanasia.”
Pettypiece, Levin, and Farrish are, in fact, associated with and can be contacted through the ‘Take Back Delta Hospice Movement’, the goal of which “is to engage concerned citizens to become members of the Society” so as to vote in a new board.
Take Back Delta Hospice believes the current board’s efforts not to participate in euthanasia “are both inconsistent with the Society’s moral responsibility to serve the entire community without discrimination and incompatible with the founding principles of the Society upon which its brand, its assets and its goodwill have been built since 1991.”
The board argues that Fitzpatrick’s ruling erred in ordering open acceptance of membership applications, and that she treated the hospice society not as a private association, but as a public institution. If the Societies Act requires such an order, it violates rights of association and freedom of conscience, they argue.
Pettypiece said earlier this month that Delta Hospice “should be available to all that require hospice care, regardless of their end-of-life choices. We are committed to ensuring a membership that reflects the wishes of the entire community.”
Euthanasia is readily available at Delta Hospital, which is located a one-minute drive from the Delta Hospice Society’s Irene Thomas Hospice. Delta is part of the Vancouver metropolitan area.
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.
The carrying out of the euthanasia and assisted suicide in Canada have led to questions over the imprecision of the country’s requirements, from family of patients, 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”.
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If you have young children, by all means bring them to Mass. But here are my recommendations:
1. Before entering church, have the children use the bathroom at home before leaving. Alternatively, let them use the bathroom in church BEFORE Mass begins so they do not have to disrupt Mass once Mass has begun.
2. Sit in the rear pews so that incorrigible, noisy, crying children can be removed to the narthex during Mass.
3. Arrive on time. If you’re late, stand in the rear of the church. Do not approach the altar looking for empty seats. This is a distraction.
4. As parents, use your common sense. How you conduct yourself is a significant lesson for your children in how to be considerate of others.
4. At Communion and when two parents are present, let one parent watch the children who have not yet made their 1st Conmunion. Lining up children at the altar rail or in the Communion line as if they’re going to receive Communion is distracting. And, moreover, children should not approach the altar expecting a blessing. They should be told that the blessing is given to everyone at the end of Mass by the priest or bishop.
Nope….
Bring them to the front pew so that distractions are lessened…
I was a baby priest when I met a couple crying after Mass…
Whats wrong?
We were overjoyed upon hearing children talking & crying in Church.
Why?
They had just escaped from communist Yugoslavia and had never heard a child cry & be loud at Holy Mass…
Let’s stop the don’t disturb signs & put up with some noise!
Nonsense! Why not stop and ask others attending Mass what they think of parents who insist on sitting in front pews with noisy, crying or inconsolable children? Let me ask you, Father, if you were in attendance at a concert in Carnegie Hall or Lincoln Center if you’d appreciate having a crying baby seated next to you in the front of the music hall. Let’s now compare concert attendance with the re-presentation/remembrance of Christ’s Passion, Death on the Cross and Resurrection which the Mass is. All I’m saying is let’s exercise some common sense and consideration of others.
Thank you. Even St. Teresa’s parents did not take her to Mass, when she was little, and she was a saint. When children reach the age of reason, you can reason with them. Explain the reason for Mass and the need for silence. The Milennials, however, don’t even seem to say “ssh.” No discipline.
Every child is different but even some very young children can be taught to be quiet & respectful at church & in public places. I see that at the TLM & in other cultures. My Mennonite friends bring their large families to church services & everyone’s well behaved.
I think we can operate from two extremes-one expecting too much from families trying to raise young children or expecting too little from them.
I agree. A little discipline goes a long way. parents shouldn’t be afraid to say “No.”
Just be glad you have children at Mass!
See my comment above.
Infants and toddlers are not in control of themselves in the same way older children might be and we should be patient and tolerant. Having young families with babies at Mass is a very good thing and something to celebrate.
