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Priests for Life Canada 2006                                                                                          Issue Three  We can rely on our patrons Our Lady of Guadalupe, St. Joseph & St. Michael

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Caregivers who commit themselves to “Care-Full-Living” will find it a difficult yet rewarding experience and challenge. This “end-of-life care” is known as “hospice care” or “palliative care”. This means providing the best possible quality of life-care for patients and their families. This covers all aspects of care: spiritual, physical, social, emotional, psychological, and informational issues, while at the same time respecting religious values, beliefs, and cultural lifestyles.

The problem is there is not enough support for people who are dying or for their families. There are about 32+ million people living in Canada. Looking at the statistics for the year 1988, about 190,000 people died. Of that number, 70-80% died in hospitals. About 100,000 of these died without receiving palliative care through formal recognized palliative care programs (Health Care in Canada, Dr. Ralph Sutherland and Jane Fulton, 1988). The present 345+ palliative programs operating in Canada (1990), cannot meet the needs of over 100,000 people who have a terminal or life-threatening illness (Ontario: 143 programs; British Columbia: 63 programs; Quebec: 41 programs). Palliative care is generally limited to patients with cancer or AIDS, and most of these, about 55,000 are not getting sufficient palliative care (Dying for Care, Harry Van Bommel, NC Press Ltd., Toronto, 1992, p. 35).

Program Standards are a vital element of the palliative care philosophy, providing a flexible and adaptable level of care depending on the client's expressed needs. The Canadian Council on Health Facilities Accreditation (CCHFA), provides an approach in which the emphasis is on organization, policies, and procedures, but the core standards emphasize patient care components. As of 1992, the following standards must be adhered to:

1. Statement of purpose, goals and objectives.

2. Organization and direction.

3. Policies and procedures developed by staff, management, and internal and external services, and communicated to patients and families.

4. Human and physical resources.

5. Orientation, staff development and continuing education.

6. Patient care.

7. Quality assurance.

A palliative care standard should be a combination of peer evaluation and client evaluated system of standards and of quality assurance. Some of the key elements for success in palliative care programs are as follows:

A) Increased public awareness of palliative care.

B) Increased public discussions on the issues of dying and death.

C) Increased acceptance of palliative care as part of health care with a multi-disciplinary approach.

D) Increased acceptance of palliative care in hospitals, patients’ homes and hospices.

E) Increased understanding of patient's right to accept and refuse treatments.

F) Increased cooperation among professionals, volunteers, and associations.

G) Increased number and quality of palliative care workshops and conferences.

H) Increased emphasis on a palliative care philosophy of patient-family centered care.

I) Increased promotion of pain and symptom-control technologies.

J) Increased recognition that volunteers are the backbone of palliative care programs.

There must also be clinical standards set for physicians, nurses, social workers, and chaplains to ensure that the highest quality of palliative care is taught, provided, and evaluated. It is crucial that physician standards include teaching palliative care as part of the full medical care of all end-stage patients. Doctors need to acquire a full awareness of therapeutic options available to them to help patients who are dying. The standards would describe expectations of physicians to provide satisfactory sympton and pain control.

Palliative care has definite needs. There is a need to provide an environment of caring and celebration - not distance and depression. There is a need for people who care about others. There is a need to capitalize on people's strengths and previous patterns of behavior: relationships, interests, hobbies, humour, etc. There is a need to provide a wide range of program choices to everyone who wants or needs it. Patients and families have a need to be informed on what they can do and what they can expect. There is a need for increase in home-care supports and hospital back-ups for pain and symptom control. There is a need for an increase in the volunteer component. There is a need as well to address the funding aspects. There is a need to address not only the physical needs but the psychological, social, and spiritual needs. There is a need for patient advocates to help patients and families understand their various options. There is a need for both formal and informal support networking. Formal support includes family doctors, home care nurses, occupational therapists, social workers, home support aides, pharmaceutical support, community agencies that provide meals, house cleaning, etc. Informal support includes: family, friends, and neighbours; members of a faith community or social organization; priests, ministers, or religions spiritual advisors; and volunteers who are willing to visit, read, and provide transportation and share the passing-over journey.

