(Vatican Radio) One of the things Pope Francis has stressed over the course of this Jubilee of Mercy has been welcoming the stranger, especially at a time when migrants are fleeing areas of conflict in the world and looking to make a better life in Europe and in countries, such as Australia.The city of Melbourne in Australia can boast a wealth of diversity and is the country’s most culturally diverse city with people from over 200 countries making it their home. In the Archdiocese of Melbourne itself groups including the Italian and Polish communities have been getting into the spirit of this extraordinary year according to their own traditions.Listen to Lydia O'Kane's interview with Archbishop Denis Hart Welcoming migrantsThe Archbishop of Melbourne and President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Denis Hart highlights the contribution they have made saying, “our cities and some of our country areas represent a great amalgam of people from al...
(Vatican Radio) One of the things Pope Francis has stressed over the course of this Jubilee of Mercy has been welcoming the stranger, especially at a time when migrants are fleeing areas of conflict in the world and looking to make a better life in Europe and in countries, such as Australia.
The city of Melbourne in Australia can boast a wealth of diversity and is the country’s most culturally diverse city with people from over 200 countries making it their home. In the Archdiocese of Melbourne itself groups including the Italian and Polish communities have been getting into the spirit of this extraordinary year according to their own traditions.
Listen to Lydia O'Kane's interview with Archbishop Denis Hart
Welcoming migrants
The Archbishop of Melbourne and President of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference, Denis Hart highlights the contribution they have made saying, “our cities and some of our country areas represent a great amalgam of people from all over the world leave peaceably, who work with each other.” On the issue of migrants he comments, “we have had vigorous interactions with the government about people who have come by boats and have been placed in the islands off Australia who are not allowed to come here while their criteria are examined and this has been something in which we’ve been saying to the government, “well we’re a big country, we have a small population, we have a high level of prosperity; it’s our duty to welcome migrants, it’s our duty to welcome those who really struggle””…
In his Archdiocese, the Archbishop says he has noted, “a greater awareness among people in parishes that living mercy means the corporal works of mercy; it means an awareness of a merciful attitude towards each other and a welcoming with mercy and humbly to all that come to the parish place of worship.”
Legacy of Holy Year
So what is the next step for this Year of Mercy and what legacy will it leave us? Archbishop Hart says, “I think the Year of Mercy calls us to humbly realize who we are, to realize that even in the difficulties that the Church has suffered from the offences of some priests and religious towards children and minors that it’s not merely the repairing of these awful ills but it’s a whole state of mind and a whole way of being the Church that Mercy, compassion, humility, living according to the Gospel is the only way to true life.”
The Extraordinary Holy Year of Mercy concludes November 20th, the feast of Christ the King.
Washington D.C., Nov 5, 2016 / 04:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For years, the American Medical Association has held a strong stance against measures promoting physician-assisted suicide. But that could change.Recently, the American Medical Association announced that it is reconsidering its position, prompting groups such as the Society of Catholic Social Scientists to speak out, urging that they maintain a firm “no” to “intentionally induced deaths.”“Our organization strongly urges you not to change your policy,” stated an Oct. 31 letter from Society of Catholic Social Scientists president, Dr. Stephen M. Krason.“Your organization has enormous influence in the shaping of public policy concerning healthcare and medical issues and a change in your position would almost certainly give momentum to the effort to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the U.S.”Over the past few years, a handful of states have legalized physician-assisted suicide....
Washington D.C., Nov 5, 2016 / 04:48 am (CNA/EWTN News).- For years, the American Medical Association has held a strong stance against measures promoting physician-assisted suicide. But that could change.
Recently, the American Medical Association announced that it is reconsidering its position, prompting groups such as the Society of Catholic Social Scientists to speak out, urging that they maintain a firm “no” to “intentionally induced deaths.”
“Our organization strongly urges you not to change your policy,” stated an Oct. 31 letter from Society of Catholic Social Scientists president, Dr. Stephen M. Krason.
“Your organization has enormous influence in the shaping of public policy concerning healthcare and medical issues and a change in your position would almost certainly give momentum to the effort to legalize physician-assisted suicide in the U.S.”
Over the past few years, a handful of states have legalized physician-assisted suicide. The state of Colorado will vote on the measure this November.
The assisted suicide movement gained traction with the controversial case of Brittany Maynard, a brain cancer patient who relocated to Oregon in 2014 to pursue physician-assisted suicide.
Since its popularization, stories have surfaced about health-insurance companies denying medical treatment to the terminally ill, but instead insuring lethal pills that would end the patient’s life.
The Society of Catholic Social Scientists is among many groups advocating against physician-assisted suicide. Opponents also include disability rights advocates, who have called the measure “ignorant,” and Catholic leaders including Pope Francis, who said that assisted suicide is “false compassion.”
