lifesitenews--2020-02-14--Spanish socialist govt moves to let doctors kill sick patients as health care costs rise

MADRID , February 14 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) — A majority in the lower chamber of Spain ’ s Congress has voted to consider a bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in case of “ clearly debilitating diseases without a cure , without a solution and which cause significant suffering.
” Spanish daily El País reported that the 350-member Congress of Deputies passed a measure on Tuesday by a vote of 201 to 140 , with two abstentions .
Following debate in committee , the bill would go to the Senate for a final vote .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the law would allow voluntary euthanasia as well as assisted suicide .
This is the third time the bill has emerged in Congress , where its proponents hope it will be approved in June .
Assisted suicide means that a doctor prescribes lethal drugs to a patient , who then self-administers the drugs .
Voluntary euthanasia can be defined as when a physician or medical professional kills a patient at the patient ’ s request .
Both forms of killing are legal in Belgium , Canada , Colombia , Luxembourg , the Netherlands @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Australia .
Switzerland and some states in the U.S. allow assisted suicide .
Both forms of dealing death would be legalized by the Spanish legislation , which would allow doctors to object on the basis of conscience but require them to refer patients to doctors willing to assist in death .
The bill also requires that patients not have to wait more than a month after making a request for either assisted suicide or euthanasia .
After two doctors consider an initial request , patients would then make an additional request for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Catholic Church , as well as the Popular Party and Vox Party , has expressed vehement opposition to the bill .
From the floor of Congress , Deputy José Ignacio Echániz of the Popular Party accused Spain ’ s socialist government on Tuesday of seeking to “ save money ” on care for “ people who are expensive at the end of their lives.
” He said , “ For the Socialist Party , euthanasia is cost-saving measure.
” Echániz said the socialist government is having trouble paying for its welfare policies : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with these characteristics disappears , there also disappears an economic and financial problem for the government .
For each one of these people who is pushed toward death by euthanasia , the government is saving a great deal .
Behind this is a leftist philosophy to avoid the social cost of an aging population in our country.
” While offering legislation to improve palliative care , Echániz said it is “ curious ” that despite Spain ’ s excellent medical care , socialists are calling for euthanasia rather than “ defending life until @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Luis Martínez-Almeida and city chief executive Isabel Díaz Ayuso , both of whom represent the Popular Party , also denounced the bill .
In an interview with Antena 3 radio , Díaz Ayuso reproached the socialists for their reasoning , saying , “ Death is not dignity ; it is death , ” and added , “ Life is dignity.
” The euthanasia bill , she argued , is a “ red herring ” being offered by her opponents to distract from their failings .
Speaking for the pro-life Vox Party , Rocio @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Tuesday that Vox will mount strong opposition the bill .
“ We believe in the dignity of the person , ” she said while calling for more resources for palliative care .
Vox , she said , defends the dignity of people from conception to natural death , unlike the leftists , who “ want to eliminate all those whose lives , according to the Socialist Party , are no longer useful.
” Vox Deputy Lourdes Méndez took to the floor on Tuesday , warning Congress that they had embarked on legislation that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which the German Third Reich could legally murder mentally and physically handicapped people who had been judged “ unfit.
” Méndez said , “ The weakest and most vulnerable would be pressured by the system and would come to feel that they are a burden.
” While she also proposed a bill for palliative care , she said , “ In the face of suffering , we propose to offer companionship ; we propose a culture of care and propose to relieve pain .
You propose in the face of suffering to eliminate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Speaking directly to the socialists , she said , “ May God forgive you !
” The Spanish bishops ’ conference has condemned euthanasia , issuing a document titled “ Sowers of Peace ” in December , saying that the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church “ have been constant in stressing the dignity and sacredness of every human life ” and its opposition to legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide .
The Church , the document reads , offers various ways of accompanying the sick and suffering , “ shaping the many charisms @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dedicated to their care.
” This is based on the words of Jesus Christ , who said , “ I was sick , and you visited me ” ( Matt .
25:36 ) , and in the parable of the Good Samaritan ( Lk .
10:25–37 ) .
Critics of the leftist euthanasia bill point out that both euthanasia and assisted suicide are beyond the scope of medicine and also violate the Hippocratic Oath , well enshrined in the medical profession , which states : “ I will neither give a deadly drug @ @ @ @ @ @ @ nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.
” In a statement , the Catholic bishops said there is a flawed belief that assisted suicide and euthanasia are acts of autonomy , saying : “ [ I ] t is not possible to understand euthanasia and assisted suicide as something that refers exclusively to the autonomy of the individual , since such actions involve the participation of others , in this case , of health personnel.
” Instead of promoting death , Spain should instead embrace palliative care that can ease suffering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trevijano Etcheverria , a Spanish theologian and columnist , reacted to the vote that came on the day Catholics commemorate the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes to a simple peasant girl , Bernadette , in 1800s France .
The shrine at Lourdes , which is known all over the world for its healing waters , has drawn millions of ailing visitors and their companions for more than a century .
Tuesday is also known among Catholics as the International Day of the Sick , Trevijano Etcheverria mused , pointing out that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to kill sick people on that day might have been lost on Spain ’ s leftists , it would be easily recognized by Satan .

The pro-life party in Spain accused the ruling socialists of promoting euthanasia to eliminate 'people who are expensive at the end of their lives.'
MADRID, February 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — A majority in the lower chamber of Spain’s Congress has voted to consider a bill that would legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide in case of “clearly debilitating diseases without a cure, without a solution and which cause significant suffering.”
Spanish daily El País reported that the 350-member Congress of Deputies passed a measure on Tuesday by a vote of 201 to 140, with two abstentions. Following debate in committee, the bill would go to the Senate for a final vote. In its current form, if passed, the law would allow voluntary euthanasia as well as assisted suicide. This is the third time the bill has emerged in Congress, where its proponents hope it will be approved in June.
Assisted suicide means that a doctor prescribes lethal drugs to a patient, who then self-administers the drugs. Voluntary euthanasia can be defined as when a physician or medical professional kills a patient at the patient’s request. Both forms of killing are legal in Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and in the state of Victoria in Australia. Switzerland and some states in the U.S. allow assisted suicide.
Both forms of dealing death would be legalized by the Spanish legislation, which would allow doctors to object on the basis of conscience but require them to refer patients to doctors willing to assist in death. The bill also requires that patients not have to wait more than a month after making a request for either assisted suicide or euthanasia. After two doctors consider an initial request, patients would then make an additional request for approval by a government committee.
The Catholic Church, as well as the Popular Party and Vox Party, has expressed vehement opposition to the bill. From the floor of Congress, Deputy José Ignacio Echániz of the Popular Party accused Spain’s socialist government on Tuesday of seeking to “save money” on care for “people who are expensive at the end of their lives.” He said, “For the Socialist Party, euthanasia is cost-saving measure.”
Euthanasia as cost-saving measure
Echániz said the socialist government is having trouble paying for its welfare policies: “Every time one of these people with these characteristics disappears, there also disappears an economic and financial problem for the government. For each one of these people who is pushed toward death by euthanasia, the government is saving a great deal. Behind this is a leftist philosophy to avoid the social cost of an aging population in our country.”
While offering legislation to improve palliative care, Echániz said it is “curious” that despite Spain’s excellent medical care, socialists are calling for euthanasia rather than “defending life until the last moment.”
Madrid mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida and city chief executive Isabel Díaz Ayuso, both of whom represent the Popular Party, also denounced the bill. In an interview with Antena 3 radio, Díaz Ayuso reproached the socialists for their reasoning, saying, “Death is not dignity; it is death,” and added, “Life is dignity.” The euthanasia bill, she argued, is a “red herring” being offered by her opponents to distract from their failings.
Speaking for the pro-life Vox Party, Rocio Monasterio said in a news conference on Tuesday that Vox will mount strong opposition the bill. “We believe in the dignity of the person,” she said while calling for more resources for palliative care. Vox, she said, defends the dignity of people from conception to natural death, unlike the leftists, who “want to eliminate all those whose lives, according to the Socialist Party, are no longer useful.”
Vox Deputy Lourdes Méndez took to the floor on Tuesday, warning Congress that they had embarked on legislation that resembled Nazi law of the 1930s with which the German Third Reich could legally murder mentally and physically handicapped people who had been judged “unfit.”
Méndez said, “The weakest and most vulnerable would be pressured by the system and would come to feel that they are a burden.” While she also proposed a bill for palliative care, she said, “In the face of suffering, we propose to offer companionship; we propose a culture of care and propose to relieve pain. You propose in the face of suffering to eliminate the sick; you propose death.” Speaking directly to the socialists, she said, “May God forgive you!”
The Spanish bishops’ conference has condemned euthanasia, issuing a document titled “Sowers of Peace” in December, saying that the Tradition and Magisterium of the Church “have been constant in stressing the dignity and sacredness of every human life” and its opposition to legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide.
The Church, the document reads, offers various ways of accompanying the sick and suffering, “shaping the many charisms that have inspired many institutions and congregations dedicated to their care.” This is based on the words of Jesus Christ, who said, “I was sick, and you visited me” (Matt. 25:36), and in the parable of the Good Samaritan (Lk. 10:25–37).
Critics of the leftist euthanasia bill point out that both euthanasia and assisted suicide are beyond the scope of medicine and also violate the Hippocratic Oath, well enshrined in the medical profession, which states: “I will neither give a deadly drug to anybody who asked for it, nor will I make a suggestion to this effect.”
In a statement, the Catholic bishops said there is a flawed belief that assisted suicide and euthanasia are acts of autonomy, saying: “[I]t is not possible to understand euthanasia and assisted suicide as something that refers exclusively to the autonomy of the individual, since such actions involve the participation of others, in this case, of health personnel.” Instead of promoting death, Spain should instead embrace palliative care that can ease suffering, they said.
