Mexican bishops warn of ‘manifestations of death’ in the country

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”.

[…]

Denver Newsroom, Oct 18, 2020 / 12:00 pm (CNA).-  

A bill purporting to secure equality and anti-discrimination in Belize was withdrawn last month, after Bishop Lawrence Nicasio and other Catholic leaders raised objections to the bill’s treatment of sexual orientation and gender identity. 

Nicasio said the bill risked creating a “new colonialism” where international experts are allowed to change the country’s laws, culture and values.

“I think that it was an important battle and that if the bill had passed, it would have had dire consequences for the future of Belize,” Father John Robinson, SOLT, told CNA Oct. 13. “However, I am under no delusion that the war has been won. There is a push in education at all levels to accept the new gender theory and to normalize and promote the LGBT lifestyle.  I am sure that there will be similar proposals in the future.”

“It is important to realize that the Equal Opportunities Bill is only one part of a larger movement of social engineering that is largely promoted and funded by foreign entities,” said Robinson, who has lived in Belize since 1994 and is chairman of Belize’s Guadalupe Media.

“These groups have historically sought to bring about their agenda through education and law.”

Bishop Nicasio, of Belize City and Belmopan, had said the bill was “rushed” despite its great consequences for the country, and warned that it “ореnѕ thе dооr fоr Unіtеd Nаtіоnѕ Соmmіttееѕ аnd ‘ехреrtѕ,’ whо dо nоt lіvе іn Веlіzе аnd dо nоt undеrѕtаnd our vаluеѕ аnd сulturе, tо dісtаtе thе tеrmѕ оf оur lаwѕ.”

“Тhіѕ would bе а nеw соlоnіаlіѕm,” the bishop said in a Sept. 15 letter.

Several international NGO backed the legislation, as part of a global push to change laws in British Commonwealth countries.

In January the Belize government’s press office said the Equal Opportunities Bill was needed “to address and prevent discrimination, stigma, and violence.”

The bill aimed to regulate “specific conduct in areas of public life” regarding employment, education, access to premises or accommodation, provision of goods and services, travel, public services.”

It would have also established an Equal Opportunities Commission, a non-judicial body that would “work with stakeholders to address inequality, resolve disputes, conduct research and education, and develop guidelines to assist the government, businesses and the community in identifying and eliminating systemic discrimination.”

The commission would have been funded by the National Assembly but could also seek funds from domestic, regional and international sources, provided that the funding be disclosed.

Also called for by the bill was an Equal Opportunities Tribunal, a judicial body funded only by the Belize government. An appointed judge of the Supreme Court would compose the tribunal. The tribunal has the power to make declarations, awards and judgment on cases. It would “provide for broad-ranging remedies” and resolve claims not settled before the commission.

Bishop Nicasio, whose diocese encompasses the entire country of 383,000 people, voiced his desire “to end unjust discrimination and all injustice” and pledged cooperation to work towards these ends, but he said the Catholic Church could not support the bill for several reasons.

The bill could infringe on parents’ rights, and, given the power of law to form consciences and opinions, the bill would “do much to confuse the youth of Belize regarding the sacredness of sexuality.” Sexuality is “a way toward holy matrimonial union and the conception of children,” he said.

The view of human nature behind the bill also drew criticism from the bishop, who said “the novelty of the anthropology” in it was another reason not to support it. The bill recognizes “intersex” as a sex in addition to male and female.
 
“The bill introduces the notion that humanity has three sexes instead of two, the notion that subjective gender identity is more important than one’s God-given biological sex and would impose on Belizeans the task of ‘gender mainstreaming’.”
 
It would give “unparalleled power” to an Equal Opportunities Commission and an Equal Opportunities Tribunal. In the name of fighting discrimination, it could endanger freedom of conscience and religion. While the bill made some exceptions for religious organizations, there were none for “individual believers with deeply-held, Bible-formed beliefs.” He warned the bill could create a “pendulum effect” and enable discrimination against these individuals.

For Fr. Robinson, the bill itself was “not a surprise.” He saw it as “only one manifestation of an ongoing social engineering experiment.”

“However, the extreme nature of the proposals was surprising, especially the creation of an entirely independent judicial branch with the rank of a supreme court and the power invested in the Commission/Tribunal with no real checks or balances.”

After the bill failed to advance, Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow told reporters Sept. 16 that the cabinet was “very upset” not to proceed with it and felt it was a good, necessary, and “overdue” bill, PlusTV Belize reported. He said the Belize constitution provides equal opportunity and the bill would have provided an “umbrella of protection”.

He claimed it was a misconception that the legislation would be “rushed” since there would be time for views to be voiced in committee. Barrow insisted that there had been “widespread” consultations.

The Anglican Bishop of Belize, Phillip Wright, in his role heading the Belize Council of Churches, had told the prime minister the council could not support the bill as it was written. The Roman Catholic Church in Belize is also a member of the council.

Backers of the bill were planning to proceed in the face of expected opposition from evangelical Christians, but opposition from other churches was too much, according to Barrow.

“We’re not going to go against all the churches, the evangelicals plus the Belize Council of Churches,” said the prime minister. According to Barrow, Wright seemed to suggest that further work could have resulted in an agreement.

