David QuinnCondoning assisted suicide would be disastrous pastoral practice, writes David Quinn
About a year ago, a priest who had been living in Belgium told me that while living there he got a call one day from a man asking him if he would give the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick to his father who would be dying at 3pm the next day.
This was a very precise instruction. How could the man possibly know exactly when his father would die? The answer is he was receiving a lethal injection at that hour. His father was availing of Belgium’s assisted suicide law which is now used routinely there.
The priest duly did as he was asked. Should he have? This is a question the Church is now confronted with in more and more parts of the world.
The Church must also ask itself whether a priest can hear the Confession of someone who is about to avail of assisted suicide, and whether they can give Communion to that person.
The latest country to legalise assisted suicide is Canada. The culture of death is far advanced there now. Abortion can be obtained for any reason whatsoever right up until birth. Assisted suicide only makes matters worse.
Two groups of Canadian bishops in recent weeks have produced pastoral guidelines dealing with whether the abovementioned sacraments should be administered to someone who is about to avail of assisted suicide.
The first document was produced by the Catholic Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories and the second one has been produced more recently by the bishops of the Atlantic Episcopal Assembly (AEA).
The first of these documents is good, and the second is awful, a terrible abuse of Pope Francis’s instruction to show a maximum of discernment and understanding, and a minimum of judgement to fellow Catholics as they struggle through life doing the best they can.
Pope Francis is asking us to lay less stress on the objective rightness or wrong of an act, and to lay more stress on the subjective disposition and circumstances of the person, but he is not telling us to lose sight of the objective nature of an act completely.
If, in the past, the Church laid too much stress on the objective nature of an act (is the act right or wrong in itself?), there is also the danger that too much stress can be placed on the subjective circumstances and mentality of the person carrying out the action. The document from the bishops of the AEA commits this second error to an extravagant degree.
Opposition
The AEA document does lay out the Church’s opposition to suicide, but in the most mealy-mouthed possible way.
It says: “The Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) teaches us that God is the sovereign Master of life. We are stewards, not owners, of the life God has entrusted to us. It is not ours to dispose of (CCC 2280). The Catechism teaches that suicide contradicts the natural inclination of the human being to preserve and perpetuate one’s life (CCC 2281)”.
It quotes the Catechism where it notes the “grave psychological disturbances, anguish, or grave fear of hardship, suffering, or torture can diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide”, but then completely misapplies this to justify the administering of Communion and other sacraments to someone about to kill themselves.
If someone is about to kill themselves, then it is the absolute duty of the priest to do everything he can to save that person’s life and find alternative ways forward. It would be disastrous pastoral practice if, in administering the sacraments, the priest was seen to condone the act, or else not to be too bothered by it.
Good pastoral practice leads a person, preferably gently, into right living. The stress is on both of those words, ‘right’ and living’. ‘Right’, as in rightful action, and ‘living’ as in life, not death. Death should only come naturally and never by suicide.
Bad pastoral practice leads a person into wrongful living, or in this case, into a sinful death. It is extremely bad pastoral practice to administer the sacraments to someone you know is about to commit what is objectively speaking a mortal sin. To do this imperils their soul. No pastoral act could possibly be worse.
When the Catechism speaks of “grave psychological disturbances” (such as severe depression) that might drive a person to suicide, but diminish their moral responsibility, it in no way has in mind a priest accompanying an individual who is about to kill themselves through a doctor’s lethal injection and does little or nothing to try and stop it. The priest’s duty is to save their person’s life and that person’s soul.
The document from the Bishops of Alberta and the Northwest Territories is far better than the AEA document. It recognises how gravely wrong suicide is and how the Church can never be seen to condone it. It recognises that sacraments to someone about to avail of assisted suicide will easily be seen as condoning it.
This group of bishops say a person determined to receive a lethal injection cannot receive the sacraments.
The Pope himself has attacked moves to legalise assisted suicide as part of our ‘throw-away culture’ in which even the old and sick are disposed of.
The bishops of the Atlantic Episcopal Assembly in Canada may think they are fulfilling the vision of Francis with their document. They are not. Francis would never want a priest to in any way facilitate the act of suicide, assisted or otherwise.