Fr. Pedro Trevijano Etcheverria, a Spanish theologian and columnist, reacted to the vote that came on the day Catholics commemorate the apparition of the Virgin Mary at Lourdes to a simple peasant girl, Bernadette, in 1800s France. The shrine at Lourdes, which is known all over the world for its healing waters, has drawn millions of ailing visitors and their companions for more than a century. Tuesday is also known among Catholics as the International Day of the Sick, Trevijano Etcheverria mused, pointing out that while the irony of advancing a bill to kill sick people on that day might have been lost on Spain’s leftists, it would be easily recognized by Satan.
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lifesitenews--2020-02-14--Catholic historian calls for ‘a trial of communism analogous to the Nuremberg Trials’

February 13 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) — Catholic historian Professor Roberto de Mattei called for “ a trial of communism analogous to the Nuremberg trials ” at a national conservatism conference held in Rome last week .
He noted that the “ communist virus ” is not conquered , but has infected much of the West as well as the Catholic Church .
Professor de Mattei explained ( read full text below ) that the idea of launching an appeal for the trial of communism came last October from the now deceased Vladimir Bukovsky and Professor Renato Cristin .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ that in the 20th century , “ there was no crime comparable to that of communism , in terms of the length of time that it lasted , the geographical territory it embraced , and also the amount of hatred that it knew how to generate.
” He said that “ for this reason , communism should be brought to trial.
” Professor de Mattei argued at the Feb. 4 “ God , Honor , Country ” National Conservatism Conference that the reason why President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ both believed that communism was a moral evil , not simply bad economics.
” On the other hand , de Mattei noted that communism continues to be promoted by powerful forces in our world today .
He highlighted the celebration in the mainstream media of Karl Marx , the continued flourishing of communism in China and Latin America , and its influence on European politics .
“ Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall , in the circles of those who control the ‘ media ’ of images and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seen as an ‘ evil , ’ not even after its political collapse , ” de Mattei said .
“ On May 5 , 2018 , the then-president of the European Commission , Jean-Claude Juncker , participated in the solemn celebrations in Trier , Germany for the bicentennial of the birth of Karl Marx , defending his heritage .
That same year , the New York Times celebrated the bicentennial with an editorial in which it treated Marx like a prophet .
And today communism is flourishing not only in China and Latin @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the communist parties have disappeared but the ideology survives.
” Professor de Mattei noted the ongoing popularity of communist thinker Antonio Gramsci and said that ideas “ intrinsic to communist doctrine ” such as “ evolutionism and hedonism ” continue to “ pervade the West.
” “ The new Europe , which has expelled the name of Christ and every reference to Christianity from its founding Treaty , is fully realizing the Gramscian plan of the secularization of society , ” de Mattei said .
“ It was not by chance that Vladimir @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ European Union of Soviet Republics.
’ ” Professor de Mattei said the “ communist virus ” has infected not only Western culture , media , and politics , but also the Church .
“ We all remember the homage given to Fidel Castro by the Vatican authorities in November 2016 and the accord signed by the Holy See with China ’ s communist government , ” he said .
“ Cardinal Joseph Zen , the highest prelate in China and the leading voice for persecuted Catholics , recently sent a letter to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ denounce this agreement , ” he continued .
“ It is for this reason that we say that communism is not dead , and we will continue to call for a trial of communism analogous to the Nuremberg trials.
” “ God , Honor , Country : President Ronald Reagan , Pope John Paul II , and the Freedom of Nations — A National Conservatism Conference ” Full text of the intervention of prof. Roberto de Mattei It seems like a paradox , but it ’ s not .
The Berlin wall was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ leaders were at the head of the free world : a political leader , American President John F. Kennedy , and a religious leader , Pope John XXIII .
The same Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 thanks to the contributions of two conservative leaders : a political leader , President Ronald Reagan , and a religious leader , Pope John Paul II .
What I would like to emphasize today is that the strategy of Reagan and John Paul II had greater political success than the détente of Nixon and Kissinger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cardinal Casaroli .
What were the common elements of the strategy shared by two people as different as the American president and the Polish pope ?
It seems to me that the reason for their success was the axiological vision of politics that they both held , which was opposed to both the Realpolitik of Kissinger as well as the Wilsonian tradition of universalist , globalist democracy .
What does an axiological vision mean ?
It means a vision in which politics is not divorced from moral values but respects them .
It @ @ @ @ @ @ @ John Paul II made a moral judgement about the political movements of their day .
As George Weigel has noted , both believed that communism was a moral evil , not simply bad economics .
The `` Evil Empire '' speech delivered by Reagan in 1983 is famous .
In that speech , Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an `` evil empire '' and as `` the focus of evil in the modern world '' .
Likewise , Pope John Paul II , in his last book entitled Memory and Identity @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evil are profoundly rooted in the history of European thought , ” especially the French Enlightenment , the radically atheist Marxist Revolution , National Socialist ideology , abortion , and gay rights conferred by the European parliament .
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall , in the circles of those who control the “ media ” of images and the printed word , communism has never been seen as an “ evil , ” not even after its political collapse .
On May 5 , 2018 , the then-president of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , participated in the solemn celebrations in Trier , Germany for the bicentennial of the birth of Karl Marx , defending his heritage .
That same year , the New York Times celebrated the bicentennial with an editorial in which it treated Marx like a prophet .
And today communism is flourishing not only in China and Latin America but also in Europe , where the communist parties have disappeared but the ideology survives .
Today evolutionism and hedonism , which are intrinsic to communist doctrine , pervade the West , and the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been replaced with the “ dictatorship of relativism ” that comes from the same poisoned well of dialectical materialism .
Antonio Gramsci , the theorician par excellence of dialectical materialism , is today one of the five most-studied and most-translated Italians after the 16th century , and among the top 250 world authors of all time who are the most read , translated , and cited .
The new Europe , which has expelled the name of Christ and every reference to Christianity from its founding Treaty , is fully realizing the Gramscian @ @ @ @ @ @ @ It was not by chance that Vladimir Bukovsky defined the European Union as the “ European Union of Soviet Republics.
” He said : “ I think we have a gulag in the European Union also , an intellectual gulag known as political correctness .
When anyone tries to speak their mind on race or gender , or if their views differ from those approved , they will be ostracized.
” ( Britain on the Brink ) I would like to recall and honor Vladimir Bukovsky .
He died last fall , just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9 .
His final book Judgment in Moscow , Soviet Crimes and Western Complicity was an international bestseller published in nine languages , but has only now been published in English for the first time .
This book reminds us that no crime , no matter how slight it may be , can escape from an investigation , from a trial , from a sentence .
But this has not happened for communism .
Not only has there not been a trial , there has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The prohibition against anti-communism has placed a ban on all study , research , and documentation relevant to communism ’ s past .
The past must be neither discussed , nor condemned , nor “ expiated.
” Only ex-communists and post-communists , those who participated in some way in the “ great illusion ” are allowed to criticize communism in the post-communist era .
Last October , through the initiative of the late Vladimir Bukovsky and professor Renato Cristin , a group of intellectuals from various nations of the world launched an appeal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
I have joined this appeal because I am convinced that in the 20th century there was no crime comparable to that of communism , in terms of the length of time that it lasted , the geographical territory it embraced , and also the amount of hatred that it knew how to generate .
For this reason communism should be brought to trial .
The request for a trial of communism analogous to that of Nuremberg may appear anachronistic today .
Thirty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the crimes of communism are either dead or have apparently converted to democracy .
But the trial of communism that Bukovsky wanted and that we are demanding , before being understood as a legal process ought to be seen as a cultural and moral process that denounces the responsibility of the architects of communism and their accomplices before history and before public opinion , just as happened for National Socialism .
Anti-communism has ceased , it has dissolved .
For its part , communism has sunk , like a subterranean river that suddenly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with greater vigor .
We must not be afraid to say that communism is still alive , because although the Soviet Union fell apart , the communist utopia continues to infect , like a virus , a communist virus , Western culture , media , politics , and also the Church .
We all remember the homage given to Fidel Castro by the Vatican authorities in November 2016 , and the accord signed by the Holy See with China ’ s communist government .
Cardinal Joseph Zen , the highest prelate in China @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , recently sent a letter to the College of Cardinals imploring them to denounce this agreement .
It is for this reason that we say that communism is not dead , and we will continue to call for a trial of communism analogous to the Nuremberg trials .

February 13, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Catholic historian Professor Roberto de Mattei called for “a trial of communism analogous to the Nuremberg trials” at a national conservatism conference held in Rome last week. He noted that the “communist virus” is not conquered, but has infected much of the West as well as the Catholic Church.
Professor de Mattei explained (read full text below) that the idea of launching an appeal for the trial of communism came last October from the now deceased Vladimir Bukovsky and Professor Renato Cristin. Professor de Mattei said he was convinced that in the 20th century, “there was no crime comparable to that of communism, in terms of the length of time that it lasted, the geographical territory it embraced, and also the amount of hatred that it knew how to generate.” He said that “for this reason, communism should be brought to trial.”
Professor de Mattei argued at the Feb. 4 “God, Honor, Country” National Conservatism Conference that the reason why President Ronald Reagan and Pope John Paul II were effective opponents of communism is because they “both believed that communism was a moral evil, not simply bad economics.”
On the other hand, de Mattei noted that communism continues to be promoted by powerful forces in our world today. He highlighted the celebration in the mainstream media of Karl Marx, the continued flourishing of communism in China and Latin America, and its influence on European politics.
“Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the circles of those who control the ‘media’ of images and the printed word, communism has never been seen as an ‘evil,’ not even after its political collapse,” de Mattei said. “On May 5, 2018, the then-president of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Juncker, participated in the solemn celebrations in Trier, Germany for the bicentennial of the birth of Karl Marx, defending his heritage. That same year, the New York Times celebrated the bicentennial with an editorial in which it treated Marx like a prophet. And today communism is flourishing not only in China and Latin America but also in Europe, where the communist parties have disappeared but the ideology survives.”
Professor de Mattei noted the ongoing popularity of communist thinker Antonio Gramsci and said that ideas “intrinsic to communist doctrine” such as “evolutionism and hedonism” continue to “pervade the West.”
“The new Europe, which has expelled the name of Christ and every reference to Christianity from its founding Treaty, is fully realizing the Gramscian plan of the secularization of society,” de Mattei said. “It was not by chance that Vladimir Bukovsky defined the European Union as the ‘European Union of Soviet Republics.’”
Professor de Mattei said the “communist virus” has infected not only Western culture, media, and politics, but also the Church. “We all remember the homage given to Fidel Castro by the Vatican authorities in November 2016 and the accord signed by the Holy See with China’s communist government,” he said.
“Cardinal Joseph Zen, the highest prelate in China and the leading voice for persecuted Catholics, recently sent a letter to the College of Cardinals imploring them to denounce this agreement,” he continued.
“It is for this reason that we say that communism is not dead, and we will continue to call for a trial of communism analogous to the Nuremberg trials.”
* * *
“God, Honor, Country: President Ronald Reagan, Pope John Paul II, and the Freedom of Nations — A National Conservatism Conference”
Hotel Plaza, February 4, 2020
Full text of the intervention of prof. Roberto de Mattei
It seems like a paradox, but it’s not. The Berlin wall was built in 1961, when two progressive leaders were at the head of the free world: a political leader, American President John F. Kennedy, and a religious leader, Pope John XXIII.
The same Berlin Wall was torn down in 1989 thanks to the contributions of two conservative leaders: a political leader, President Ronald Reagan, and a religious leader, Pope John Paul II. What I would like to emphasize today is that the strategy of Reagan and John Paul II had greater political success than the détente of Nixon and Kissinger and the Ostpolitik of Paul VI and Cardinal Casaroli.
What were the common elements of the strategy shared by two people as different as the American president and the Polish pope?
It seems to me that the reason for their success was the axiological vision of politics that they both held, which was opposed to both the Realpolitik of Kissinger as well as the Wilsonian tradition of universalist, globalist democracy.
What does an axiological vision mean? It means a vision in which politics is not divorced from moral values but respects them. It was no accident that both Reagan and John Paul II made a moral judgement about the political movements of their day. As George Weigel has noted, both believed that communism was a moral evil, not simply bad economics. The “Evil Empire” speech delivered by Reagan in 1983 is famous. In that speech, Reagan referred to the Soviet Union as an “evil empire” and as “the focus of evil in the modern world“.
Likewise, Pope John Paul II, in his last book entitled Memory and Identity, asserted that “the ideologies of evil are profoundly rooted in the history of European thought,” especially the French Enlightenment, the radically atheist Marxist Revolution, National Socialist ideology, abortion, and gay rights conferred by the European parliament.
Thirty years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in the circles of those who control the “media” of images and the printed word, communism has never been seen as an “evil,” not even after its political collapse. On May 5, 2018, the then-president of the European Commission, Jean Claude Juncker, participated in the solemn celebrations in Trier, Germany for the bicentennial of the birth of Karl Marx, defending his heritage. That same year, the New York Times celebrated the bicentennial with an editorial in which it treated Marx like a prophet. And today communism is flourishing not only in China and Latin America but also in Europe, where the communist parties have disappeared but the ideology survives.
Today evolutionism and hedonism, which are intrinsic to communist doctrine, pervade the West, and the “dictatorship of the proletariat” has been replaced with the “dictatorship of relativism” that comes from the same poisoned well of dialectical materialism. Antonio Gramsci, the theorician par excellence of dialectical materialism, is today one of the five most-studied and most-translated Italians after the 16th century, and among the top 250 world authors of all time who are the most read, translated, and cited.
The new Europe, which has expelled the name of Christ and every reference to Christianity from its founding Treaty, is fully realizing the Gramscian plan of the secularization of society. It was not by chance that Vladimir Bukovsky defined the European Union as the “European Union of Soviet Republics.” He said:“I think we have a gulag in the European Union also, an intellectual gulag known as political correctness. When anyone tries to speak their mind on race or gender, or if their views differ from those approved, they will be ostracized.” (Britain on the Brink)
I would like to recall and honor Vladimir Bukovsky. He died last fall, just ten days before the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9. His final book Judgment in Moscow, Soviet Crimes and Western Complicity was an international bestseller published in nine languages, but has only now been published in English for the first time. This book reminds us that no crime, no matter how slight it may be, can escape from an investigation, from a trial, from a sentence. But this has not happened for communism. Not only has there not been a trial, there has not even been a cultural debate. The prohibition against anti-communism has placed a ban on all study, research, and documentation relevant to communism’s past. The past must be neither discussed, nor condemned, nor “expiated.” Only ex-communists and post-communists, those who participated in some way in the “great illusion” are allowed to criticize communism in the post-communist era.
Last October, through the initiative of the late Vladimir Bukovsky and professor Renato Cristin, a group of intellectuals from various nations of the world launched an appeal for a new Nuremberg Trial on communism.
I have joined this appeal because I am convinced that in the 20th century there was no crime comparable to that of communism, in terms of the length of time that it lasted, the geographical territory it embraced, and also the amount of hatred that it knew how to generate. For this reason communism should be brought to trial.
The request for a trial of communism analogous to that of Nuremberg may appear anachronistic today. Thirty years have passed since the fall of the Berlin Wall and the majority of those responsible for the crimes of communism are either dead or have apparently converted to democracy. But the trial of communism that Bukovsky wanted and that we are demanding, before being understood as a legal process ought to be seen as a cultural and moral process that denounces the responsibility of the architects of communism and their accomplices before history and before public opinion, just as happened for National Socialism.
I remember that prof. Plinio Correa de Oliveira launched a similar manifest in February 1990.
Anti-communism has ceased, it has dissolved. For its part, communism has sunk, like a subterranean river that suddenly disappears, only to reemerge later on with greater vigor.
We must not be afraid to say that communism is still alive, because although the Soviet Union fell apart, the communist utopia continues to infect, like a virus, a communist virus, Western culture, media, politics, and also the Church. We all remember the homage given to Fidel Castro by the Vatican authorities in November 2016, and the accord signed by the Holy See with China’s communist government. Cardinal Joseph Zen, the highest prelate in China and the leading voice for persecuted Catholics, recently sent a letter to the College of Cardinals imploring them to denounce this agreement.
It is for this reason that we say that communism is not dead, and we will continue to call for a trial of communism analogous to the Nuremberg trials.
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lifesitenews--2020-02-14--Amazon priest: Synod fathers used indigenous people to ‘attack Catholic faith’

February 13 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) – People in the Amazon region had no interest at all for the Amazon synod and said , on the contrary , they were used by it “ to attack the Catholic faith.
” Father Ignacio Maria Doñoro should know .
He founded a home for youngsters – boys and adolescents – from the margins of society .
In the Peruvian Amazon , he said in a recent interview with Infovaticana , a major Spanish-speaking Catholic website , what the poor people are thirsting for is God .
Ignacio Maria Doñoro is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ chaplains are known – who moved from assisting victims of ETA terrorism to various international missions .
He has been in the Peruvian Amazon for the last 10 years as a part of the Prelature of Moyobamba .
He called his institution “ Hogar Nazaret ” – “ Home of Nazareth ” which takes in high-risk and socially-excluded children and teenagers .
The website of Hogar Nazaret is here .
In the interview , Fr .
Doñoro is very clear about what the Amazon needs : dedicated , celibate priests who have totally @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are “ sanctifiers of the people.
” “ After God , priests are everything , ” he told Infovaticana , quoting Saint Jean-Marie Vianney .
Asked about the Pachamama veneration in Rome , he told the interviewer that the boys of Hogar Nazaret so much love Our Lord and the Virgin Mary that they would surely have reacted like “ the young people ” who entered into Santa Maria in Traspontina – Alexander Tschugguel and another person – and threw the “ demonic statuettes ” in the Tiber .
Doñoro added that he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them “ in the physical heart of our Holy Mother Church , above the holy remains of St. Peter and St. Paul.
” Below is a translation of the part of Infovaticano journalist Fernando Beltrán ’ s talk with Fr .
Doñoro that directly concerns his work in the Amazon .
It took place and was online before the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation “ Querida Amazonía , ” but remains very timely .
Fernando Beltrán : What are the greatest difficulties facing evangelization in the Amazon ?
Ignacio Maria Doñoro : Difficulties @ @ @ @ @ @ @ here talking to them about God , whom they have never heard of , is marvelous .
These people are truly hungry for God .
They are moved .
In El Salvador , something very funny happened to me .
I said a Mass that lasted 45 minutes .
The people were very angry and asked me how it could have lasted so little ; they had not come for hours and hours walking to hear such a short Mass .
They said they wanted to delight more in the Lord and that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that I should tell them more , that the Mass should last longer .
The next Mass took me an hour and a half , and to them it also seemed very short ...
The people here are hungry for God .
That is why the presence of God here is very great .
His words resound in the Amazon with great force .
Here you find communities that only have Mass once a year and are happy to be able to welcome the priest .
They love priests very much !
