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RESPECT LIFE MONTH
There are many life issues facing each of our nation and us today. Abortion is an important issue, but it is not the only life issue facing our nation, and facing each one personally. As His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, reminds us. Respecting Life means defending life against all that harms any life: abortion, war, famine, capital punishment, murder, suicide, euthanasia, enslavement, domestic violence, etc. His Holiness during this Jubilee Year is emphasizing the mass usage of capital punishment, and he invites us to join him in working to remove capital punishment from our nation and all nations. Life is sacred from the moment of conception to the last breath. As His Holiness notes, and as the Revised Catholic Catechism states, capital punishment should be used only in the most notorious of situations. In fact, His Holiness, Pope John Paul II, states that he is not aware of even one current situation anywhere in the world that calls-out for capital punishment.
Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding abortion: Paragraph # 2270 "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person --- among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. 'Before you were formed in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.' [Jeremiah 1:5, cf. Job 10:8-12, Psalm 22:10-11].
Paragraph # 2271 "Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. 'You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.' [Didache 2:2, written circa 47-49 AD]."
Paragraph # 2272 "Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. [Canon # 1398]."
Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the death penalty: Paragraph # 2267 "Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Catholic Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty. If this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If, however, non lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such mean, as these are more in keeping the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm --- without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself --- the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent."
His Holiness also asks us to work to prevent euthanasia. No matter what our pain, no one may authorize his/her life be ended unnaturally. No one has to undergo extra- ordinary measures to stay alive. But no one can end his/her life either. Nor should we warehouse dying people. As His Holiness reminds us, each should care for those they love and who have loved them up to the day of death. This is very draining, but then what cross is not? So many people have become involved in our "Embracing the Dying" Ministry, helping families and the person dying to share their last thoughts, to prepare for the burial liturgy. Being able to share final thoughts and feelings, helps all deal with death.
Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding euthanasia: paragraph # 2277 "Whatever its motives and means, direct euthanasia consists in putting an end to the lives of handicapped, sick or dying persons. It is morally unacceptable. Thus an act or omission which, of itself or by intention, causes death in order to eliminate suffering constitutes a murder gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator. The error of judgment into which one can fall in good faith does not change the nature of this murderous act, which must always be forbidden and excluded."
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