Dear Parishioners:
Rhode Island Statehouse
The R.I General Assembly is poised to pass legislation that will legalize Physician Assisted Suicide in our state. The Church specifically opposes Physician-Assisted Suicide because it seeks to legalize the intentional taking of human life; this deliberate activity violates the most basic tenet of our belief in the sacredness of life and simultaneously poses many dangers to vulnerable populations.
The Church teaches that physician-assisted suicide gravely violates the sacred value of all human life, particularly those vulnerable due to illness, age, race, or disability, and undermines the medical profession's healing mission. The US Bishops teach: "A choice to take one's life is a supreme contradiction of freedom, a choice to eliminate all choices. And a society that devalues some people's lives, by hastening and facilitating their deaths, will ultimately lose respect for their other rights and freedoms."
Respect for life does not demand that we attempt to prolong life by using medical treatments that are ineffective or unduly burdensome. "Nor,” teach the U.S. Bishops, “does it mean we should deprive suffering patients of needed pain medications out of a misplaced or exaggerated fear that they might have the side effect of shortening life."
Instead, it demands that we respect life as a gift by not actively seeking an artificial means to end it. As Catholics, we believe that dying is not an evil to avoid at all costs. It is a step in a journey that continues in the next life with our loving God.
But even those without faith can recognize the intrinsic value of human life and respect for human dignity. They can see that suffering people need solidarity and support more than a loaded syringe and an easy exit. They need their dignity affirmed by being loved and encouraged to hope, not attacked by allowing their despair to reach its limit in self-killing or medically assisted killing. They need relief from pain and discomfort, not relief from life itself.
A truly caring community devotes more attention and support to members facing the most vulnerable times in their lives; when the sick, elderly, and vulnerable are tempted to see their lives as less valuable, they most need the love and assistance of others to assure them of their worth.
The late Pope Francis embracing a hospital patient.
As has happened in other states and countries where killing the sick and suffering is legal, the alleged safeguards of this legislation will no longer exist in a few years. Some patients in states where assisted suicide is now legalized have been told that their health insurance will pay for assisted suicide but will not pay for treatment that may sustain their lives.
Physician-assisted suicide endangers the weak and marginalized in society, especially the poor, minorities, the elderly, the mentally ill, the disabled, and the terminally ill. Assisted suicide creates two classes of people: those whose suicides we spend hundreds of millions of dollars each year to prevent, and those whose suicides we assist with and treat as a positive good. We remove weapons and drugs that can cause harm to one group while handing deadly drugs to the other, setting up yet another kind of life-threatening discrimination.
As Catholic citizens, we need to build the common good of our entire society and advance the dignity of every human life, especially the terminally ill, not attack it with legalized assisted suicide. I encourage you to contact your legislator as soon as possible and urge them to oppose Physician Assisted Suicide. Information on how to contact them is in the bulletin. Simply scan the QR Code to locate and contact your state representative or senator.
Pentecost by Moretto da Brescia, 1543–1544
While this news from our General Assembly is alarming and upsetting, there is much good news here at OLM. Last week, 48 of our parish children received First Holy Communion and, on Mother’s Day, crowned the Blessed Virgin Mary. It was a beautiful and joyful celebration. Please continue to pray for our First Communion Class.
Next Sunday is Pentecost Sunday, celebrating the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and the Virgin Mary, 50 days after Easter. At the 10:30 am Mass, two adults will be baptized and receive Communion and Confirmation. 7 more adults will be confirmed. It is a wonderful way to celebrate Pentecost. As we prepare for Pentecost, let us pray: “Come, Holy Spirit, fill the hearts of your faithful and kindle in them the fire of your love. Send forth your Spirit, and they shall be created. And You shall renew the face of the earth.”
Be well. Do good. God Bless. Pray for the respect of life and the dignity of the sick, the suffering, and the dying!