You @ @ @ @ @ @ @ you , they ask for your blessing … I usually carry several rosaries in my pocket and hand them out throughout the day .
That a priest should give them a rosary is for them a caress from God to their heart .
What these people want and need are holy priests , devoted in body and soul .
FB : What were the Catholics ’ expectations during the recent Synod ?
Did the work and the final document reflect the desires of the Amazonian people in your opinion ?
IMD : Here @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which in theory established a dialogue on the problems of the Amazon , had no significance at all .
No one was talking about the Synod .
No one .
They didn ’ t hear about it .
The people here are very poor .
It is also true that , like most , they have television , but what they watch is soap opera .
They don ’ t read newspapers or get information .
In my opinion , it does not make much sense to have made a synod only @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that certain issues have been raised , and also about the way they have been raised , because it is strange , but these are things that have nothing to do with the reality of the Amazon .
In the midst of some of the controversies that have arisen around the Synod , some words of Cardinal Robert Sarah , Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments , have given me personally a lot of light : “ I fear that some Westerners are using this assembly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thinking in particular of the ordination of married men , the creation of women ’ s ministries and the jurisdiction of the laity .
These points touch on the structure of the Universal Church .
To take advantage of them to introduce ideological plans would be an unworthy manipulation , a dishonest deception and an insult to God who guides his Church and entrusts her with his plan of salvation .
Furthermore , I was surprised and outraged that the spiritual distress of the poor in the Amazon was used as an excuse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worldly Christianity .
It is abominable.
” I , who have been in this blessed land for 10 years now , first in Madre de Dios , then in Moyobamba , what I see every day is that the simple people are thirsty for God , they thirst for truth .
Christ is the only Truth .
They may be poor , but they are not fools , and they like the truth .
… That is what they need .
That ’ s their greatest desire .
FB : In Europe , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Pachamama.
” To what extent is this figure related with the Amazon ?
What did you think when you saw the images of the strange ceremony in the Vatican gardens where one of these figures was worshipped in front of the Pope ?
IMD : I remember with emotion , the moment before the end of the Synod , when they broadcast a video of some young people who entered the church of the Carmelites , near the Vatican , where the demonic statuettes were exposed on an altar , and threw them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ can not help thinking that my children of the Nazareth Home , who love Jesus and the Virgin Mary very much , would have felt just as badly as those young people , which would surely have led them to act in a similar way .
Andrea Tornielli , the Vatican ’ s editorial director , called those who committed these acts “ vandals ” and “ new iconoclasts.
” He said that “ this was not idolatry , but a symbol of fertility , of the earth and the sacredness of life.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ supported by such limited concepts , showed the fragility of his reasoning and left a very bitter taste .
I can affirm that I saw these idols for the first time in the images that came to us from Rome .
I wept when I saw them in the physical heart of our Holy Mother Church , above the holy remains of St. Peter and St. Paul .
I was scandalized and , like me , the event scandalized millions of Catholics all over the world .
I think that somehow , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ utilized to attack the Catholic faith .
The last of the earth , the smallest , the weakest , were used to show , moreover , a different reality from the one we experience here .
I repeat that I have not seen the Pachamama or these other idols here and I have been here for 10 years now .
The Catholics of this region with whom I have spoken felt bad when they saw these things that did not represent them or mean anything to them .
They feel , as many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Heart of Jesus .
The only Queen of the Amazon is the Mother of God .
It is precisely this region of the Amazon that is named “ Mother of God ” in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary .
For a Christian – and that also means , of course , a Christian of the Amazon – there is no other God or savior but Jesus Christ , the Son of God , born from the virginal womb of Mary .
FB : During the last few weeks the focus has been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , which will gather the fruits of the synod .
There are many expectations in this exhortation .
Some have the hope – reflected in the final document of the Synod - that the Pope will allow the ordination of married people for special pastoral needs in those regions .
How would you feel about such a measure ?
In your experience there , do you see the need for such a decision ?
Would that argument not be applicable to other places in the world with a lack of priests ?
IMD @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like the Church throughout the world , needs holy and learned priests , priests who are humble and joyful .
Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that , on one occasion , when she was speaking with a priest , he said , “ Mother , for me Jesus is everything .
I have no time or space left for other affections.
” And Mother Teresa understood that if that priest was bringing so many souls to God , it was because he was united to Him .
I think that today , more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elsewhere in the world , what is needed is not the ordination of married people , but priests in love with Christ .
That is the priest ’ s job : to bear witness of the merciful and unconditional love of Jesus Christ and to bring souls to God .
And all this after years of study , prayer and discernment , after which he is ordained to give glory to God and serve others .
The priest is the sanctifier of God ’ s people .
He is a sanctifier through the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Baptism , the Eucharist and the sacrament of Reconciliation .
The holy Curé d ’ Ars , Saint Jean-Marie Vianney , patron saint of priests , said something that may be shocking because the words he uses are strong , but that contains a great truth : “ After God , the priest is everything !
Leave a parish 20 years without a priest and they will worship the beasts .
When you want to destroy religion , you start by attacking the priest , because where there is no priest , there @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is no sacrifice , there is no religion.
” I think that today , more than ever , in the Amazon and elsewhere in the world , what is needed is not the ordination of married people , but priests in love with Christ , with an undivided heart that they do not wish to share with anyone else but Him .
God chooses his priests , who consecrate themselves to him in the fullness of their life , in an unconditional “ fiat.
” Christ was celibate and he asks us priests @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gift of our virginity , just as he wanted to give it to the Father for love of us .
It is a wonder !
Bishop Rafael Escudero , who was a Synodal Father at the Synod on the Amazon , wanted to warn of the dangers that the ordination of viri probati could entail : “ Old married men who are ordained would mean a kind of second class priesthood and the identity of the Catholic priest would be reduced to a mere sacramental function .
The priest , from being a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of counsel , a teacher of Christian life , a close presence of Christ , would become a mere functionary of the Mass.
” I think that those dangers of which Bishop Escudero warns are real .
The mission entrusted by Christ to the priest is so great – and I quote again the Curé of Ars – that “ if he were to become aware of it , he would die .
God obeys him : he says two words and Our Lord descends from heaven .
The joy of saying Mass @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” All of us priests have read and meditated on these beautiful words hundreds of times .
God has trusted us so much that he has placed himself in our humble hands .
We can not fail him .
We can not lower our ministry or divide it into first and second class priests .
God deserves everything .
FB : One of the issues that carried most weight at the October synod was ecology .
How do you see that problem ?
Do you see it as a priority ?
What do @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Church in the Amazon ?
IMD : I am going to answer the first question from the reality I know .
I have taught my children at Hogar Nazareth to respect plants .
The exuberance in the forest is impressive .
Nature is so beautiful that it speaks to us of God and we must respect it .
That is why taking care of our common home is important .
But here in the Amazon , along with a tremendous depredation of nature , there is a depredation of the human being @ @ @ @ @ @ @ come to the point of considering that the other is one thing , that the woman is a possession of the man .
... That is why I would have liked the Synod to have raised these kinds of questions and spoken , among other things , about the dignity of women , the dignity of mothers and how to solve many of their problems .
This seems to me to be a priority issue .
Earlier , I quoted Mother Teresa , who is one of the great figures of human history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with the history of the Nazareth Home .
She insisted a lot on the defense of unborn children .
She said that something out of the ordinary happened when the Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and the unborn child jumped for joy in the presence of Jesus .
“ It is very strange that God would use an unborn child to proclaim the coming of Christ .
We know the things that are happening to unborn children – how their own mothers end their lives !
Abortion has become the greatest destroyer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ truth today .
The unborn children are the poorest of the poor .
They are so close to God !
I always beg the doctors in the hospitals of India never to kill a child .
If no one wants it , I will keep it.
” These words of Mother Teresa move me to action .
Many women are deceived here .
All too often I meet girls who are terrified because they think they have to have an abortion .
The crime of abortion is terrible and we are always struggling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going , despite the lack of financial and human means to help these young women have their children , and regain joy through love .
None of them have ever regretted bringing their child into the world .
Another issue that I consider fundamental is to make a clear and firm commitment to the truth .
For the truth in morals , for the truth in God ’ s revelation ( without sweeteners ) , for the truth in the great debates that are opening up , to face them with courage .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ gender ideology , to the value of human life before its conception and to the end of its days , etc .
At the same time , and together with these great themes , it is fundamental to seek supernatural means , such as prayer , Holy Mass , adoration , personal encounter with the Living Christ in the Eucharist , devotion to the Virgin Mary … I believe that this is what we have to do , here in the Amazon and in the rest of the world , because the Church @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like to give voice to the poor .
Let us not forget the neediest .
The people of the Amazon , precisely because they are the poorest , deserve the best .
They deserve priests who are totally dedicated to their ministry , who become one with Christ , whose heart is undivided .
That is what I believe is needed .
It is not because there is a need for priests that I am going to look for second-rate priests .
… Besides , a formation is needed .
Here the formation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years , much longer than in Spain .
In my Prelature , an immense effort is being made for the seminary .
I think it ’ s a good bet .
That requires forming native priests , and that takes many years , much effort , much sacrifice , much money , and much prayer .
And all this is what is being done in Moyobamba , here , in the Amazon , thanks to God and to the generous dedication of many people .

February 13, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) – People in the Amazon region had no interest at all for the Amazon synod and said, on the contrary, they were used by it “to attack the Catholic faith.”
Father Ignacio Maria Doñoro should know. He founded a home for youngsters – boys and adolescents – from the margins of society. In the Peruvian Amazon, he said in a recent interview with Infovaticana, a major Spanish-speaking Catholic website, what the poor people are thirsting for is God.
