Resources

Rachel’s Vineyard Healing the pain of abortion one

weekend at a time www.rachelsvineyard.org

(877) HOPE-4-ME In Ann Arbor: (734) 369-3470

Lumina Hope and Healing Retreats A ray of light in abortion’s darkness

lumina@postabortionhelp.org (877) 586-4621

Natural Family Planning Cooperating with God's plan for families

www.nfpandmore.org http://www.dioceseoflansing.org/

natural_family_planning (517) 342-2587

Pregnancy Help Clinic Where hope meets help

www.pregnancyhelpclinic.com info@pregnancyhelpclinic.com

(810) 494-5433

Right to Life Livingston County, Inc. Protecting the precious gift of human life

from conception to natural death www.righttolifelivingston.org

rtllc@sbcglobal.net (810) 227-5788

40 Days for Life Brighton A peaceful prayerful campaign to protect

mothers and babies http://40daysforlife.com/Brighton

(248) 770-9529

Hospice: St. Joseph Mercy Home Care and Hospice

http://www.trinityhomehealth.org/st-joseph-home-care-and-hospice

(888) 418-5572

Adoption Services & Foster Care Parenting: Livingston County Catholic Charities

(517) 545-5944 2020 E Grand River #104, Howell, MI 48843

Respect Life Ministry—Diocese of Lansing: http://www.dioceseoflansing.org/life_justice_ministry/respect_life

(517) 342-2469

Respect Life Ministry - St. Patrick Catholic Church 711 Rickett Road, Brighton, MI 48116 (810) 229-9863 respectlifestpat@gmail.com Like us on Facebook! Receive our monthly E-News by sending us your email address. Donations to ‘St Patrick Church - Respect Life’ will help us with this printout.

Respect Life NewsRespect Life NewsRespect Life News Message from Our Vicariate Clergy

Spring 2015 Volume 1, Issue 3

The topic of LIFE has many facets. This edition of Respect Life News focuses on “End of Life” issues, and it has many dimensions that should be considered.

In the Lenten season that we have just passed through, the whole world was, I thought, forced to look at

this question through a new lens. We have been witnessing something that boggles the mind and staggers the imagination. We’ve seen it all before, from the beginning actually, but what looms before us now seems somehow differ-ent. We are seeing the culture of death manifest-ed in a way that has not been seen before. Yes, the images beamed into our living rooms and onto our cell phones are, in fact, now literally knocking at our doors. We don’t need too much imagination to consider the implications.

In this Easter season then we are provided with a unique opportunity to reflect on the meaning of life and its value from the cradle to natural death. And it’s not just for us who call ourselves Chris-tians. Yes, even for those who don’t believe, or for those who do not place much value on life, these events of our troubled times will potentially force all peoples to reconsider what God meant when he spoke to us all through Moses in the Book of Deuteronomy (30-19) ”This day I call the heavens and the earth as wit-nesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live.”

We have just celebrated the Resurrection of Easter Sunday and are now about to commemorate God’s greatest attribute on Divine Mercy Sunday. Let us then plead for God’s mercy for ourselves and our troubled world asking for the grace to fully embrace the great gift of life. Fr. John Rocus, Holy Spirit Church

Respect Life Ministry Inspiring reverence for human

life at all stages

Those who observe cultural trends regarding

end-of-life issues know how far some

European nations have gone in recognizing a

“right to die.” The Netherlands was practicing

euthanasia (where someone else – ostensibly a

doctor – takes the action that kills the patient)

long before it was formally legalized in 2002,

and it had become so mainstreamed that in

2004, the University Medical Center

Groningen issued its Groningen Protocol,

setting forth guidelines for child euthanasia. It

is now estimated that one in thirty deaths in

Holland is from euthanasia. Similarly,

Belgium’s 2002 euthanasia law was expanded

in 2014 to remove the age limits so that

children could be euthanized along with

adults. There are certain alleged “safeguards”

in the law, to avoid its being abused, but it is

common knowledge that the safeguards are

not observed. A 2010 report published by the

Canadian Medical Association Journal

revealed that in the Belgian region of

Flanders, 32 percent of all euthanasia deaths

were carried out without the patient’s explicit

request.

It is worth noting that Dr. Els Borst,

Holland’s former Health Minister, who

shepherded the 2002 euthanasia law through

the Dutch Parliament, said in 2009 that it “was

a mistake” to proceed as they did, noting that

medical care for the terminally ill had declined

since the law took effect. Also, Professor Theo

Boer, a Dutch academic and medical ethicist

who supported Holland’s euthanasia law, is

now reaching out to the members of Britain’s

House of Lords, warning them against

embracing assisted-suicide, saying “Don’t

repeat our mistake.” Professor Boer changed

his mind after years of seeing the boundaries

Could It Happen Here?

Upcoming Events Apr 11th (and every 2nd Saturday of the

mohth) — Rosary in front of PP Brighton, 10:00-10:30 a.m.

Apr 16th — Pregnancy Helpline 40th Anniver-sary Celebration of Life, 6:30-9:30 p.m. at Brighton Church of the Nazarene. Call

810.494.5433 for more information. Apr 20th (and every 3rd Monday of the

month) — Rosary for Life, 7:00-7:30 p.m. at St.Patrick Chapel. Right to Life Spring (May) Flower Flats order

form at parish office. rtllc@sbcglobal.net. Right to Life May Mother’s Day Carnations

and June Father’s Day Coins available after Masses.

Continued on page 2

Respect Life News 2

More End-Of-Life Terminology * Palliative Care—What a patient receives when his/her medical condition cannot be

cured, basically relief from painful symptoms to improve the quality of life for both the

patient and the family.

** Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care— Critically important document that

allows you to designate a trusted person to make medical decisions for you in the event

you are unable to communicate your wishes regarding your own health. Each state has its

own requirements. Differs from the, possibly dangerous, ‘living will.’

For more information about end of life issues, visit www.patientsrightscouncil.org

The Diocese of Lansing, led by

Adam Janke from St Mary

Church, Williamston, orga-

nized again this year’s youth

trip to the March for Life in

Washington, D.C. Approxi-

mately 150 people, between

teens, priests, and chaper-

ones, from all over the Dio-

cese had a life-changing expe-

rience during the three-day

trip. Our Vicariate was well

represented with 10 teens

(and Fr Rocus) from Holy Spir-

it, Brighton, and 20 from St

Joseph, Howell. The Church of

the Resurrection in Bur-

tonsville, MD was a gracious

host providing food and lodg-

ing for all. Apart from attend-

ing the Youth Rally at the Veri-

zon Center organized by the

Archdiocese of Washington

D.C., walking in the March,

and taking in a few museums,

they also had a wonderful

evening with opportunities for

reconciliation, adoration,

praise and prayer, and a talk

on Theology of the Body given

by Fr John Linden, the Dio-

cese’s director of vocations.

“The trip required a lot of

patience and in a way, suffer-

ing (long ride, lack of sleep,

etc), but the kids knew that

this was more a pilgrimage,

and they received many bless-

ings from it” said Nancy Duey,

the Youth Director at St Joe’s.

“This is a topic that must be

presented to teens, and the

March is the best way to do

it”, she added. Let’s hope that

in 2016 all of our eight parish-

es will be represented in this,

most life changing event!

“Your sufferings, accepted and borne with unshakea-

ble faith, when joined to those of Christ take on ex-

traordinary value for the life of the Church and the

good of humanity.”

—Pope St. John Paul II to suffering people around

the world on the first annual World Day of the Sick,

Feb 11, 1993.

Pope St. John Paul II

knew about human

suffering. Apart from

many physical maladies

during his life, as an

older man he suffered

from debilitating Park-

inson’s disease that

rendered him immo-

bile, distorted his phys-

ical appearance, and

finally took his ability to speak. Yet, as was evident to

all who saw him, he was a man overflowing with joy.

He experienced the mystery of suffering and the afflic-

tion endured by every single human person, but he

also discovered the meaning of suffering and found an

"answer" to the problem of pain.

Our Vicariate Youth at D.C. March for Life

Could It Happen Here? (cont.)

of the law expanded to include more types

of patients, all while the number of cases

dramatically increased each year. He now

says that the very existence of such a law

turns assisted suicide from a last resort into a

normal procedure (http://tinyurl.com/

pum2s9u).

And just last month, the Supreme Court of

Canada legalized both assisted suicide AND

euthanasia, though of course with some

“safeguards.”

What lessons are there for us here in

America? We may not be flirting with

outright euthanasia, but 15 states so far this

year are advancing so-called “Death With

Dignity” laws to legalize doctor-prescribed

suicide, where a doctor approves a patient’s

request for a deadly overdose of medication

to kill themselves. Using heart-rending

sympathetic stories like that of Brittany

Maynard (the young woman whose suicide

was on the front page of most news outlets

last Fall), the proponents of assisted suicide

are more aggressive now than they have

ever been, pushing for “Aid in Dying” laws

that will remove protections from the

medically vulnerable. If they succeed, we

could all too easily change from a society

that offers truly compassionate care for the

terminally ill to one that expects them to just

“get out of the way.” Doctor-prescribed

suicide is being sold to voters as a

compassionate option for some desperate

people who need and want it. But it could

rapidly become an expectation.

People in the pro-life movement need to start devoting some attention to this issue now, while we still have a chance to make a difference. If a few more states accept assisted suicide, the issue will go back to the U.S. Supreme Court for a determination of whether the right to have help killing yourself is a Constitutional right for all Americans. Given the cultural trends, I think we know how that could turn out.

By Jason Negri Jason is a Livingston County attorney specializing in estate planning and end of life medical ethics, and the author of ‘20 Answers to End of Life Issues.’ For more information, visit www.jasonnegri.org.

Some of our most challenging moral decisions come in the final months and even hours of life. How we deal with persons in the last stages of life, when they may be completely dependent on others, says a great deal about the kind of society we live in and the kind of per-sons we are. As a Church we must be particularly committed to defending the rights of our most vulnerable brothers and sisters, just as we are for the unborn and for those challenged by disabilities. It is always morally wrong to assist a person in taking his own life; and to bring about the death of a person in order to ease his or her suffering is “always a serious violation of the law of God because it is the deliberate and morally unacceptable killing of a human per-son. True ‘compassion’ leads to sharing another’s pain; it does not kill the person whose suffer-ing we cannot bear.” (The Gospel of Life, no. 65). Terminally ill persons in pain should be offered pain relief and compassionate care to keep them comfortable (palliative care *). Today modern medicine is remarkably effective in minimizing pain; there is little to the contention that people need die agonizing deaths, and nothing to the claim that it is more “dignified” to take one’s life. Our dignity is in our humanity and how it reflects the goodness of God. When we love and affirm each other even in the most extreme circumstances, we witness to the dignity of persons. Pain and suffering do not undermine our dignity. Abandoning the suffering brother or sister to death does.

Taken from the USCCB article “Life Matters: To the End of Our Days” available at http://tinyurl.com/totheendofourdays.

Church on Physician Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia

Al Kresta at St Patrick last January—providing his take on how essential Christianity has been in reinforcing human life’s inherent dignity.

“We Are the Pro-Life Generation!” - Our youth at the March for Life