Pro-Abortion Catholics are "Liars"

In an essay published in his diocesan newspaper, The Catholic Sentinel, Robert Vasa, Bishop of Baker, Oregon has condemned politicians who support abortion and claim to love God as 'liars'. He writes that "the inspired scriptures tell us that whoever does not love his brother or neighbor does not and, indeed, cannot love God" and that “the pre-born child is our brother, our sister, our neighbor!”

He goes on:

“It may sound a little strong to state that legislators ‘hate’ the pre-born child but hate is an absence of love and love means to wish another well. There is nothing about abortion that wishes the pre-born child well.

“The preservation of abortion ‘rights’ is already an absence of love for the pre-born child but the passage of FOCA could be construed as nothing less than active and positive disregard, even hatred, for these our brothers and sisters.”

Doctors must become Conscientious Objectors

Cardinal Poletto, Archbishop of Turin, has encouraged doctors to exercise conscientious objection and refuse to starve a woman to death. Eluana Englaro, whose case is being compared with the late Terri Schiavo, has been in a Persistent Vegetative State since being injured in a car crash in 1992. Last November, her parents persuaded a court to order the withdrawal of her food and fluids, but health workers have refused to carry out the order.

Let us hope that Eluana's doctors and nurses will have the courage to obey the first command of the Hippocratic Oath: First Do No Harm

'Dignitas is an organisation that must be stopped'

So says Soraya Wernli, a nurse and former employee of the Swiss suicide business. A believer in assisted suicide, Mrs Wernli worked for Dignitas for a number of years, latterly as a police informer, passing on information about Ludwig Minelli's dubious practices. She was so appalled by the abuses she came across that she is now determined to expose Dignitas to the widest possible audience and get it shut down.

In the interview she gave to a British newspaper, she described being told to sort through sackfuls of personal possessions from dead clients which were sold on to secondhand shops and pawnbrokers; she describes the filthy room in which people died and Minelli's evident lack of concern for the individuals concerned. She could not recall a single time when a doctor refused to prescribe the fatal drugs after the perfunctory interview with the client and admitted that vulnerable people were rushed through the process as quickly as possible, being given the drugs to take just hours after they had arrived in the country so that they would be unable to think over their decision.

Mrs Wernli's most harrowing experience involved watching a man using a faulty 'suicide machine' which failed to kill him. It took 48 hours for him to die, writhing and frothing at the mouth in terrible agony.

There is little in this disturbing interview that will surprise those of us who have campaigned against assisted dying for years, except perhaps the fact that the nurse still believes in it after the terrible abuses she has witnessed. This is where we part company. The problem is not just with corrupt organisations like Dignitas it is with assisted suicide itself, which by its very nature preys upon the fears and uncertainties of the most vulnerable people. Dignitas must certainly be stopped, but so too must dangerous legislation that facilitates such abuses.

Heroic Witness

Standing on my Head carries the moving story of a priest facing death from a degenerative illness, with courage and serenity. At a time when the euthanasia movement is spreading the lie that dignity is to be found in suicide, the world needs the heroic witness of people like Fr Tom, who died a peaceful, natural death, surrounded by members of his community.

Mass for the Unborn

A special Mass for the unborn is to be celebrated in London on 2nd February, for parents who have lost a child through miscarriage and stillbirth. The Mass will take place at the House Chapel in Mount Street, beside Farm Street Jesuit Church at 7pm.