Ignacio Maria Doñoro is a former “Padre” – as army chaplains are known – who moved from assisting victims of ETA terrorism to various international missions. He has been in the Peruvian Amazon for the last 10 years as a part of the Prelature of Moyobamba. He called his institution “Hogar Nazaret” – “Home of Nazareth” which takes in high-risk and socially-excluded children and teenagers. The website of Hogar Nazaret is here.
In the interview, Fr. Doñoro is very clear about what the Amazon needs: dedicated, celibate priests who have totally given their lives to God and who are “sanctifiers of the people.” “After God, priests are everything,” he told Infovaticana, quoting Saint Jean-Marie Vianney.
Asked about the Pachamama veneration in Rome, he told the interviewer that the boys of Hogar Nazaret so much love Our Lord and the Virgin Mary that they would surely have reacted like “the young people” who entered into Santa Maria in Traspontina – Alexander Tschugguel and another person – and threw the “demonic statuettes” in the Tiber.
Doñoro added that he himself “wept” when he saw them “in the physical heart of our Holy Mother Church, above the holy remains of St. Peter and St. Paul.”
Below is a translation of the part of Infovaticano journalist Fernando Beltrán’s talk with Fr. Doñoro that directly concerns his work in the Amazon. It took place and was online before the publication of the Apostolic Exhortation “Querida Amazonía,” but remains very timely.
***
Fernando Beltrán: What are the greatest difficulties facing evangelization in the Amazon?
Ignacio Maria Doñoro: Difficulties? There are none. To be here talking to them about God, whom they have never heard of, is marvelous. These people are truly hungry for God. They are moved. In El Salvador, something very funny happened to me. I said a Mass that lasted 45 minutes. The people were very angry and asked me how it could have lasted so little; they had not come for hours and hours walking to hear such a short Mass. They said they wanted to delight more in the Lord and that they wanted to know more. And that I should tell them more, that the Mass should last longer. The next Mass took me an hour and a half, and to them it also seemed very short …
The people here are hungry for God. That is why the presence of God here is very great. His words resound in the Amazon with great force.
Here you find communities that only have Mass once a year and are happy to be able to welcome the priest. They love priests very much! You go down the street and everyone greets you, they ask for your blessing …
I usually carry several rosaries in my pocket and hand them out throughout the day. That a priest should give them a rosary is for them a caress from God to their heart. What these people want and need are holy priests, devoted in body and soul.
FB: What were the Catholics’ expectations during the recent Synod? Did the work and the final document reflect the desires of the Amazonian people in your opinion?
IMD: Here in the Amazon Forest, the Synod, which in theory established a dialogue on the problems of the Amazon, had no significance at all. No one was talking about the Synod. No one. They didn’t hear about it. The people here are very poor. It is also true that, like most, they have television, but what they watch is soap opera. They don’t read newspapers or get information.
In my opinion, it does not make much sense to have made a synod only for the Amazon and I am concerned that certain issues have been raised, and also about the way they have been raised, because it is strange, but these are things that have nothing to do with the reality of the Amazon.
In the midst of some of the controversies that have arisen around the Synod, some words of Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, have given me personally a lot of light: “I fear that some Westerners are using this assembly to advance their plans. I am thinking in particular of the ordination of married men, the creation of women’s ministries and the jurisdiction of the laity. These points touch on the structure of the Universal Church. To take advantage of them to introduce ideological plans would be an unworthy manipulation, a dishonest deception and an insult to God who guides his Church and entrusts her with his plan of salvation. Furthermore, I was surprised and outraged that the spiritual distress of the poor in the Amazon was used as an excuse to support typical projects of bourgeois and worldly Christianity. It is abominable.”
I, who have been in this blessed land for 10 years now, first in Madre de Dios, then in Moyobamba, what I see every day is that the simple people are thirsty for God, they thirst for truth. Christ is the only Truth. They may be poor, but they are not fools, and they like the truth. … That is what they need. That’s their greatest desire.
FB: In Europe, the focus has been on “the Pachamama.” To what extent is this figure related with the Amazon? What did you think when you saw the images of the strange ceremony in the Vatican gardens where one of these figures was worshipped in front of the Pope?
IMD: I remember with emotion, the moment before the end of the Synod, when they broadcast a video of some young people who entered the church of the Carmelites, near the Vatican, where the demonic statuettes were exposed on an altar, and threw them into the river Tiber. … I cannot help thinking that my children of the Nazareth Home, who love Jesus and the Virgin Mary very much, would have felt just as badly as those young people, which would surely have led them to act in a similar way.
Andrea Tornielli, the Vatican’s editorial director, called those who committed these acts “vandals” and “new iconoclasts.” He said that “this was not idolatry, but a symbol of fertility, of the earth and the sacredness of life.” His arguments, so weak and supported by such limited concepts, showed the fragility of his reasoning and left a very bitter taste.
I can affirm that I saw these idols for the first time in the images that came to us from Rome. I wept when I saw them in the physical heart of our Holy Mother Church, above the holy remains of St. Peter and St. Paul. I was scandalized and, like me, the event scandalized millions of Catholics all over the world.
I think that somehow, the indigenous people of the Amazon Forest were utilized to attack the Catholic faith. The last of the earth, the smallest, the weakest, were used to show, moreover, a different reality from the one we experience here. I repeat that I have not seen the Pachamama or these other idols here and I have been here for 10 years now.
The Catholics of this region with whom I have spoken felt bad when they saw these things that did not represent them or mean anything to them. They feel, as many do, a need to repair the Heart of Jesus. The only Queen of the Amazon is the Mother of God. It is precisely this region of the Amazon that is named “Mother of God” in honor of the Blessed Virgin Mary.
For a Christian – and that also means, of course, a Christian of the Amazon – there is no other God or savior but Jesus Christ, the Son of God, born from the virginal womb of Mary.
FB: During the last few weeks the focus has been on Pope Francis’ next post-synodal exhortation, which will gather the fruits of the synod. There are many expectations in this exhortation. Some have the hope – reflected in the final document of the Synod – that the Pope will allow the ordination of married people for special pastoral needs in those regions. How would you feel about such a measure? In your experience there, do you see the need for such a decision? Would that argument not be applicable to other places in the world with a lack of priests?
IMD: I believe that the Amazon, like the Church throughout the world, needs holy and learned priests, priests who are humble and joyful. Mother Teresa of Calcutta said that, on one occasion, when she was speaking with a priest, he said, “Mother, for me Jesus is everything. I have no time or space left for other affections.” And Mother Teresa understood that if that priest was bringing so many souls to God, it was because he was united to Him.
I think that today, more than ever, in the Amazon and elsewhere in the world, what is needed is not the ordination of married people, but priests in love with Christ.
That is the priest’s job: to bear witness of the merciful and unconditional love of Jesus Christ and to bring souls to God. And all this after years of study, prayer and discernment, after which he is ordained to give glory to God and serve others.
The priest is the sanctifier of God’s people. He is a sanctifier through the sacraments he administers: above all, Baptism, the Eucharist and the sacrament of Reconciliation. The holy Curé d’Ars, Saint Jean-Marie Vianney, patron saint of priests, said something that may be shocking because the words he uses are strong, but that contains a great truth: “After God, the priest is everything! Leave a parish 20 years without a priest and they will worship the beasts. When you want to destroy religion, you start by attacking the priest, because where there is no priest, there is no sacrifice, and where there is no sacrifice, there is no religion.”
I think that today, more than ever, in the Amazon and elsewhere in the world, what is needed is not the ordination of married people, but priests in love with Christ, with an undivided heart that they do not wish to share with anyone else but Him.
God chooses his priests, who consecrate themselves to him in the fullness of their life, in an unconditional “fiat.” Christ was celibate and he asks us priests to espouse him and give him the gift of our virginity, just as he wanted to give it to the Father for love of us. It is a wonder!
Bishop Rafael Escudero, who was a Synodal Father at the Synod on the Amazon, wanted to warn of the dangers that the ordination of viri probati could entail: “Old married men who are ordained would mean a kind of second class priesthood and the identity of the Catholic priest would be reduced to a mere sacramental function. The priest, from being a pastor of the community, a source of counsel, a teacher of Christian life, a close presence of Christ, would become a mere functionary of the Mass.”
I think that those dangers of which Bishop Escudero warns are real. The mission entrusted by Christ to the priest is so great – and I quote again the Curé of Ars – that “if he were to become aware of it, he would die. God obeys him: he says two words and Our Lord descends from heaven. The joy of saying Mass will not be understood except in heaven.” All of us priests have read and meditated on these beautiful words hundreds of times. God has trusted us so much that he has placed himself in our humble hands. We cannot fail him. We cannot lower our ministry or divide it into first and second class priests. God deserves everything.
FB: One of the issues that carried most weight at the October synod was ecology. How do you see that problem? Do you see it as a priority? What do you think should be the priorities for the Church in the Amazon?
IMD: I am going to answer the first question from the reality I know. I have taught my children at Hogar Nazareth to respect plants. The exuberance in the forest is impressive. Nature is so beautiful that it speaks to us of God and we must respect it. That is why taking care of our common home is important.
But here in the Amazon, along with a tremendous depredation of nature, there is a depredation of the human being. People are trafficked, and we come to the point of considering that the other is one thing, that the woman is a possession of the man. … That is why I would have liked the Synod to have raised these kinds of questions and spoken, among other things, about the dignity of women, the dignity of mothers and how to solve many of their problems. This seems to me to be a priority issue.
