Posted on 08/24/2011 4:09:38 PM PDT by wagglebee
NORTH BRABANT, Netherlands, August 24, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Dutch priest is standing his ground after following directives from the country’s bishops that anyone who opts for euthanasia is not entitled to a church funeral, according to Radio Netherlands.
Father Norbert van der Sluis, from the parish of Liempde in North Brabant, denied the Catholic rite of funeral to a man who ended his life through euthanasia, reports ANP. Van der Sluis said that he felt bound to uphold the rules which the Dutch bishops have agreed upon.
“When it comes to euthanasia, my answer has to be no,” he said.
The priest’s adherence to the Dutch bishops’ directives has sparked a local protest, caused the church council to halt a fundraising campaign to repair the church organ, and sparked outrage in the Dutch media.
Father van der Sluis’ parish council has reportedly demanded an apology from the priest and told him that he had better change his policy.
“If he does not, you’d better get another priest,” said a board member from the diocese of Den Bosch to the parish council.
Fr. John Lemire, the Chairman of Priests for Life Canada, told LifeSiteNews that the situation in Holland “is a very interesting and delicate situation” that affects not only the Church in Holland, “but the Church in general today.”
“The Church has firmly taught over the centuries that one is only morally responsible for rational decisions that he or she makes,” he said. “If medical science and psychology come to understand that a person is capable of making a rational decision to end his/her life, this then raises new questions and pastoral responses from the Church since a person would therefore be morally responsible for his or her decisions and the direct taking of life is a never morally acceptable.”
The family of the euthanized man has asked for another priest to preside over the funeral in the same parish. But Father van der Sluis has said that this is unacceptable.
“As a matter of conscience I cannot allow a fellow priest to say the funeral mass in my church,” he said.
Prominent conservative writer Wesley J. Smith has taken issue with the criticism that the priest is receiving. Refusing a funeral wouldn’t be my preference, but it was the priest’s, and doesn’t his conscience deserve at least equal respect to that of the decedent’s to receive doctor-injected death?” he said.
“Here’s the bottom line. All of this talk of ‘choice’ in the culture of death is just talk. It is really about enforced moral conformity.”
That is absolutely correct.
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“the direct taking of life is a never morally acceptable.””
In this context its not morally acceptable. But there are cases where the taking of life IS morally acceptable.
“Medical science and psychology” has already determined that some people who opt for death either by physician assisted suicide or by self inflicted suicide are competent to make this decision and, therefore, culpable.
What I find astonishing is that the parish council wants to force the priest to disobey Church law on this kind of matter. The priest should replace those people w/ real Catholics.
The author left out the adjective “innocent” before life.
Good for him.
When the Catholic church takes this kind of stand and sticks with it, they’ll see their numbers increase.
People don’t respect those with no convictions.
Strike the PC word “euthanasia” and substitute the REAL word it is - SUICIDE [which has ALWAYS been a mortal sin], so the priest was correct in his action ...
Can’t be buried in a Catholic cemetery either ...
I wonder what the man was dying of...I am not so confident as everyone here if I would have the courage to go on in some circumstances...but then, the sanctimonious are quick to judge.
theologically, of course, the church is right, the priest is right.
And yes, there is the slippery slope of the medical/political community. It is easy to quote theology and politics, but I wonder how difficult this must have been for this man and for his family.
I bet this man wasn’t suffering nearly as much as Pope John Paul II was in his final days.
such compassion you show!
We don’t know anything about this man or his illness. It is a very sad situation.
Let the flaming and judging begin!!!
A church ceremony is not a necessary part of a funeral. And that’s the way it is.
For whatever reason this man seems to have willingly rejected his Church and chosen his own solution.
His family should be chastised for disreguarding the mans wishes.
There is where the failure lies, in their hypocrisy.
Yes. Preventing one from murdering you or others is a perfect example.
Nobody forced him to be Catholic.
Those are the rules in such cases.
It’s always thrown me that there are so many people that are “catholics” but don’t believe much of what their denomination teaches. Either you are your denomination and believe and teach what that denomination says, or you aren’t and you determine where you need to be based on your own current studying of God and the bible.
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