In palliative care the spiritual element, and the tremendous value of the patient and families sense of spirituality, is of paramount importance. The universal questions about the meaning of life and the purpose of living become very relevant. Embracing the passover stage of life; the value of redemptive suffering; and accepting the Cross are essential steps we are all challenged to share. In dealing with doubts and guilt the search for forgiveness and peace are elements we can all experience. The recognition of the great gifts of the healing sacraments, Reconciliation and the Eucharist, can fortify and strengthen both the patient and the family. We can all relate to the power of prayer in healing; and the desire for a closer relationship with God: the Creator, the Saviour, and the Spirit. Encouraging the dimension of gratitude and recognizing the love and happiness that surrounds the patient gives a greater understanding of the past, present, and the future. Spiritual companionship and support is invaluable in this spiritual journey.
Euthanasia is not the way to meet the needs of people who are dying. The euthanasia movement is an ill-informed answer to the human realities and dilemmas of death, and of the problems facing our healthcare systems. Palliative care, “Care-Full-Living” is what care-giving and care-sharing is all about - enabling all to live as fully as possible while preparing for our eternal birthday. +

SUGGESTED READING:

Dying for Care, Harry Van Bommel, NC Press Ltd., 1992, 109 pages.
A Caregiver's Guide, Karen MacMillan, etc., Trans Printing, 170 pages.
A Concise History of Euthanasia, Dowbiggin, Rowan, & Littlefield Publ., 2005, 161 pages.
Elder Abuse, Euthanasia & Assisted Suicide, Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, 2005, 48 pages. +

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URGENT ACTION REQUIRED

For immediate release

June 27, 2006

Tabling of Bill C-338: A Bill We Can Support

Priests for Life Canada is strongly opposed to any deliberate termination of gestation (deliberate termination of pregnancy) and will continue to defend human life from conception to natural death. In this effort, it is recognized that Bill C-338, introduced by Liberal MP Paul Steckle, “An Act to amend the Criminal Code (procuring a miscarriage after twenty weeks of gestation)” on June 21, 2006 in the House of Commons, though it is a partial measure to defend life as it aims to prohibit a deliberate miscarriage after 20 weeks of gestation is nevertheless worthy of our support.

“It's better to save some lives than risk all in pursuit of a perfect law”, indicates Fr. Jim Whalen, National Director for Priests for Life Canada. “In The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II explained that one may support imperfect legislation - legislation that, for example, does not ban all abortions but puts some control on a current more permissive law by aiming to limit the number of abortions - if that is the best that can be achieved at a particular time. In doing so one seeks to limit the harm done by the present law: ‘This does not in fact represent an illicit co-operation with an unjust law, but rather a legitimate and proper attempt to limit its evil aspects’ (No. 73). Bill C-338, should it pass, will limit the damage that is caused to Canadian society by abortion and will be a step in the right direction in an effort to defend the sanctity of human life from conception to natural death, as the Catholic Church clearly professes”.

Priests for Life Canada is a Roman Catholic association formed for religious purposes to identify, educate, and support Roman Catholic clergy and all Roman Catholics, assisting them in carrying out their role with respect to the Church's teaching on the sanctity and dignity of all human life. Priests for Life Canada's mandate entails persevering in teaching and promoting Catholic values to build a Culture of Life. Further information can be found at www.priestsforlifecanada.com.

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Priests for Life Canada urges all pro-life supporters to contact their Member of Parliament to encourage them to support this bill. Please refer to page 12 of this publication for further details on this legislation.

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Bill C-338 was presented for first reading in Canadian Parliament by Paul Steckle, MP, Huron-Bruce (ON) on June 21, 2006. This bill will continue debate after the summer 2006 recess. The following are taken from questions and answers in a press release issued by the office of Paul Steckle.

Q). Why are you taking away a woman's right to choose? The Supreme Court clearly said that limits on abortion are unconstitutional. This is just a sneaky attempt to erode abortion rights and to circumvent the Court!

A). Actually, the Supreme Court has never ruled that limits on abortion are unconstitutional. In the 1988 Morgentaler decision, the Supreme Court ruled that the old law was unconstitutional on procedural grounds, such as unequal access to hospitals performing abortions and therapeutic abortion committees, but the Court did not rule that women have the right to abortion. In fact, the Court clearly stated that it was up to Parliament—and not the Courts—to come up with a new law, which would balance the rights of the unborn child with that of the woman. After a failed attempt to enact a new abortion law in the early 90s Parliament gave up and shirked its responsibilities.

Mr. Steckle’s Private Members Bill (PMB) is an attempt to get Parliament to take responsibility for something that it should have dealt with a long time ago. We are one of the few, if not the only, industrialized nation in the world, which offers no protection whatsoever for unborn children. This is not something to be proud of. This is something to be very concerned about and to finally set right.

