Posted on 12/08/2016 7:34:56 PM PST by marshmallow
The number of euthanasia deaths in Switzerland rose by a third last year
A Swiss bishop has instructed Catholic priests not to give last rites to people suspected of seeking assisted suicide, following a sharp rise in the practice in his country.
“It is increasingly difficult to take the right decisions in the face of death – there’s even a sense of helplessness,” said Bishop Vitus Huonder of Chur.
“The readiness of a suffering patient to commit suicide with help from a bystander places any priest in an impossible situation if called to administer sacraments. Under such conditions, their reception is impossible – all a priest can do is offer a prayer of intercession and commend the dying to God’s mercy.”
In a pastoral message for Human Rights Day the bishop said contemporary society was “showered with random data” and often showed a “frightening superficiality towards moral issues.”
However, he added that Church teaching was clear that medical treatment should “respect life as well as death,” and not “impair the natural process of dying.”
“Medicine’s modern possibilities have made us increasingly dependent, especially if no longer capable of judgment, on qualified persons in the last stage of our existence,” said Bishop Huonder, who is also apostolic administrator of Zurich.
“But from a Christian viewpoint, life and death are in God’s hands – we do not decide about them for ourselves. Suicide, like murder, contradicts the divine world order.”
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicherald.co.uk ...
But last rites for those who off themselves?
The safest way would be in the confession booth right after the father forgives and blesses you.
Nope! That would be a new mortal sin.
Well, then I give up.
What about those men and women that jumped instead of burning to death ? Twin Towers ?
“What about those men and women that jumped instead of burning to death ? Twin Towers ?”
I am not sure that circumstance meets the definition of suicide in a moral-heological context.
No!
How could you reach that conclusion?
No, it doesn’t work like that.
So I have already been informed in post #4. But thank you anyway.
No, that’s not despair.
We can’t know their mind, but in a panic, escaping flames, you can’t expect a rational choice.
I agree.
Staying in the Towers meant certain death. There was a chance however small that firemen below would catch them in safety blankets or inflatables.
No last rites for suicides. How can one get that last Sacrament [Extreme Unction] while committing the mortal sin of suicide? Can't be done.
They didn’t seek death or desire to die.
this was categorically NOT suicide.
Men thinking they can make God’s decisions for Him....
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