Now And At The Hour of Our Death....Which I get to Decide

  

 From an article in June of 2015:

The Holy Year of Mercy announced by Pope Francis, which begins Dec. 8, comes at a time when the meaning of “mercy” in America is being twisted to mean something profoundly to the contrary. Specifically, there are some who are working hard to apply the concept of mercy to a growing movement to make assisted suicide legal.

There is a very interesting article in the NYT by Ross Douthat about Amoris Laetitia and how it afting the Church. Four Cardinals have issued a Dubai questioning some of the statements made by Pope Francis - specifically regarding receiving Communion and re-marriage. It's all about defining mercy, I guess. Here's where the controversy has led:

Indeed, the exact same post-“Amoris” pattern that we’ve seen on second marriages and the sacraments is playing out presently in Canada with assisted suicide. The bishops in the western provinces are taking the traditional line that Catholics who are planning their own suicides can’t be given last rites, because you can’t grant absolution to someone who intends to commit the gravest of sins shortly afterward … while the Catholic bishops of the Maritime provinces, citing Pope Francis’s innovations as a model, suggest that actually pastoral accompaniment could include giving last rites to people who are about to receive “medical assistance in dying,” because every case of assisted suicide is different and who are we to judge?