Earlier, I quoted Mother Teresa, who is one of the great figures of human history, and who has much to do with the history of the Nazareth Home. She insisted a lot on the defense of unborn children. She said that something out of the ordinary happened when the Virgin Mary visited her cousin Elizabeth and the unborn child jumped for joy in the presence of Jesus. “It is very strange that God would use an unborn child to proclaim the coming of Christ. We know the things that are happening to unborn children – how their own mothers end their lives! Abortion has become the greatest destroyer of peace, of love, of truth today. The unborn children are the poorest of the poor. They are so close to God! I always beg the doctors in the hospitals of India never to kill a child. If no one wants it, I will keep it.”
These words of Mother Teresa move me to action. Many women are deceived here. All too often I meet girls who are terrified because they think they have to have an abortion. The crime of abortion is terrible and we are always struggling to get the Home for Unborn Children going, despite the lack of financial and human means to help these young women have their children, and regain joy through love. None of them have ever regretted bringing their child into the world.
Another issue that I consider fundamental is to make a clear and firm commitment to the truth. For the truth in morals, for the truth in God’s revelation (without sweeteners), for the truth in the great debates that are opening up, to face them with courage. I refer, for example, to gender ideology, to the value of human life before its conception and to the end of its days, etc.
At the same time, and together with these great themes, it is fundamental to seek supernatural means, such as prayer, Holy Mass, adoration, personal encounter with the Living Christ in the Eucharist, devotion to the Virgin Mary … I believe that this is what we have to do, here in the Amazon and in the rest of the world, because the Church is universal.
Finally, I would like to give voice to the poor. Let us not forget the neediest. The people of the Amazon, precisely because they are the poorest, deserve the best. They deserve priests who are totally dedicated to their ministry, who become one with Christ, whose heart is undivided. That is what I believe is needed. It is not because there is a need for priests that I am going to look for second-rate priests. … Besides, a formation is needed. Here the formation of priests lasts a minimum of 10 years, much longer than in Spain. In my Prelature, an immense effort is being made for the seminary. I think it’s a good bet. That requires forming native priests, and that takes many years, much effort, much sacrifice, much money, and much prayer. And all this is what is being done in Moyobamba, here, in the Amazon, thanks to God and to the generous dedication of many people.
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lifesitenews--2020-02-15--India seeks to liberalize abortion law, targets babies with fetal abnormalities

February 14 , 2020 ( Population Research Institute ) — The Government of India is set to introduce a bill in the national Parliament that would legalize abortion up to birth for unborn children with “ substantial foetal abnormalities.
” The bill would also change the legal limit for abortion from 20 weeks to 24 weeks for “ survivors of rape , victims of incest and other vulnerable women , ” including minors and women with mental disabilities .
The bill would also remove a requirement in Indian law requiring there to be two consenting doctors to approve an abortion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make it so that only one doctor would be required to approve an abortion up to 20 weeks .
By 20 weeks gestation , a baby can already stretch and move around and make sucking motions .
Research shows substantial evidence that an unborn baby can feel pain by 20 weeks .
Currently , abortion in India is illegal after 20 weeks and legal after that point only in dire cases to save the life of the mother .
The abortion bill has gained approval at the highest levels of the Indian government @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Union Cabinet , a high-level committee of the prime minister ’ s cabinet composed of the top ranking ministers in the Indian government .
The Union Cabinet is chaired by India Prime Minister Narendra Modi .
The Indian government has made clear that the abortion bill is intended to not only expand access to abortion , but to expand the utilization of abortion for eugenic purposes .
The government ’ s objective in introducing the bill is “ for expanding access of women to safe and legal abortion services on therapeutic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ grounds , ” according to an official news update posted on the website of the office of the prime minister .
The abortion bill , titled the Medical Termination of Pregnancy ( Amendment ) Bill , 2020 , is set to be introduced in Parliament soon .
Christian bishops in India have blasted the government ’ s abortion bill , calling on Members of Parliament to oppose the measure .
“ If the government aims a progressive reform through this , they should clarify what development they aim to bring in by killing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ spokesperson for the Synodal Commission of the Syro-Malabar Church , an ancient Eastern Syriac Church in India , according to the New Indian Express .
The decision by the Cabinet to move on the bill is baffling as the government just last September , in a staunchly-worded statement , defended India ’ s 20-week abortion limit in a case being argued before the Indian Supreme Court over whether to allow an abortion for a woman pregnant at 26 weeks .
In an affidavit sent to the court , the government argued that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ outweigh the interest of the state in protecting the life of [ the ] foetus in the womb , especially from the point of viability i.e from the period of 20 weeks onwards ” and that “ personal freedom of choice of an individual can not curtail the freedom or choice of other individuals , [ e ] specially the most vulnerable and persons who are defenseless.
” Abortion has long been legal in India .
In 1971 , India became one of the first developing countries in the world to legalize abortion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Pregnancy Act , 1971 ( a.k.a .
the “ MTP Act ” ) — a full two years before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the U.S. in its infamous Roe v. Wade decision .
The Indian government in 1971 had legalized abortion up to 20 weeks under broad socioeconomic grounds , including physical and mental health of the mother , in cases of fetal disability , in cases of rape , and in cases of contraceptive failure .
With the introduction of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy ( Amendment ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Indian government is now claiming that it is necessary to legalize abortion up to 24 weeks in cases of rape , incest , minors , and women with disabilities in order to reduce maternal mortality due to “ unsafe ” abortions .
In an op-ed that appeared in the Times of India , Smriti Irani , Minister of Textiles and Minister of Women & Child Development , and a member of the Union Cabinet that is responsible for introducing the abortion bill , argued that legalizing abortion up to 24 weeks is necessary @ @ @ @ @ @ @ arising out of unsafe abortions.
” The Minister claimed that the 1971 MTP Act is outdated as medical technology has developed since the early 1970s , including with methods such as “ abortion pills and vacuum aspiration ” which she argues allow for “ safer abortions in advanced stages of pregnancy.
” However , Minister Irani ’ s claims are misleading as it is rare for abortionists to use abortion pills after 20 weeks in contexts where abortion is legal due to the “ risk ” that the child could in some instances @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the abortion pill will have no effect on abortions performed after 20 weeks as the abortion bill proposes to legalize .
Union Minister Irani , in her op-ed , also cited a study from the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics which claims that deaths from “ unsafe ” abortion constitutes 10–13 % of all maternal deaths in India .
However , the study from the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics was merely citing yet another study that was published in 2014 in PLoS One .
However , the 2014 PLoS One study @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the study died due both to induced abortions and natural miscarriages combined , a far cry from the false claim that 10–13 % of Indian maternal deaths are due to “ unsafe ” abortion alone .
There is no evidence that changing the legal limit for abortion in India from 20 weeks to 24 weeks will make abortion any “ safer.
” The overwhelming majority of abortions take place within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy .
India ’ s high induced abortion mortality rate has little to nothing to do with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
It has much more to do with the fact that most abortions in India are either self-inflicted through the use of abortion pills , carried out in a private doctor ’ s office , or are carried out by unqualified providers .
A widely-cited study published in The Lancet in 2018 found that 91 % of abortions using the pill were either from private doctor ’ s offices or self-inflicted , and that 2.4 surgical abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age were neither performed at public nor private clinics with basic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being “ unsafe , ” abortion is always unsafe for the unborn child who is always killed as a result of the procedure .
According to the 2018 Lancet study , there were an estimated 15.6 million abortions committed in India in 2015 .
If abortion in India is legalized up to 24 weeks in certain cases and up to birth in cases of fetal disability , the number of abortions will likely climb higher still .
Over the past few years , India ’ s courts have taken up a slew of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ abortion should be permitted after the 20-week limit in cases of rape , and where the unborn child has a disability or deformity .
In 2016 , the Supreme Court of India breached the MTP Act ’ s 20-week abortion limit for a specific case where it approved of an abortion for a woman who was allegedly raped by her ex-boyfriend and pregnant with a 24-week old child with severe congenital defects .
In 2017 , the Supreme Court suspended the law ’ s 20-week limit multiple times , allowing a woman to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in another case , permitting an abortion for a Mumbai woman pregnant with a 24-week old child with anencephaly .
Anencephaly , a rare birth defect where the child is born missing parts of the brain and skull , is usually fatal for the infant soon after birth , though there are several known cases where a child born with anencephaly goes on to live for years after birth .
However , the Supreme Court has also upheld the 20-week limit in cases with unborn children diagnosed with non-fatal congenital abnormalities .
In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ woman ’ s petition to abort her 26-week old child with Down Syndrome .
According to the Indian Express , the Supreme Court denied the woman ’ s request , because , in the words of the court , “ We have a life in our hands.
” Courts in India have also denied requests for abortion of unborn children diagnosed with fatal congenital abnormalities if the pregnancy is too far along .
In 2018 , a Mumbai High Court denied a woman ’ s request for abortion at 31 weeks even though @ @ @ @ @ @ @ severe life-threatening neurological abnormality .
On the other end of the spectrum , the Delhi High Court in December 2018 gave authorization for an abortion for a 16-year-old victim of rape pregnant at 22 weeks , even despite warnings from the medical board at the hospital where the abortion was requested that an abortion at that late stage of development would be a risk to the mother ’ s health .
In 2019 , the same Delhi court also permitted a woman to abort her child at 25 weeks , after being diagnosed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ High Court in West Bengal last year gave the authorization for a woman to abort her child at 29 weeks gestation after being diagnosed with Down Syndrome .
Published with permission from the Population Research Institute .

Currently, abortion in India is illegal after 20 weeks. The new bill would change the limit to 24.
February 14, 2020 (Population Research Institute) — The Government of India is set to introduce a bill in the national Parliament that would legalize abortion up to birth for unborn children with “substantial foetal abnormalities.” The bill would also change the legal limit for abortion from 20 weeks to 24 weeks for “survivors of rape, victims of incest and other vulnerable women,” including minors and women with mental disabilities.