But occasionally parents can take that tolerance for granted. I know mothers who have followed the “Gentle Parenting ” model of childrearing and some can be oblivious to the disruption their children cause.
Babies don’t know any better but their parents should. Everyone deserves respect and consideration at church.
All in all, the parents should be teaching their kids why they are going to Church, and how important it is to be a Catholic. Poorly catechized faith formation teachers with liberal views should not be anywhere near your kids if you want the faith to remain in them as they get older. YES! Bring them to Mass always, most parishes have a cry room. Ignore the disapproving frowns from the typical boomers, and raise your kids strong in the True Faith.
PS: Unless it’s a baby who needs a bottle, most toddlers can go an hour or so without needing cry suppressant snacks. Food in general should not be given to kids before, and not during the Mass, unless it’s an emergency. That can be a distraction that can easily be solved by a firm “NO” from Mom or Dad.
Yup. After Mass you see Cheerios everywhere in the pews, on the floor, …
I meant to say above that parents SHOULD feed their kids BEFORE Mass and not DURING Mass. My new phone’s keypad is overly corrective.
Yes, I was thinking about the Cheerios! Don’t get me wrong, but during the Mass, Cheerios are the equivalent of a baby squirrel’s peanuts.
My phone misbehaves at times, too.
🙂
When a child is noisy or upset during a Mass I attend, I try to approach the parents afterwards.
I tell them that when I was young, Masses were filled with families with children, and there was crying and laughing and nose blowing during the entire proceedings. And it was glorious.
I tell them never to worry about the noise their children might make. It’s the sound of new life, of new hope, of faith in the future.
It’s a joyful, wondrous sound, and I wish we had much, much more of it.
“Montalvo said he often encourages parents to look for a parish where there are special celebrations for children.” WORST. ADVICE. EVER.
As a former Protestant, I had a hard time with fussy, noisy, or crying children in the Mass when I first started attending Mass. Protestant churches used to have nurseries which accommodated children through around age 3, and Children’s Church for children up through kindergarten and even through 1st and 2nd grade. (Some of the older churches even had miniature naves, with small pews, where the children would attend Children’s Church.) These nurseries and Children’s Church were staffed by volunteer church members, so there was no outlay of funds other than for cribs and other baby supplies, and first aid supplies (Band-Aids, etc.–nothing “medical”). And the childcare was FREE for the parents!
(Note–if there are nurseries in Protestant church at this time in history, many are managed by professional child-care agencies or individuals, and they are NOT free. This has occurred because of the many lawsuits for child abuse–so sad for the children.)
But as I learned more about the Mass and that it was not a “teaching time” only, but the time when Catholics receive Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament, I was able to get used to crying children and fussy toddlers, and at this point in my life, I enjoy having little ones, even when they’re noisy, present!
HOWEVER…one thing I have learned in the 20 years that I have been Catholic is that many Catholics are woefully under-catechized, and many Catholics who attend Mass have some questionable (or just plain incorrect) understandings of various doctrines and teachings of the Church.
Traditionally the Catholic school system was the place where Catholics learned the Bible, the history of the Church, the biographies of the saints, and the teachings regarding how we should be living out our faith and being a witness of Christ and His Church to the world. As for those children who did not attend Catholic schools, there was something called CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine–well, that makes everything clear as mud, doesn’t it?!) that was their means of learning all they needed to learn to be faithful Catholic Christians.
How did all that work out? Not too well, considering that in the Evangelical Church that I attended for the first 47 years of my life, at least 25% of the members (often more), including many of the pastors and teachers, were former Catholics. And many of the children who attended our Pioneer Clubs, AWANAs, and VBS and the teens who attended our lively youth group activities (which ALWAYS featured a time of teaching from the Bible, along with prayer) were Catholic.
In Protestant churches, one of the main “teaching times” is “Church”–the so-called “Worship Service”–in Evangelical Protestant churches, it is not unusual for the pastor’s sermon to last for 45-60 minutes, and often, there are overheads (in the old days!) and in modern times, videos or other visual aids, and often handouts are given to the congregation, and many people in the pews will take extensive notes (there is often a blank space in the church printed bulletin for that purpose).
