Catholic News 2

Brussels, Belgium, May 2, 2017 / 02:59 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Following a decision by the board of several Belgian Catholic psychiatric hospitals to start performing euthanasia, the religious brothers who operate the hospitals said the policy change is unacceptable and cannot be implemented.

“We deplore this new vision,” said Brother René Stockman, the superior general of the Brothers of Charity. Brother Stockman is himself a Belgian and a leading opponent of euthanasia.

The Brothers of Charity in Belgium run 15 psychiatric hospitals with 5,000 patients. The board controlling their institutions has said it will now allow euthanasia in these hospitals.

Brother Stockman said he has informed the Belgian congregation that “as general superior we cannot accept this decision, because it is going totally against our charism of the charity.”

He said the decision can “not at all” be justified in a Christian framework. “It is a real tragedy,” he told the Australian-based website MercatorNet in an interview published April 28.

The Belgian Brothers of Charity board announced the decision on its website.

“We take seriously unbearable and hopeless suffering and patients’ request for euthanasia,” the board said. “On the other hand, we do want to protect lives and ensure that euthanasia is performed only if there is no more possibility to provide a reasonable perspective to treat the patient.”

Brother Stockman said only a few brothers are still involved on the board governing the Belgian facilities. The majority of the members are lay people.

“Yes, there was a lot of pressure, but pressure doesn’t mean that we have to capitulate,” he said, charging that secularization is “poisoning the congregation” in Belgium.

Raf De Ryce, chairman of the board overseeing the institutions, contended that the new policy was not a major change, the bioethics site BioEdge reports, citing Belgian newspapers.

“It is not that we used to be against euthanasia and now suddenly are for it. This is consistent with our existing criteria,” he said. “We are making both possible routes for our patients: both a pro-life perspective and euthanasia.”

De Ryce said the inviolability of life is “an important foundation” but for the board it is not an absolute.

“This is where we are on a different wavelength from Rome,” he said.

Brother Stockman, however, said the decision of the Belgian organization has had a big impact. It has drawn praise from backers of legal euthanasia.

“All those who were against us are now singing that finally the group of the Brothers of Charity capitulated and came into their camp,” he said.

The Catholic hospitals’ previous policy was clear about opposition to euthanasia.  

“When someone asked for euthanasia, the question was taken seriously; everything was done to help the patient to change his vision of things,” Brother Stockman said. If the situation remained unchanged, the patient was transferred.

“This transfer was done with respect, but always convinced that a signal was given to society that inside our institutes no euthanasia was possible,” he said. “This was very important.”

The Brothers of Charity’s general congregation has informed the Belgian bishops’ conference and the apostolic nuncio to Belgium about the matter. Brother Stockman said he is in contact with the bishops’ conference president Cardinal Jozef De Kesel.

 

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Washington D.C., May 2, 2017 / 06:02 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Despite Sudan's recent compliance to U.S. guidelines, one expert thinks there's not enough information to warrant a complete removal of sanctions against the country.  

“In the case of Sudan, the same cast of characters, the same power base that promotes a perverted and violent expression of Islam is still in power,” David Dettoni, senior adviser to the Sudan Relief Fund, told a congressional panel April 26.

“Look at Sudan's 'President.' It is still Omar Bashir,” Dettoni said. “He and his power base are still intact and I do not think their fundamental belief system has changed.”

Dettoni recognized that reduced sanctions may have played a part in the “cease fire” in the South Kordofan and the Blue Nile State – areas Bashir had previously used criminal like tactics towards opposing forces.

However, he's concerned that the U.S. Special Envoy currently elected to analyze Sudan's improvements has not been to these areas in which saw the most bloodshed and tribulation. And because of this, he thinks there isn't enough accurate information to determine if the country has met the criteria necessary for the sanctions removal.

Nearly a week before leaving office, President Barak Obama eased Sudan's sanctions, allowing the country the ability to trade with U.S. firms. The sanctions would be further removed after five points of criteria were met. A report established by the Special Envoy in Sudan and South Sudan, will be expected to the given to President Donald Trump in June.

Dettoni suggested that Congress draft legislation to revise the sanctions, allowing for periods of modification thereafter.

During Omar Bashir's rise to power, he issued the executions and imprisonment of many political leaders, journalists, and high ranking military officers. Teaming up with the National Islamic Front, he established Sharia, or Islamic Law, at a national level.