Q). Why did you pick 20 weeks as the limit? It seems arbitrary.

A). Any limit other than conception is somewhat arbitrary in the sense that a new human life exists from the moment of conception and from then on will continually develop through all the stages of pregnancy, then through childhood to adulthood, until natural death. However, the 20 week limit was picked because that is the point at which the Canadian Medical Association considers the child to be viable.

Q). Are you satisfied that the limit is set at 20 weeks? Will you continue to push to lower the limit? Is this just the beginning?

A). While those of us who are pro-life would prefer to have legal protection extended to all children, regardless of their stage of development, we believe that it is better to give protection to children from 20 weeks onward than only from the point of birth onward, which is the case today.

Q). Why do you not use the term "abortion" in the PMB? Are you afraid of the terminology or are you simply hiding your agenda?

A). The language which is used in the PMB - “procuring a miscarriage” - is the same language that is currently used in Section 287 of the Criminal Code, the section which applies to abortion, which was struck down by the Supreme Court. And since the Canadian Medical Association defines “abortion” as a pregnancy termination before 20 weeks, it seemed there was no point in using that term.

Q). Abortion is wrong – plain and simple! Why are you supporting a PMB that in effect condones the killing of innocent babies so long as it is done prior to 20 weeks?

A). In fact, this Bill in no way condones the killing of anyone. We are virtually the only industrialized nation in the world, which offers no protection to unborn children. This Bill will improve that situation by moving that arbitrary point at which legal protection begins - the point of birth - down to 20 weeks gestation. +

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Note from Priests for Life Canada: Though we recognize that this bill will not provide protection to all unborn children, we see it as a ‘step in the right direction”. We will continue to advocate for protection of all human life from concetpion to a natural death (See PFLC Press Release on page 4).

As people devoted to the defense of life we should, whenever possible, avail ourselves of every help that might further our cause even from those which are not at first glance directly relevant to the pro-life movement such as Pope Benedict’s first encyclical, Deus Caritas Est.

As apostles for life, however, we are challenged to first be apostles for love, for without love life can seem meaningless. Therefore, it should profit us to spend some time examining Deus Caritas Est for any teachings or exhortations that might strengthen us in our ministries especially in the defense of life. The amazing thing about this document is that although it is shorter than the late Great John Paul II’s encyclicals, it is packed full of rich and deep concepts. It is actually impossible to have included the whole document in this study as nearly every part of it could be applied to the pro-life movement. Therefore, this essay will focus primarily on part one. Perhaps other parts may be covered in future essays.

The obvious link between a document about God’s love and the value of human life is that we of course are all loved by God. Being created and loved by God is core to our inherit dignity and value. Pope Benedict begins the encyclical with a quote from 1 John 4:16 “God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him” and later he adds’ “We have come to know and to believe in the love God has for us”. This is the basic message throughout the whole encyclical, especially in its first half. The formula presented brings with it a challenge: If God is love and God loves us, then what prevents us from knowing that love? Pope Benedict writes that “We have come to believe in God’s love”. This is the passage through which a Christian can express the fundamental decision of his life. In other words, love is a choice, but not a theoretical kind, rather a choice based on an “encounter with an event, a person, which gives life a new horizon and a decisive direction”. In other words, true love can only occur in an encounter between persons.

The Holy Father goes on to link this truth with other biblical truths such as the Schema which calls us to love God with all our being and is linked by Jesus to the command in Leviticus: “You shall love your neighbour as yourself”. This, of course, cuts to the very heart of what it means to be Christian. We are called to love God and because God abides in others we are called to love others. Because God chooses to abide in others and His love for them is unconditional, then the presence of God in that person is not limited to their condition in life, whether as a baby in the womb or a person with any diminished physical or mental ability due to nature, accident, or age. Yet we do not love others only because we acknowledge that God abides in them but that we can also see ourselves in them. This is a recognition that the other person deserves the rights and protection and care that we feel we are due. On a third level we recognize that the love God has for them is undeserved and unearned as is God’s love for us. Because of this we cannot be the arbiters of who is, or is not, worthy of God’s love and therefore of human love as well. We are called to love all people “even the people (we) do not like or even know” (# 18).

In part one paragraph 2, Pope Benedict immediately raises the fundamental challenge - the definition of love. How interesting for us who are continually battling others over the definition of “life”! Of all the many different levels and relationships of love, however, the Holy Father highlights that love between a man and a woman “where body and soul are inseparably joined and human beings glimpse an apparently irresistible promise of happiness” (# 2). Because it is most natural to the human state, the love-bond between man and woman becomes a measuring stick to all other kinds of love. In itself, it also becomes a test case for the different levels of love: Eros, Philia, and Agape.

