This should be instructive:
After remarking on the need for a consistent pro-life approach on immigration in the US, Pope Francis might have to clean house on that topic with religious brothers closer to home. The Belgian Brothers of Charity issued a defiant statement today after a Vatican order to stop offering euthanasia, especially in non-terminal cases, for their psychiatric patients. Rather than comply, the monks insist that they have plenty of room within Catholic teaching to assist in suicides when patients request it:
Go here to read the rest. So here we have Catholic Monks killing people in defiance of Church teaching and the Vatican has been having “talks” with them. Compare and contrast the draconian treatment of the friars and sisters of the Immaculate who committed the appalling offense of being more Catholic than the current Pope. Stay tuned and we will see how the Vatican deals with an Order committing the minor offense of being complicit in the slaying of the innocent.
Monk-ey business afoot. ?
(sorry)
One more..
Monk to mentality ill; “This is going to hurt me more than it’s going to hurt you.” and for once this adage is true.
I am glad you publicize things like this, Donald. It is good that this Argentinian Marxist Peronist heretic is exposed for what he really is.
PS, will this Pope embrace euthanasia for himself? Or just for others?
Bergoglio the Apostate’s actions always speak louder than his words.
Do I smell a pastoral care, wrapped in mercy, decision coming from Rome?
Is our Church in Schism? It seems that as with the body politic in this country, there is an unbridgeable chasm between what the left/liberal thinks is moral and what conservatives, in doctrine and politics, think is right.
The sad business is, the behavior of the Holy See is completely unsurprising. If anyone thinks Francis is a man of just disposition, they haven’t been paying attention.
This story is partly untrue. The monks have little to do with the conflict.
The fact is that their hospitals have been operating in their name for years with a Board of Trustees, of which currently only 3 members are monks. The superior of the order, Br Rene Stockman FC, blew the whistle in April 2017 on the Board’s decision to adopt euthanasia (the hospitals had previously fought the suits brought against them to adopt euthanasia, but lost on the suits to transfer patients to other facilities where they would be killed).
Br Stockman said at the time “We deplore this new vision…as general
superior we cannot accept this decision, because it is going totally against our charism of the charity…Yes, there was a lot of pressure, but pressure doesn’t mean that we have to capitulate. All those who were against us are now singing that finally the group of the Brothers of Charity capitulated and came into their camp…[secularization is] poisoning the congregation”. Please note that last sentence: 1) the name of the order has been hijacked by the death loving secularists, and 2) apparently there is dissension in the order.
Pope Francis then issued an order to the monks to overturn the vote or to unanimously condemn it (the ‘talks’ meme if true must refer to the lay board members). A few days later a Belgian theologian outed former European Union President Herman van Rompuy as a board member. Hours later van Rompuy responded with a tweet that read “The time of ‘Rome has spoken, the matter is settled’ is long past”.
For more details see http://todaysmartyrs.org/pdf/Commentary/2017-08-19.pdf
Oops, the “theologian” who outed van Rompuy was canon law professor Kurt Martens.
Using Amoris Laetitia, as Pope Francis has taught us to use, why can’t they mercifully murder a patient, of course after discussion and careful discernment, decide that God wants them to murder someone? Even though it is against Moral Law? If that’s what God wants us to do, how can it be wrong! Surely, as PF has stated, there IS a conflict in the 10 Commandments.
(That was satire!)
“…why can’t they mercifully murder a patient, of course after discussion and careful discernment, decide that God wants them to murder someone?”
There have been several articles quoting the hospitals’ chairman of the board as saying just that. Unfortunately these articles do not identify the chairman and so we don’t know if he or she is a layman or a renegade monk.
From their site…..
“Rome, 12 September 2017. The Superior General of the Brothers of Charity, Bro. René Stockman, took note of the position of the Board of Directors of the Brothers of Charity Organization in Belgium regarding the application of euthanasia for non-terminal psychiatric patients….”
http://brothersofcharity.org/press-release-from-the-general-house-of-the-brothers-of-charity-in-rome/?lang=en
Of course, rationing under single-payer will make mandated suicide (in the UK National Health Service it’s called “Pathway.”) bureaucratic SOP.
“. . . careful discernment, decide that God wants them to murder someone?” It’s not God discerning with them. Likely it’s the Devil.
St. Matthew’s Gospel teaches us that there are sins that cannot be forgiven. They are sins against The Holy Spirit. Specifically in Matthew, when the chief priests and elders blasphemed that Jesus is from the Devil because evil spirits obey Him.
