Scotland: firm “no” to assisted suicideCardinal Keith O’Brien, Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, has underlined that the Scottish Catholic Church will do everything in its power to block a bill that would make assisted suicide legal, according to the British Catholic weekly “The Universe”. It was Margo MacDonald, an independent member of the Scottish Parliament, who launched a process of consultation between churches, organizations and associations linked to the world of medicine and charities on a bill that would permit patients in a terminal state to ask to die. MacDonald, who has suffered from Parkinson’s disease for twelve years and said she wants to be enabled to end her own life if her condition should deteriorate, hopes to obtain the support of eighteen Scottish Members of Parliament, so as to be able to submit her bill to Parliament next year. The right to ask to die would, under the terms of the proposed legislation, be extended also to children aged twelve or even younger who, according to MacDonald, are able to decide on their own life. “The best way for the future of those who are terminally ill is to ensure them of the best possible standards of palliative care”, said the cardinal who has given his support to another bill aimed at making high levels of everyday palliative care obligatory for the health authorities. “Lowering the age of legal capacity would be dangerous and should be avoided”, said O’Brien. Belgium: support for an “ecological” churchThe letter for Christmas 2008 of Cardinal Godfried Danneels, Archbishop of Brussels was presented on 15 December. It is entirely focused on the various facets of a Christian ecological ethos. “For how long will we remain deaf to the predicted catastrophe?” writes Danneels, urging everyone to a personal commitment to lifestyles respectful of the environment, threatened also by climate change, an issue that must also involve the young. “What ought to be the attitude of Christians to the derangement, or destruction, of nature? Man is the custodian of nature, but that does not mean he ought to keep it under control, by imposing on it human laws just as he likes. There exists – writes the cardinal – a Christian ethos regarding ecology, founded on a sense of responsibility for creation, and respect for and proper management of natural resources”. During the presentation of the cardinal’s letter, some “green” projects of the Church were described; their aim is to reduce the environmental impact of church buildings and make proposals about how to build “ecological” churches.England: the god of the market is dead”The economic crisis is an opportunity to review our relation with money and with things”, say the bishops of England and Wales in their respective messages for Advent, quoted in the English Catholic weekly “The Tablet”. “The god of the market is dead. He has been shown to be false”, wrote the Bishop of Brentwood, the Most Rev. Thomas McMahon. “The fundamental reasons for the financial crisis are ethical in nature”, wrote in turn the Archbishop of Birmingham, the Vincent Nichols. “The financial market – he continued – has behaved as if it existed for itself alone. The perspective and practice of the true virtues, which build trust and without which any human effort is unstable, have been lacking”. The Bishop of Shrewsbury, Brian Noble, has also invited Catholics to re-consider an excessive dependence on material things, while the Bishop of Nottingham, Malcolm McMahon has explained that his diocese has not yet recovered from the previous economic crisis and now has to come to terms with a new wave of unemployment. The Bishop of Lancaster, Patrick O’Donoghue, urged Catholics to look beyond their own families to those who are already poor and not to “blame immigrants” for current economic difficulties.Ireland: first mass, then sportThe Bishop of Cloyne in the West of Ireland, the Most Rev. John Magee, has urged his flock to give precedence to Mass and not to sporting events on Sundays. In his pastoral letter “Called to Mission”, the Bishop explained that the most important moment in the Christian life of each of the 46 parishes of the diocese of Cloyne is when “the parish community is re-united for the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist”. It’s important, he said, to choose the Mass rather than sport or shopping. The Bishop also spoke of the rapid decline of the number of seminarians and the impact this has had and will have on the diocese. The fall in the number of priests, inevitable in view of these statistics, will lead, according to the bishop, to a revision of the timetable for Masses, but this should not be seen, he said, in a negative light: “Less masses ought to lead to more crowded churches on Sundays and greater participation in the Eucharist on weekdays, so the celebration should become richer”.