Many pastors will utilize the Sunday sermon to teach an entire book of the Bible (over a period of several weeks or even months), and those who are in attendance will end up very knowledgeable about the Bible over the years–something which confounds many Catholics and causes some under-catechized Catholics to make the decision to leave Holy Mother Church and get into a Protestant church because they think that it’s “where the Word of God is taught!”
Yikes!
So, with much humility, considering that it was the Catholic Church that GAVE us the Bible, and that there is a wealth of sacred writings from the very first century that help us to know God and understand the Bible, and in modern times, there are many ways that Catholics can learn about the Bible, the Catholic Church, and various Christian topics (e.g., online, books by former Protestants and life-long Catholics, Catholic radio and television, etc.)—I would like to humbly suggest that all parishes examine their “Christian Education” program and make certain that there are plenty of opportunities for Catholics to become educated in their Christian faith and about the Bible OUTSIDE of the Mass, where there are no crying babies or restless, noisy toddlers to distract them.
The parish where my late husband and I went through RCIA (now called OCIA) utilized the skills of a former Evangelical Protestant pastor and his wife to teach the catechumens. The classes lasted 2 hours once a week, and the presentation was extensive, detailed, and usually made use of apologetics to make sure that the converts would be able to defend their decision to become Catholic when they were around all their Protestant relatives and friends–and believe me, those folks will put the pressure on their “wayward loved ones” who are “falling away from the teaching of the Bible and joining a pagan mystery cult!”
A simplistic OCIA program will, in my opinion, probably mean that most of the catechumens will become CINOs, and sadly, will probably continue to hold incorrect beliefs about Catholicism, especially when it comes to the various social issues (abortion, LGBTQ+ issues, sex outside of marriage, etc.). And they will be ignorant of the Bible and easy prey for Evangelical Protestant Christians and their lively churches that not only have great teaching in their worship services, but contemporary Praise and Worship times featuring professional musicians (and a stunning sound system with overheads and a light show!).
And let’s not kid ourselves–Catholics like this kind of stuff and get caught up in it! (Believe it or not, there are a lot of Catholics who do NOT like Gregorian Chant and pipe organs!) And they like it even better when a professional nursery and child-care center is available that their children love to attend while their parents are enjoying “church” without crying babies and fussy toddlers!
There are many wonderfully-written and well-designed Christian Education programs available for Catholics of all ages today. Totus tuus is a great way to TEACH young children and give them the opportunity for fellowship outside of Mass. There are also various clubs for young children (e.g. Little Flowers for girls, Blue Knights Boys Clubs for boys, etc.). Teenagers should definitely have options for Bible study, Christian education, prayer times, Adoration, and fellowship–LOTS of fellowship–a skilled Catholic youth pastor is well-worth the outlay of cash, along with parish members who are willing to become “youth group sponsors”! As for adults–Bible studies, prayer groups, various book studies, etc., are available and should be incorporated into the life of the parish. Theology on Tap is a great option for Catholics (and some Protestant churches are starting to recognize that enjoying a glass of wine or a beer isn’t a “mortal sin” and are offering some variety of this program to their younger adults!).
The Mass is a teaching/fellowship time, but I don’t think it should be the only teaching/fellowship time for most Catholics. If Catholics are involved with some type of Christian education outside of Mass, even just reading good books and going online (to sites like this one!), it won’t matter if babies and toddlers fuss loudly all the way through the Mass and they miss hearing everything the priest says. They will receive Jesus, Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity–and that’s what Mass is. The “education” aspects can and hopefully will happen OUTSIDE of Mass. If they do not–well, they will be happening at friendly Protestant churches all over town, along with really good music–and an aggressive outreach to lukewarm Catholics who haven’t received adequate catechesis/Bible study/Christian education.