The bill would also remove a requirement in Indian law requiring there to be two consenting doctors to approve an abortion after 12 weeks. The bill would make it so that only one doctor would be required to approve an abortion up to 20 weeks.
By 20 weeks gestation, a baby can already stretch and move around and make sucking motions. Research shows substantial evidence that an unborn baby can feel pain by 20 weeks.
Currently, abortion in India is illegal after 20 weeks and legal after that point only in dire cases to save the life of the mother.
The abortion bill has gained approval at the highest levels of the Indian government. The bill is being introduced by the Union Cabinet, a high-level committee of the prime minister’s cabinet composed of the top ranking ministers in the Indian government. The Union Cabinet is chaired by India Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Indian government has made clear that the abortion bill is intended to not only expand access to abortion, but to expand the utilization of abortion for eugenic purposes. The government’s objective in introducing the bill is “for expanding access of women to safe and legal abortion services on therapeutic, eugenic, humanitarianor [sic] social grounds,” according to an official news update posted on the website of the office of the prime minister.
The abortion bill, titled the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020, is set to be introduced in Parliament soon.
Christian bishops in India have blasted the government’s abortion bill, calling on Members of Parliament to oppose the measure.
“If the government aims a progressive reform through this, they should clarify what development they aim to bring in by killing innocent babies,” said an official spokesperson for the Synodal Commission of the Syro-Malabar Church, an ancient Eastern Syriac Church in India, according to the New Indian Express.
The decision by the Cabinet to move on the bill is baffling as the government just last September, in a staunchly-worded statement, defended India’s 20-week abortion limit in a case being argued before the Indian Supreme Court over whether to allow an abortion for a woman pregnant at 26 weeks.
In an affidavit sent to the court, the government argued that the “right to reproductive autonomy does not outweigh the interest of the state in protecting the life of [the] foetus in the womb, especially from the point of viability i.e from the period of 20 weeks onwards” and that “personal freedom of choice of an individual cannot curtail the freedom or choice of other individuals, [e]specially the most vulnerable and persons who are defenseless.”
Abortion has long been legal in India. In 1971, India became one of the first developing countries in the world to legalize abortion under a law titled the Medical Termination of Pregnancy Act, 1971 (a.k.a. the “MTP Act”) — a full two years before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized abortion in the U.S. in its infamous Roe v. Wade decision. The Indian government in 1971 had legalized abortion up to 20 weeks under broad socioeconomic grounds, including physical and mental health of the mother, in cases of fetal disability, in cases of rape, and in cases of contraceptive failure.
With the introduction of the Medical Termination of Pregnancy (Amendment) Bill, 2020, however, the Indian government is now claiming that it is necessary to legalize abortion up to 24 weeks in cases of rape, incest, minors, and women with disabilities in order to reduce maternal mortality due to “unsafe” abortions.
In an op-ed that appeared in the Times of India, Smriti Irani, Minister of Textiles and Minister of Women & Child Development, and a member of the Union Cabinet that is responsible for introducing the abortion bill, argued that legalizing abortion up to 24 weeks is necessary to “reduce maternal mortality and morbidity arising out of unsafe abortions.”
The Minister claimed that the 1971 MTP Act is outdated as medical technology has developed since the early 1970s, including with methods such as “abortion pills and vacuum aspiration” which she argues allow for “safer abortions in advanced stages of pregnancy.”
However, Minister Irani’s claims are misleading as it is rare for abortionists to use abortion pills after 20 weeks in contexts where abortion is legal due to the “risk” that the child could in some instances be born alive. The technological development of the abortion pill will have no effect on abortions performed after 20 weeks as the abortion bill proposes to legalize.
Union Minister Irani, in her op-ed, also cited a study from the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics which claims that deaths from “unsafe” abortion constitutes 10–13% of all maternal deaths in India. However, the study from the Indian Journal of Medical Ethics was merely citing yet another study that was published in 2014 in PLoS One. However, the 2014 PLoS One study found that only 9% of women in the study died due both to induced abortions and natural miscarriages combined, a far cry from the false claim that 10–13% of Indian maternal deaths are due to “unsafe” abortion alone.
There is no evidence that changing the legal limit for abortion in India from 20 weeks to 24 weeks will make abortion any “safer.” The overwhelming majority of abortions take place within the first 12 weeks of pregnancy. India’s high induced abortion mortality rate has little to nothing to do with abortion not being legal after 20 weeks. It has much more to do with the fact that most abortions in India are either self-inflicted through the use of abortion pills, carried out in a private doctor’s office, or are carried out by unqualified providers. A widely-cited study published in The Lancet in 2018 found that 91% of abortions using the pill were either from private doctor’s offices or self-inflicted, and that 2.4 surgical abortions per 1,000 women of reproductive age were neither performed at public nor private clinics with basic operating theater capacity.
As for abortions being “unsafe,” abortion is always unsafe for the unborn child who is always killed as a result of the procedure.
According to the 2018 Lancet study, there were an estimated 15.6 million abortions committed in India in 2015. If abortion in India is legalized up to 24 weeks in certain cases and up to birth in cases of fetal disability, the number of abortions will likely climb higher still.
Over the past few years, India’s courts have taken up a slew of abortion cases addressing the question of whether abortion should be permitted after the 20-week limit in cases of rape, and where the unborn child has a disability or deformity.
In 2016, the Supreme Court of India breached the MTP Act’s 20-week abortion limit for a specific case where it approved of an abortion for a woman who was allegedly raped by her ex-boyfriend and pregnant with a 24-week old child with severe congenital defects.
In 2017, the Supreme Court suspended the law’s 20-week limit multiple times, allowing a woman to abort at 23 weeks gestation and, in another case, permitting an abortion for a Mumbai woman pregnant with a 24-week old child with anencephaly. Anencephaly, a rare birth defect where the child is born missing parts of the brain and skull, is usually fatal for the infant soon after birth, though there are several known cases where a child born with anencephaly goes on to live for years after birth.
However, the Supreme Court has also upheld the 20-week limit in cases with unborn children diagnosed with non-fatal congenital abnormalities. In 2017, the Supreme Court denied a woman’s petition to abort her 26-week old child with Down Syndrome. According to the Indian Express, the Supreme Court denied the woman’s request, because, in the words of the court, “We have a life in our hands.”
Courts in India have also denied requests for abortion of unborn children diagnosed with fatal congenital abnormalities if the pregnancy is too far along. In 2018, a Mumbai High Court denied a woman’s request for abortion at 31 weeks even though the child had been diagnosed with a severe life-threatening neurological abnormality.
On the other end of the spectrum, the Delhi High Court in December 2018 gave authorization for an abortion for a 16-year-old victim of rape pregnant at 22 weeks, even despite warnings from the medical board at the hospital where the abortion was requested that an abortion at that late stage of development would be a risk to the mother’s health. In 2019, the same Delhi court also permitted a woman to abort her child at 25 weeks, after being diagnosed with a congenital abnormality. And the High Court in West Bengal last year gave the authorization for a woman to abort her child at 29 weeks gestation after being diagnosed with Down Syndrome.
Published with permission from the Population Research Institute.
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lifesitenews--2020-02-15--Belgium Catholic hospitals under fire for alleged end run around euthanasia law

February 14 , 2020 ( LifeSiteNews ) — Several Catholic hospitals in Belgium are under fire from the media and liberal politicians for their efforts to avoid giving euthanasia by “ obliging ” patients first to undergo palliative care — also known as hospice care — in end-of-life situations .
Belgian health minister Maggie De Block has stated that the Catholic hospitals are violating patients ’ rights .
According to the official report that preceded the adoption of the Belgian euthanasia law , the fact that euthanasia was simply being decriminalized through a series of conditions and exceptions meant that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ refusing to implement euthanasia for reasons of conscience .
However , a case of conscientious objection on the part of a Catholic hospital in Brabant , Flanders in 2011 was sanctioned by the courts five years later and ordered to pay 6,000 to the family of Mariette Buntjens , 75 , who had to be taken home by her family in order to be legally killed .
It was argued that as Catholic health institutions are part of the public health system , they are compelled to provide all “ health services ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ time , Fernand Keuleneer , a lawyer and former deputy member of the federal euthanasia commission , published an opinion piece , contending that hospitals are in no way obliged to include euthanasia in their “ care package.
” He added that hospitals should clearly state their policy on the issue .
Regarding the present controversy , Keuleneer tweeted on Thursday : “ Catholic hospitals are allowed to refuse euthanasia , ” with a link to his 2016 article .
Theo Boer , a former proponent of euthanasia in the Netherlands , answered @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Why not simply all healthcare institutions that are bothered by this ?
” “ I agree , ” replied Keuleneer .
The most recent controversy went public in Belgium on Thursday , when De Morgen published a story of a terminally ill man who died before his euthanasia request could be implemented .
He was suffering greatly , according to his wife Martha , but the Catholic hospital where he was being cared for informed him that he should follow a palliative care process before his request could be granted .
He went @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before he died a natural death , she told De Morgen .
Apparently , no one is surprised that these Catholic hospitals should not simply refuse the killing of terminally ill patients .
It appears that they only try to delay the procedure — making it unnecessary in some cases because death comes of its own — but that is already too much , according to critics .
Most worrying is the fact that liberal politicians and euthanasia campaigners have been joined by Minister De Block , who told Parliament on Thursday that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a brake on effective euthanasia is against the law .
De Block said hospitals should inform patients asking for euthanasia that they can receive palliative care .
“ But their obligation to provide this information to the patient may not be misused in order to delay a euthanasia procedure , ” she added .