Among the many dangers listed by the Society of Catholic Social Scientists is the fine line of transforming “a healing profession into a killing profession,” and driving “a wedge between physicians and their patients, causing people to deeply distrust their physicians who they will not be sure will be faithful to an ethic to help them when they are seriously ill.”
The letter also mentioned that terminally ill patients will be viewed as expendable if assisted suicide becomes acceptable, and that the basic dignity of the human person will be undermined, which in turn will undermine end-of-life palliative care and depression treatment for the terminally ill.
Krason also said that acceptance of the “right to die” will undoubtedly break the boundaries of just the terminally ill, eventually spreading to other groups of individuals.
“It inevitably will spread to more and more categories of people, including those who aren’t even seriously ill and children with serious illnesses and birth defects, as the European experience is making clear,” Krason wrote.
“Instead of pediatric and neonatal specialists working to save handicapped newborns, they will be increasingly looked to for the purpose of ending their lives.”
Krason also said that the “right-to-die” will quickly turn into the “duty-to-die,” placing unneeded pressure on the elderly and sick to not be a burden on their families.
“Indeed, there is evidence that the elderly are becoming increasingly fearful that medical authorities might think of them as undeserving of care, even if they wish to have it, so they should just be allowed die,” Krason wrote, pointing to the example of the elderly woman who tattooed “don’t euthanize me” on her arm.
The letter also highlighted the “multitude of legal issues will result from it that will cause potentially serious problems for the medical profession.”
Krason urged the American Medical Association to consider these costly implications of the “right to die,” saying that it will only lead to “a further erosion of respect for innocent human life.”
“As social scientists, we are very well aware of where societal trends are going and the likely consequences of them, and allowing physician-assisted suicide will have calamitous effects for vulnerable populations, for the medical and healing professions generally, and for American life and society in general,” Krason wrote.
“We strongly urge your organization to continue its official opposition to physician-assisted suicide.”
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Days after Rolling Stone magazine published a shocking 9,000-word story about a brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia in November 2014, the magazine's editors received an email just before 2 a.m. with "Our worst nightmare" in the subject line. They needed to run a retraction, the reporter said....
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) -- Days after Rolling Stone magazine published a shocking 9,000-word story about a brutal gang rape at the University of Virginia in November 2014, the magazine's editors received an email just before 2 a.m. with "Our worst nightmare" in the subject line. They needed to run a retraction, the reporter said....
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Heavy smog loaded with pollutants has covered several urban and rural areas in eastern Pakistan, prompting breathing problems, and causing more than 20 deaths in traffic accidents caused by poor visibility on highways, officials and a senior meteorologist said....
ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Heavy smog loaded with pollutants has covered several urban and rural areas in eastern Pakistan, prompting breathing problems, and causing more than 20 deaths in traffic accidents caused by poor visibility on highways, officials and a senior meteorologist said....
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- To be homosexual in Afghanistan is to live in fear. Naveed and Rameen, young gay men in the capital Kabul have lost count of the number of times they've been lured into dangerous situations on what they believed to be dates. ...
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) -- To be homosexual in Afghanistan is to live in fear. Naveed and Rameen, young gay men in the capital Kabul have lost count of the number of times they've been lured into dangerous situations on what they believed to be dates. ...
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Tens of thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets of downtown Seoul on Saturday, using words including "treason" and "criminal" to demand that President Park Geun-hye step down amid an explosive political scandal....
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) -- Tens of thousands of South Koreans poured into the streets of downtown Seoul on Saturday, using words including "treason" and "criminal" to demand that President Park Geun-hye step down amid an explosive political scandal....
BALTIMORE (AP) -- The driver of the school bus involved in a deadly crash this week in Baltimore was taking medication for seizures when he had an accident two years ago, his wife told investigators at the time, according to records obtained Friday by The Associated Press....
BALTIMORE (AP) -- The driver of the school bus involved in a deadly crash this week in Baltimore was taking medication for seizures when he had an accident two years ago, his wife told investigators at the time, according to records obtained Friday by The Associated Press....
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) -- The man accused of chaining a woman in a storage container for weeks had a violent past and was "preoccupied with sexual content" from a young age, according to details emerging as investigators search his rural property for bodies....
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP) -- The man accused of chaining a woman in a storage container for weeks had a violent past and was "preoccupied with sexual content" from a young age, according to details emerging as investigators search his rural property for bodies....
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi special forces on Saturday were clearing buildings in neighborhoods they entered in eastern Mosul a day earlier, after pushing out Islamic State militants in their drive to take back the city....
MOSUL, Iraq (AP) -- Iraqi special forces on Saturday were clearing buildings in neighborhoods they entered in eastern Mosul a day earlier, after pushing out Islamic State militants in their drive to take back the city....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- At times it has seemed as though this presidential campaign was occurring in some alternate universe. Up is down, no means yes, day is night....
WASHINGTON (AP) -- At times it has seemed as though this presidential campaign was occurring in some alternate universe. Up is down, no means yes, day is night....