The Holy Father points out first “That love between man and woman which is neither planned nor willed, but somehow imposes itself upon human beings, was called eros by the Ancient Greeks” (# 3 [Emphasis mine]). This is, unfortunately, how most of our “unplanned pregnancies” occur. The Holy Father goes on to emphasize the importance of bringing eros under the rule of Agape. This seems to be an important teaching for pro-lifers as we should make it our major aim not to only decry the poor decisions of others, but to give them the tools to make the proper decisions. It is necessary then that we help others, through preaching and counselling, to control their passions, and harness them for a higher good. Of course, we are speaking here not just of the passions of a young couple for each other’s bodies, but also for the “passion” of emotions that convinces an adult child to euthanize a parent or the “compassion” of a doctor who wishes to euthanize a sick or dying patient. We need to help these people see beyond that passion and look into that higher passion and love that raises up the meaning of these troubling issues as perfectly demonstrated in The Passion of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Pope Benedict then addresses the age-old charge that the Church is anti-fun and anti-eros. Of course, this is nonsense, as God created us to desire sexual union with the opposite sex, and the Church is for the unitive and procreative power that comes from that natural attraction. But God has ordained, and the Church upholds, that such a natural desire should have a supernatural context. This has happened in the raising of marriage to the status of a sacrament. But even natural marriage is directed by God for a specific purpose. “Eros”, writes the Holy Father, “directs man towards marriage, to a bond which is unique and definitive; thus, and only thus, does it fulfill its deepest purpose (# 11).

We must avoid equalizing the sexual act with God or as a union with God in the cheap sort of “counterfeit divinization” as exploited by the ancient fertility cults with the so-called “sacred prostitutes”. This we see not in temples but in brothels and motels, or with the ritualistic use of pornography through every form of media. Instead of letting these desires get out of control we need to discipline and purify eros “if it is to provide not just a fleeting pleasure, but a certain foretaste of the pinnacle of our existence, of that beatitude for which our whole being yearns” (# 4).

As people concerned for the salvation of others, we struggle then to show them the promise that what feels temporarily good now can be good long-term. The sexual union of husband and wife, because of the context of the relationship, its permanence, commitment, and love, shows to the couple and society in general a glimpse of the union we shall have with God in the everlasting life of Heaven. As our marriage ritual points out, the union of husband and wife is a sign of the Love that the Bridegroom Jesus has for His Bride the Church. So aside from the obvious physical pleasures, which God has created in the conjugal act, there are even higher and longer lasting benefits to this eros brought under the rule of agape.

How often have our parishioners heard this teaching? It is likely they have read or seen on T.V. much more information to the contrary, on Tantric sex and the mysteries of the body and yet, do they understand the role of their whole being in the sexual union with their spouse? Society cannot do this as it clearly separates not just Church and state but body and soul as well.

The Church teaches otherwise. We were made for love, and it is “man, the person, a unified creature composed of body and soul, who loves” (# 5). This is important to pro-lifers not only from its meaning within a marital relationship but also in regard to life in the womb. We are not angels. We are not pure spirits as some neo-gnostics and other spiritualist people say. Nor are we simply blood and bones as some evolutionist and other overly “scientific” people say. Our bodies are not temporary shells to an otherwise incorporeal soul! We were created to be one being of both body and soul. For all of eternity we shall be with our bodies, spiritual bodies, yet still bodies. This is important as people often argue about when the soul enters into new human life in the womb. The soul does not enter, and does not pre-exist the body, it is one with the body and therefore, where the body is, so too, is the soul. When we speak of body, of course we mean matter, for we are speaking here of the union between spirit and matter.

It is not only the issue of life in the womb that demands our attention then, but any issue that tries to detach body from soul or soul from body. Perhaps the reason so many women choose to believe that there is no soul in the baby within their womb is because they see no soul within themselves! Perhaps it is the lack of recognition of spiritual things that allows us to see all matter, human bodies included, as only things to be used like wood, machines, and other tools or building blocks. As apostles for Love and Life we must help all people to see that they are more than their bodies.
We must therefore, point the way to Christ and His sacrificial love. Saying God loves you is not enough unless we show HOW God loves you. It is this willingness to lose oneself for the sake of the other that brings us above our nature and shows the true meaning of love - sacrifice - to love the other not just like yourself but before yourself. This is a truth much better preached by example than by words. It was preached most perfectly by Jesus allowing his torture and crucifixion to happen (# 6). Every Mass is a reminder of that love.