“ It is unacceptable that granting euthanasia in hospital should be linked to the obligation first to receive full palliative care.
” The minister said there is no excuse for what she had read in De Morgen .
“ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ashamed for such inhuman treatment .
The carer may not exert pressure on the patient in order to obtain a choice in that or in no direction .
Imposing a palliative filter certainly puts patients under pressure finally to opt for palliative care , ” said De Block .
She also encouraged people who are of the opinion that their patients ’ rights are being violated regarding their euthanasia request to immediately file a complaint with the ombudsman for patients ’ rights , she told De Morgen .
This clearly indicates that the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ respect any kind of opposition to euthanasia , even in its most hesitant form , even though euthanasia is not a patient ’ s right in itself in Belgium .
It is performed only when doctors and health-carers , acting according to the law , consider that all legal conditions have been met .
Catholic hospitals have responded by saying there ’ s nothing wrong with their attitude .
Some — such as Gasthuiszusters Antwerpen , AZ Nikolaas in Sint-Niklaas and AZ Sint-Lucas in Ghent — make clear on their websites that they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ palliative filter ” to filter out the large number of euthanasia requests that they say are not effective requests to die , but rather calls to make end-of-life situations bearable .
In 2002 , the bishops ’ conference of Belgium unsuccessfully attempted to obtain the incorporation of the “ palliative filter ” in the euthanasia law that was being discussed at the time .
After the law was adopted that same year , it was decided that Catholic hospitals would use it all the same , because all hospitals are permitted to have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the limits of that right are becoming very clear .
Legal experts support De Block ’ s view that obliging a patient who wants euthanasia to receive palliative care is against the law .
Professor Luc Deliens , a university specialist in end-of-life care , said palliative care is “ good medical practice , ” but he said it goes against patients ’ rights to force them to receive such care “ because a patient has the right to reject a particular treatment.
” Gwendolyn Rutten , president of the Flemish liberal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ her opinion that “ the compulsory palliative filter is inhuman and turns the law to a hollow shell.
” “ Asking for euthanasia is a right .
... A civil law stands above the will of the bishops , ” she added .
According to Jean-Jacques De Gucht , member of Parliament for Open VLD , “ Catholic health care institutions are not above the law .
We ’ ve known for a long time that Catholic healthcare institutions go about with the euthanasia law ‘ creatively.
’ ... People who ask for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be able to get it .
It ’ s that simple .
Catholic health care institutions may not deprive people of that right , ” he said .
At the institutional level , Paul Callewaert , secretary-general of the Socialistische Mutualiteiten — a public insurer that pays for medical costs as covered by national social security as well as additional coverage — accused “ some hospitals ” of “ thwarting ” the end-of-life laws , which , he said , are “ clear.
” According to Callewaert , they should not be allowed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aims at alleviating suffering when there is no therapeutic option available to heal or to stabilize a patient whose death appears unavoidable .
Treatment is no longer given except to calm pain and to make the patient comfortable , sometimes with the use of sedatives .
In principle , palliative care does not and should not use medication with the intention of provoking the death of the patient , even if , in some cases , death is hastened as an involuntary consequence of pain-alleviating procedures .
The Flanders Federation of palliative care @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with this principle .
Reacting to the controversy , it deplored that palliative care should be framed as delaying a euthanasia request .
“ You ’ ll have a hard time looking for palliative care teams who use palliative care in order to short-circuit a euthanasia request , ” said its president , Gert Huysmans .
“ Today ’ s reality is quite the opposite : it ’ s the palliative care teams who make the implementation of euthanasia possible and who support it .
They make sure that doctors and caregivers take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” he explained .

February 14, 2020 (LifeSiteNews) — Several Catholic hospitals in Belgium are under fire from the media and liberal politicians for their efforts to avoid giving euthanasia by “obliging” patients first to undergo palliative care — also known as hospice care — in end-of-life situations. Belgian health minister Maggie De Block has stated that the Catholic hospitals are violating patients’ rights.
According to the official report that preceded the adoption of the Belgian euthanasia law, the fact that euthanasia was simply being decriminalized through a series of conditions and exceptions meant that hospitals would be within their rights in refusing to implement euthanasia for reasons of conscience.
However, a case of conscientious objection on the part of a Catholic hospital in Brabant, Flanders in 2011 was sanctioned by the courts five years later and ordered to pay 6,000 to the family of Mariette Buntjens, 75, who had to be taken home by her family in order to be legally killed. It was argued that as Catholic health institutions are part of the public health system, they are compelled to provide all “health services” offered by the law.
At the time, Fernand Keuleneer, a lawyer and former deputy member of the federal euthanasia commission, published an opinion piece, contending that hospitals are in no way obliged to include euthanasia in their “care package.” He added that hospitals should clearly state their policy on the issue.
Regarding the present controversy, Keuleneer tweeted on Thursday: “Catholic hospitals are allowed to refuse euthanasia,” with a link to his 2016 article.
Theo Boer, a former proponent of euthanasia in the Netherlands, answered: “Why specifically Catholic hospitals? Why not simply all healthcare institutions that are bothered by this?” “I agree,” replied Keuleneer.
The most recent controversy went public in Belgium on Thursday, when De Morgen published a story of a terminally ill man who died before his euthanasia request could be implemented. He was suffering greatly, according to his wife Martha, but the Catholic hospital where he was being cared for informed him that he should follow a palliative care process before his request could be granted. He went through eleven days of “agony” before he died a natural death, she told De Morgen.
Apparently, no one is surprised that these Catholic hospitals should not simply refuse the killing of terminally ill patients. It appears that they only try to delay the procedure — making it unnecessary in some cases because death comes of its own — but that is already too much, according to critics.
Most worrying is the fact that liberal politicians and euthanasia campaigners have been joined by Minister De Block, who told Parliament on Thursday that the Catholic hospitals’ effort to put a brake on effective euthanasia is against the law.
De Block said hospitals should inform patients asking for euthanasia that they can receive palliative care.
“But their obligation to provide this information to the patient may not be misused in order to delay a euthanasia procedure,” she added. “It is unacceptable that granting euthanasia in hospital should be linked to the obligation first to receive full palliative care.”
The minister said there is no excuse for what she had read in De Morgen. “As a doctor, I am vicariously ashamed for such inhuman treatment. The carer may not exert pressure on the patient in order to obtain a choice in that or in no direction. Imposing a palliative filter certainly puts patients under pressure finally to opt for palliative care,” said De Block.
She also encouraged people who are of the opinion that their patients’ rights are being violated regarding their euthanasia request to immediately file a complaint with the ombudsman for patients’ rights, she told De Morgen.
This clearly indicates that the public authorities have already decided not to respect any kind of opposition to euthanasia, even in its most hesitant form, even though euthanasia is not a patient’s right in itself in Belgium. It is performed only when doctors and health-carers, acting according to the law, consider that all legal conditions have been met.
Catholic hospitals have responded by saying there’s nothing wrong with their attitude. Some — such as Gasthuiszusters Antwerpen, AZ Nikolaas in Sint-Niklaas and AZ Sint-Lucas in Ghent — make clear on their websites that they consistently make use of the so-called “palliative filter” to filter out the large number of euthanasia requests that they say are not effective requests to die, but rather calls to make end-of-life situations bearable.
In 2002, the bishops’ conference of Belgium unsuccessfully attempted to obtain the incorporation of the “palliative filter” in the euthanasia law that was being discussed at the time. After the law was adopted that same year, it was decided that Catholic hospitals would use it all the same, because all hospitals are permitted to have their own medical ethics policies. Today, the limits of that right are becoming very clear.
Legal experts support De Block’s view that obliging a patient who wants euthanasia to receive palliative care is against the law. Professor Luc Deliens, a university specialist in end-of-life care, said palliative care is “good medical practice,” but he said it goes against patients’ rights to force them to receive such care “because a patient has the right to reject a particular treatment.”
Gwendolyn Rutten, president of the Flemish liberal party “Open VLD,” tweeted her opinion that “the compulsory palliative filter is inhuman and turns the law to a hollow shell.” “Asking for euthanasia is a right. … A civil law stands above the will of the bishops,” she added.
According to Jean-Jacques De Gucht, member of Parliament for Open VLD, “Catholic health care institutions are not above the law. We’ve known for a long time that Catholic healthcare institutions go about with the euthanasia law ‘creatively.’ … People who ask for euthanasia and who meet the conditions should be able to get it. It’s that simple. Catholic health care institutions may not deprive people of that right,” he said.
At the institutional level, Paul Callewaert, secretary-general of the Socialistische Mutualiteiten — a public insurer that pays for medical costs as covered by national social security as well as additional coverage — accused “ some hospitals” of “thwarting” the end-of-life laws, which, he said, are “clear.” According to Callewaert, they should not be allowed to delay euthanasia processes.
Palliative care aims at alleviating suffering when there is no therapeutic option available to heal or to stabilize a patient whose death appears unavoidable. Treatment is no longer given except to calm pain and to make the patient comfortable, sometimes with the use of sedatives.
In principle, palliative care does not and should not use medication with the intention of provoking the death of the patient, even if, in some cases, death is hastened as an involuntary consequence of pain-alleviating procedures.
The Flanders Federation of palliative care does not appear to be in line with this principle. Reacting to the controversy, it deplored that palliative care should be framed as delaying a euthanasia request.
“You’ll have a hard time looking for palliative care teams who use palliative care in order to short-circuit a euthanasia request,” said its president, Gert Huysmans. “Today’s reality is quite the opposite: it’s the palliative care teams who make the implementation of euthanasia possible and who support it. They make sure that doctors and caregivers take the demand seriously and get going,” he explained.
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