My reading of Gospels and etc. inform me that suicide is a sin against the Holy Spirit because God who alone holds our lives in His hands. When we unjustly kill, murder an unborn human, kill ourselves, or assist sick/delusional persons in killing themselves, we have usurped God’s Will as to those persons’ God-given lives.
Thanks Jstnobody for that link to the Brothers of Charity web site. Reading it and the other pages is difficult: the translations are not great. There are two statements from Br. Rene that are worth a read:
Comments on the text “Euthanasia from a Christian perspective,” given by Bro. René Stockman, General Superior of the Brothers of Charity
(Dated July 2017 – see http://brothersofcharity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/Comments-on-the-text-Euthanasia-from-a-Christian-perspective-given-by-Bro.-Ren%C3%A9-Stockman.pdf)
“Faced with the confrontational story presented here, we can post a lot of other stories from people who are very grateful that they did not choose euthanasia at all, even in severe psychological suffering.”
“The central point and the foundation within Christian ethics is that life is absolute, which cannot be touched.”
“When, then, from the absolute value of life is pleaded for the worth protection and autonomy, it is clear that this is a deontological view of the Catholic Church’s magisterium and which elevates itself to an ideology. Worse still, consider it as an idea with an armor that protects against any argument, reason and debate. According to the text, there is no intrinsic evil anymore, but everything can be condoned by the intention and the situation.”
“I also want to end with a story like you started with a story. It is the story of patients who, via the nurses, asked if they were still safe with the Brothers of Charity when the caregivers decided that they exhausted all treatment options. That is a question that should prevent us sleeping at night!”
Reflections on the vision statement on euthanasia from the Brothers of Charity Organization in Belgium
(Dated May 2017 – see http://brothersofcharity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/05/Reflections-on-the-vision-statement-on-euthanasia-from-the-Brothers-of-Charity-Organization-in-Belgium-3.pdf)
“First of all, it is worth noting that the [new hospital policy] text has no references to Biblical grounds or to Christ whatsoever. Of course, this has far-reaching consequences.”
“… this is the very first time a Christian organization states that euthanasia is an ordinary medical practice that falls under the physician’s therapeutic freedom. This is confirmed various times in the text. This is disloyal, outrageous, and unacceptable.”
“Therefore we can only hope and pray that this view is abandoned and that the absolute inviolability of life would again be the only option. That is the only thing that fits in with the charism of our Congregation, and that was also what our beloved Founder, the Servant of God Peter Joseph Triest lived by, presented to us, and entrusted to us.”
Looks like one of the most informative articles so far is from (of all places) National Catholic Reporter (see https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/belgian-brothers-group-keep-offering-euthanasia-psych-facilities):
– The name of the hospital corporation is ‘Brothers of Charity Group’
– The chairman is an economics professor and layman, Raf De Rycke
– Br Rene stated “if the group refused to bow to the [Vatican] ultimatum, “then we will take juridical steps in order to force them to amend the text (of the new policy) and, if that is not possible, then we have to start the procedure to exclude the hospitals from the Brothers of Charity family and take away their Catholic identity.”
– Br Rene also stated if any of the brothers refused to sign the letter upholding Catholic teaching against euthanasia, “then also we will start the correct procedure foreseen in canon law.”
– Geert Lesarge, press secretary of the Brussels-based Belgian bishops’ conference, criticized the decision and reiterated support for the Vatican
Bottom line: Many in this story have not surrendered and are fighting the good fight. Pray for them!
The Brothers of Charity have released a new statement:
http://brothersofcharity.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Jesus-did-not-follow-the-rules-yet-to-give-life-not-take-it.pdf
…where does a board of directors of an organization that specializes in mental health care, but made up of jurists and economists, and without a single expert in the field, get the knowledge to give its opinion on such a matter? Some of them, with all due respect for their person, have never had first-hand experience with a psychiatric patient, let alone cared for one or treated one…
…Let us call a spade a spade: euthanasia is still killing a fellow human being, even if it happens with the utmost due care. How in the name of God is this supposed to be compatible with our charism of charity, the charism of life?…
…Even when they appeal to the ‘sensus fidelium’ of the faithful in Flanders for the vision statement, this ‘sensus fidelium’ should be in agreement with the Church magisterium, which was recently emphasized by Pope Francis. As far as the vision text on euthanasia is concerned, this is not the case. The text is both contrary to the position of the Belgian bishops, to the views of the Pope and the competent dicasteries within the Church, and to the charism of the Congregation of the Brothers of Charity, over which the General Administration must watch….