The Trouble With Jesuits, Part 78

The choice is this...pick one. Are you stupid or a liar? Actually, you could be a little of both.

Seattle, Wash., Aug 30, 2019 / 11:44 am (CNA).- A priest who was photographed blessing a man who planned to commit suicide said Friday that he was unaware of the man’s intentions, and that if he had known what the man was planning, he would have acted differently.

 “I believe that life is a gift. I believe that it is a gift from God and an opportunity every day to learn from God and love as God is trying to teach us to love though scriptures and the examples of Christ and the saints. I feel terrible that there is an insinuation that I, or a member of the clergy or religious order or this archdiocese, would think otherwise or would make a public statement otherwise,” Fr. Quentin Dupont, SJ, told America magazine Aug. 30.

 Members of the St Therese parish community were aware of Fuller’s plans at the May 5. He had by then announced that his funeral would be held at the parish May 17 and arranged for a parish choir to perform at the “end-of-life” party he threw in the hours before his suicide.
Dupont, however, told America that he was not told of those plans when he arrived at the parish May 5.
“I arrived at church and I saw a parishioner there and I asked how he was doing. He said, ‘Well, this is Bob Fuller’s last Mass,’ and I was puzzled and so I asked him what he meant. He said, ‘Well, Bob is going to die.’ I didn’t know much about Mr. Fuller. I knew he was very ill and I thought that meant that his treatment had run out, that he was getting off treatment and that Mr. Fuller knew he had days to live. And I continued my way to the sacristy and I met another couple of parishioners who said likewise, that this was Bob’s last Mass. Through those conversations, I became aware that this man that I knew was very ill would like a blessing.”
“So we talked about doing a blessing at the end of Mass. We had Mass and at the end of Mass we blessed him.”
“I thought the pastoral situation I was walking into was with this very ill man who knows he’s about to die. I wanted to make sure he felt cared for by the church.”
Dupont said that he knew a television camera was at the May 5 Mass “because Bob was there. I didn’t probe what story they were writing. I thought they were making a story about this man who was facing great health difficulties and who had a life of faith, which I assumed was an interesting story to tell in a day and age which is heavily secularized.”

The Mario Cuomo of New Jersey

Trenton, N.J., Apr 15, 2019 / 03:45 pm (CNA).- New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bill to authorize medically assissted suicide into state law on Friday.
Murphy signed the Medical Aid in Dying for the Terminally Ill Act into law on April 12, as one New Jersey bishop pledged to continue to oppose the "dangerous" new law.

The act was passed by the New Jersey legislature in late March, with bipartisan support. The new law will allow those deemed by a doctor to have less than six months to live to request lethal medication to end their lives. The patient then must administer the medication themselves.
In signing the bill, Murphy, a self-described “lifelong, practicing Catholic,” remarked that while he was aware that the Church opposed assisted suicide he was signing the bill into law regardless.
“After careful consideration, internal reflection, and prayer, I have concluded that, while my faith may lead me to a particular decision for myself, as a public official I cannot deny this alternative to those who may reach a different conclusion,” said Murphy.

OK, then he won't mind me stealing his car. He may think it is wrong, but I have come to a different conclusion. 

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?

Why Old Britoners Voted for Brexit

 A Catholic nursing home in Belgium is reported to have fallen foul of the country's courts after refusing to permit a resident to access euthanasia.
The incident happened in 2011 when Huize Sint-Augustinus home in Diest refused to allow an elderly woman's doctor access to see her – when it was thought she was about to be given a lethal injection.
The home has been ordered to pay €6,000 (approx $6,600 or £5,000) in damaged to the family of the woman.

I'm Moving to New Mexico

The New Mexico Supreme Court ruled unanimously that there is no state constitutional right to assisted suicide.

he U.S. Supreme Court has also unanimously declined to conjure a “right” to assisted suicide in 1997, as have other state supreme courts in the years since. Indeed, no state constitutional right to assisted suicide has ever been declared by a high court despite numerous attempts.

The Canadian Doctor....with a Syringe....in the Hospital

Hospitals that receive public funding have an obligation to offer legal health services, including doctor-assisted death, says a member of the provincial-territorial expert advisory group on physician-assisted dying. 

Jocelyn Downie, a Dalhousie University law professor and expert on end-of-life law and policy, said provinces and territories should withhold funding from public institutions that refuse to offer legal health services on their premises, or a reasonable option for transfer.
“If you get public funding, you as an institution have an obligation to provide legal health services. I think we need to confront that,” Downie said.

Well, as long as it's limited to those receiving federal funding...

Wait a second. Canada has a single-payer system. PRIVATE PAYMENT FOR MEDICAL SERVICE IS AGAINST THE LAW!

What do Catholics have to say?

 Her comments come as officials with Ottawa’s Bruyère Continuing Care and other Catholic health institutions in the province say they will not offer doctor-assisted death or “directly or explicitly” refer patients to receive the procedure elsewhere. 

"L'extreme - onction", Nicolas Poussin, 1640

“Should a request for physician-assisted death occur in our organizations, we will not abandon the person in our care,” said The Catholic Health Sponsors of Ontario in a statement about physician-assisted death. “We believe that supporting these patients who are vulnerable with a non-judgmental, non-coercive approach will assist them to question their request for assisted death and to explore other alternative forms of medical care.”



The Catholic Health Sponsors of Ontario administers 21 publicly funded Catholic health institutions, including Bruyère, which is Ottawa’s second-largest hospital and the only one with a ward devoted to palliative care.