The New York Times cited the country as having “instituted one of the strictest Muslim fundamentalist social orders in the world,” in 1993 after eight terrorists had been detained in Paris with ties to Sudan – describing the country as a sort of breeding ground for Islamic extremists. The men had been suspected of planning and in process of carrying out a terrorist act in New York City. During his testimony, Dettoni also mentioned that Sudan in the 1990s was home to Al-Qaeda – the terrorist group responsible for bombing the Twin Towers on Sept.11, 2001.

The Sudanese civil wars, claiming nearly 2 million lives, were finally ended in 2005 with the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, and what is now South Sudan was offered the possibility to vote for their secession.

However, other areas of the peace agreement were ignored by Bashir toward the Sudan People’s Liberation Army located in Sudan, and he continued scrimmages in South Kordofan and the Blue Nile, areas straddling the border between both countries. The violence was notably significant in Abyei, located within the state of South Kordofan.

“In May 2011, Khartoum invaded Abyei, burning, looting, destroying, killing and forcing the removal of over 100,000 Ngok Dinka,” he said.

In order for the 20 year-long sanctions to be completely removed, the Obama administration issued five areas needed for improvement: “ceasing hostilities in Darfur and the Two Areas (South Kordofan and the Blue Nile), improving humanitarian access, ending negative interference in South Sudan, enhancing cooperation on counter-terrorism, and addressing the threat of the Lord's Resistance Army.”

Dettoni acknowledged the recent improvements in areas regarding refugees, humanitarian access, and decreased violence in the states along the Sudan-South Sudan border.

He said 380,000 South Sudanese and an estimated 200,000 Eritreans have been given refuge in Sudanese camps, which he claimed to be “tough” but that at least Sudan has “allowed these very vulnerable and suffering people to have a form of refuge.”

However, he remains skeptical of the millions of Euros provided by the European Union to curve the inflow of illegal immigrants, known to bottleneck at Sudan. He proposed the money used to beef up Sudan’s border force may also be used to violently suppress the victims of years passed.

Dettoni also suggested the possibility that Bashir's compliance with U.S. guidelines is being used “as leverage for political or other goals that they want to achieve” specifically “to loosen sanctions, gain respect, gain valuable foreign currency.”  

He requested President Donald Trump's immediate action to publicly appoint a Special Envoy that would travel to and analyze South Kordofan and the Blue Nile State, and that the president should meet personally with Bashir and other African leaders.

Dettoni also asked President Trump to amend the previous executive order from the Obama administration or ask Congress to draw up legislation to limit Sudan’s sanctions, which would be reviewable every 180 days or annually. He suggests that the executive branch to draft a review in writing and be submitted to Congress and the president two months before the sanctions can be lifted in July.

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Mexico City, Mexico, May 2, 2017 / 12:35 am (CNA/EWTN News).- In the context of their 103rd Full Assembly, the Mexican Bishops Conference released a statement on the suffering on migrants, calling for efforts to fight corruption and promote a dignified life.

In a communiqué released April 27, the Mexican bishops said that “we hear in the suffering of the migrant the voice of God which, like a cry, is calling out to our hearts and invites us to action.”

It is the cry, they said, “of those driven by poverty or violence to leave behind their homes, to work honestly and contribute to the development of the country they have come to, but on their way and even in their destination, they are obliged to live in the shadows, suffering isolation, mistreatment, racism and exploitation.”

“The cry of those who are detained… the dramatic cry of the children and their parents who see their family ripped apart by deportations.”

It is “the cry of maladjustment and the helplessness of those repatriated who have to start over their lives. These are truncated lives and dreams. These are traumas and resentments that can fuel violence.”

“The cry of all of them is the cry of all of us as a Church. It's our cry! And, if we are human, it ought to be everyone's cry,” the Mexican bishops said.

They emphasized that the suffering of migrants “requires us to overcome the isolation of individualism that makes us vulnerable…we will only respond to this cry when we work together for a decent life for everyone.”

Everyone should have access to “an education that forms persons and citizens,” as well as “the opportunity for a decent job and a fair wage,” they added.

“And so it is urgent to fight corruption and impunity in any environment, since these things destroy trust, limit commitment and inhibit development,” they said.

“Although some voices are sowing pessimism and discouragement, we Christians are encouraged by the light of the Risen Christ, who has conquered evil and death,” the Mexican bishops said.

They noted that “the efforts of many men and women encourage us with their personal integrity, their family life and their creative service for their neighbor, (they) make it possible for this Mexican society to not remain in darkness.”

 

 

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