The pope reminds us that love is a gift, which immediately we can understand as meaning it must be freely received (# 7) but it can also imply that we must freely give it. If we love then we give love and not just receive it. As priests we are called to that deeper kind of love. Pope Benedict quotes Pope Gregory the Great in his Pastoral Rule which acts as a timely reminder for us who serve as pastors; “the good pastor must be rooted in contemplation. Only in this way will he be able to take upon himself the needs of others and make them his own” (# 7). This reminds us that our first weapon is prayer. We cannot give the people what we do not have. If we do not first experience and absorb the love of God what will we be giving to the people? The first weapon in defense of life is prayer.

The Holy Father goes on to use a series of biblical images to point out the importance of God’s love. The prophets often spoke of God’s passion for His people with erotic images (# 9). God’s relationship with Israel was often explained with metaphors of betrothal and marriage. Again, this challenges us that to be pro-life means first being pro-marriage.

The role of forgiveness also plays a major part in the encyclical. Agape is a love that forgives. This message cannot be communicated enough. There is a whole group of people who chose wrong because they feel they are already condemned. They need to know God’s love through His mercy. We must be heralds of reconciliation, guiding people back through the sacrament of confession, to know their sins can be forgiven.

It is this love, unmerited and merciful, the love God has for us and the love we are to have for others, that both strengthens and directs our mission as Apostles for life. The second part of the pope’s encyclical covers in more detail the practice of that Love by the Church as a “Community of Love” which is primarily aimed at charitable service for the poor, etc., but can also be applied to how we help people facing difficult life situations. This may be explored in another essay. For the purpose of this paper then, we can say that Deus Caritas Est is a reminder to Catholic pro-lifers that our mission is not based solely on the protection of human life but firstly on the value that each individual human life has because God created and loves that individual. In helping others to experience God’s love, we will simultaneously be promoting the pro-life cause as well. Perhaps the greatest weapon we have in defending life is in promoting true love. Now that is worthy not only of our reflection but of action as well. +

Fr. Michael Browning is pastor of St. Monica parish in the Archdiocese of Ottawa and a Member of the Board of Priests for Life Canada.

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Vatican Cardinal Fears Church Will be Brought before International Court for Defense of Life and Family. Also Says Embryonic Stem Cell Researchers are Excommunicated Just Like Abortionists.

By John-Henry Westen

VATICAN CITY, June 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In an interview published in the June 27 issue of Famiglia Christiana magazine, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said that those involved in embryonic stem cell research which kills human embryos are excommunicated.
In a wide-ranging interview about the Fifth World Meeting of Families, due to be held in Valencia, Spain from July 1 to 9, the Cardinal was asked about excommunication, first in the case of abortion. He responded that the doctors, the nurses, and the mother involved all incur excommunication. He added that the father is also excommunicated if he agrees with the procedure.

Asked if that excommunication also applied to those who do embryonic stem cell research, the Cardinal responded, “Sure. It is the same thing. To destroy the embryo is equivalent to abortion”. He added that the excommunication applies to parents, doctors, and investigators “who eliminate the embryo”.

Speaking about politicians who support abortion, Cardinal Trujillo said that they should “not approach the Eucharist”.

He noted that he was expressly asked by the Pope to explain such things to politicians; adding that “sometimes they change their minds”.

Ominously the Cardinal warned during the interview that the Vatican fears that the Church will one day be brought “in front of some international Court” if more radical demands are listened to. He explained that “speaking in defense of the life and for the rights of the family is becoming in some societies a type of crime against the State, a form of disobedience to the Government, a discrimination against women”.

LifeSiteNews.com is a daily Canadian internet source of pro-life/pro-family news. (c) Copyright: LifeSiteNews.com is a production of Interim Publishing. Permission to republish is granted (with limitation*) but acknowledgement of source is *REQUIRED* (use LifeSiteNews.com).

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HAPPENINGS

• Priests for Life Canada 7th Annual Symposium: Saturday, October 21/06 - Ottawa - See page 11 for details.
  This Fall: Parliament deals with Bill C-338.

• This Fall: Parliament deals with Marriage.

• Life Chain: First Sunday in October - check with your local community pro-life group.

• International Pro-life Conference - November 16-18: www.2006prolifeconference.com. Contact: Pro-Life Society of British Columbia - Phone: 604-853-3425.

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