The U.K.-based Human Dignity Trust, an LGBT advocacy group, aided with the drafting of the Belize bill. In an April 17 announcement, the trust said the Belize bill was “the first of their kind for the Caribbean region.” The trust “supported the process of public consultations on the proposed legislation” and translated the legal documents into “digestible explanatory materials for everyday Belizeans.”

The trust is a member of the Equality and Justice Alliance, a consortium of three NGOs which received about $7.25 million from the U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office in 2018 for a two-year program. This program aimed to engage Commonwealth leaders, governments and civil society leaders “to advance equality and equal protection before the law in order to secure the rights of all Commonwealth citizens, regardless of gender, sex, sexual orientation, or gender identity and expression.”

Besides the U.K. Foreign & Commonwealth Office and others, the trust is presently funded by the Canadian government’s diplomatic department Global Affairs Canada; the Tides Foundation’s Equality Without Borders Fund; the Open Society Foundations; and the Sigrid Rausing Trust, among others.

The Human Dignity Trust worked with the Belize National AIDS Commission and Office of the Special Envoy for Women and Children “in order to create an enabling environment for the introduction of this progressive legislation.”

Its specific efforts included a “public education campaign” on television, radio, a website and social media. Its public service announcements were “designed to break down stigma and encourage respect and tolerance for LGBT people, women and girls and people with disability,” the trust said.

Belize First Lady Kim Simplis Barrow, wife of Prime Minister Barrow, served as Belize’s Special Envoy for Women and Children through Oct. 1. She has praised the Human Dignity Trust’s work on the Equal Opportunity Bill.

While critics of Belize’s bill see it as a form of ideological colonialism, some backers of this international effort claim they were making amends for the colonial legacy of the British Empire. Then-Prime Minister Theresa May spoke to the Joint Forums of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting in 2018, voicing “deep regret” that Britain had instituted “discriminatory laws,” including the criminalization of same-sex sexual relations, in its Commonwealth territories.

“It has been a great honor to be entrusted by the British government to provide technical support for law reform that has the power to transform millions of people’s lives across the Commonwealth,” Téa Braun, director of the Human Dignity Trust, said in April 2020. “We have been overwhelmed by the commitment of government officials in Belize, Mauritius and St Vincent and the Grenadines to rid their law books of discriminatory laws and enact protective legislation, and assisting them has been a privilege.”

The National Evangelical Association of Belize’s Sept. 9 criticism of the bill appeared to counter claims that there was sufficient consultation in the bill’s drafting. The first announcement of the consultations took place four days before the consultations. The 75-page first draft of the bill was released the same day as the first consultation.

The group said the proposed human rights commission’s ability to investigate someone without a formal complaint would allow “special interest activism in targeting organizations, schools or businesses.” The bill’s definition of “gender identity” has never appeared in Belize law before and would be that of LGBT activists. “Intersex” would also be a term new to Belize law.

The evangelical critics objected that similar anti-discrimination laws have been used in other countries to “arrest pastors, silence those who speak up about their values, sue cake bakers for not doing same sex wedding cakes.” The bill’s religious freedom protections are “severely deficient.”
 
Because the law aimed to protect “lawful sexual activity” from “discrimination,” a school that fired a teacher for sexual relations with a student age 16 or over would have faced a discrimination complaint if the bill had become law.
 
The critics also faulted the law’s ambiguity in banning “unintended,” “undirect,” “unaware,” and “partial” discrimination. The tribunal system established an “alternate independent judicial path” that undermines protections like presumption of innocence and provision of legal representation, they sad.
 
Robinson told CNA that advocates who campaigned to remove Belize’s little-enforced anti-sodomy law used success there to press for further changes.
 
“I am very grateful to those who vigorously opposed this bill and who sounded the alarm,” the priest said. “I found it very concerning that many Catholics were oblivious to the harm that this bill would have done to Belize and (that there) was reluctance in the Church to take action.  I am grateful especially to the Evangelical churches who were largely responsible for opposing and helping to defeat this bill.”

Another point of controversy in the country is the Ministry of Education’s “Belizean Studies” program in non-denominational secondary schools.
 
“This program has been rejected by the denominational schools because of its relativism, its subtle Marxism and its gender theory which promotes an anthropology that is in direct conflict with a Christian anthropology,” Robinson said.
 
In 2012 controversy focused on a Health and Family Life Education manual promoted by the U.S. Peace Corps through the Ministry of Education. Before its distribution through all primary schools in Belize, evangelical and Catholic critics objected to what Robinson characterized as “highly inappropriate sexual content” and its promotion of “sexual indulgence.” Objections from critics halted the program.

The United Nations is another area where Belizean leaders are encouraged to advance LGBT causes like the equal opportunity bill.

LGBT issues in Belize were a topic at a Nov. 12, 2018 review of Belize’s human rights record conducted by a working group of the United Nations Human Rights Commission. At that meeting several countries pressed Belize to pass anti-discrimination laws on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity, and some sought the legalization of abortion.
 
The Belize delegation said some recommendations were aligned with the government’s priorities. The delegation also voiced support for sex education and HIV prevention programs developed by UNESCO.

[…]

Archbishop Faustino Armendáriz Jiménez at a press conference on May 21, 2023. / Credit: Video capture/Archdiocese of Durango

ACI Prensa Staff, May 23, 2023 / 15:40 pm (CNA).
An 80-year-old man wielding a knife tried to kill Archbishop Faustino … […]