‘Intervene with love’ to help stop euthanasia
Catholic san Francisco Northern California’s Weekly Catholic Newspaper
By Valerie Schmalz
In San Francisco, Jerusalem patriarch prays for 9/11 victims, reconciliation in Holy Land The Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, in San Francisco on the 10th anniversary of the terrorist attacks in which some 3,000 people perished in New York, Washington, D.C. and Pennsylvania, offered a prayer for the victims and their families and another for peace in the Holy Land – indeed, for all people where violence is, sadly, so common. “We are against any kind of violence,” Patriarch Fouad Twal, a Jordanian-born priest, told nearly 700 parishioners gathered at St. Thomas More Church Sept. 11, at the Arabiclanguage Mass for peace, justice and reconciliation. “We seek a peaceful solution,” he said. On his first pastoral visit to San Francisco since being named head of the Latin-rite Catholic Church in Israel, Jordan, Palestine and Cypress, Patriarch Twal continued to make his case for a two-state solution to the crisis in the Holy Land, with the aim that Jews and Palestinians may one day live in harmony. “We don’t want more innocents to suffer,” he said at a news conference following the Mass. “We don’t want more mothers to weep for their children. We want just a normal life for everybody in the Holy Land.” Patriarch Twal, who for years has known and worked with Msgr. Labib Kobti, the pastor of St. Thomas More, is a canon lawyer who worked in apostolic nunciatures of Honduras, Rome, Cairo, Berlin and Lima until 1992, when he was appointed bishop-prelate, bishop and then, in 1994, archbishop of Tunis. Pope Benedict XVI appointed him coadjutor archbishop to the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem in 2005, and in 2008 he became only the second Arab Latin patriarch of Jerusalem. He has spoken and written extensively about the crisis in the Holy Land, noting that it is a “powerful and moving experience to be where Jesus was born and grew to manhood, where he lived and taught,” but it is also “heartwrenching and painful because we are still in the midst of an ongoing modern geopolitical conflict in this very same land.” He added at the news conference, “We are still the church of Calvary. We are still bearing our cross, but at the
(PHOTO BY JOSE LUIS AGUIRRE/CATHOLIC SAN FRANCISCO)
By George Raine
Patriarch Fouad Twal greets worshipers at St. Thomas More Church in San Francisco Sept. 11. On his first pastoral visit to San Francisco, the patriarch celebrated a Mass for peace, justice and reconciliation. to live together as good neighbors, not as enemies.” Patriarch Twal does not expect resolution soon, but what is needed to enhance its chances, he said, is “more democracy, more freedom of movement, more trust – more trust in the other. What we live with is lack of trust, and I think we need more trust to assure this goal of two states.” He added, “I don’t know whether the conditions on the ground are ready for two states. That is more and more difficult. JERUSALEM PATRIARCH, page 15
same time we know that Calvary is not far away from the empty tomb. That is why we are at the same time the church of hope, the Resurrection. We work for more hope, more Resurrection, for everybody. And when I say peace I mean when there is peace for all the inhabitants, because otherwise nobody can enjoy peace alone without the others.” He said Israeli occupation in the region “is bad for the occupier, bad for the occupied,” and he added, “We want
The key to stopping assisted suicide is love, Wesley Smith, an opponent of assisted suicide and euthanasia, told attendees at the Archdiocese of San Francisco Respect Life Conference at St. Mary’s Cathedral Sept. 10. “We have to continually humanize and defend our seniors,” said Smith, an international and national expert on euthanasia, assisted suicide and bioethics who also blogs at Second Hand Smoke. “This is something that will be decided across the back fence and at the church supper,” Smith said. He said fear of being a burden is often the greatest fear of someone facing diminished physical or mental abilities and medical problems. “What we have to do for people going through extremis, we have to intervene with love,” said Smith, who spent many years as a hospice volunteer and has written 11 books, including “Forced Exit: Euthanasia, Assisted Suicide and the New Duty to Die” (1997, Times Books), a broad-based criticism of the assisted suicide/euthanasia movement that was published most recently by Encounter Books in its third edition in 2006. “The answer to the culture of death is a robust culture of life, a robust culture of love,” said Smith, adding that Christians are called to stand up for those values even at the risk of personal danger or harm. And he criticized a “biased media that is part of the culture of death.” So far only Washington in 2008 and EUTHANASIA, page 16
End-of-life resources – Life Legal Defense Foundation, based in Napa, will defend anyone who needs help enforcing a medical power of attorney. The organization publishes a pamphlet “Make Your Health Care Decisions … Or They Will Be Made For You,” available in hard copy and online at lldf.org. – National Catholic Bioethics Center bioethicist Marie Hilliard recommends a model form for a medical power of attorney that is used by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and available at the California Catholic Conference website, www.cacatholic.org. The NCBC offers a 24/7 help line – (215) 877-2660 – for people facing bioethical or medical decisions who need advice on church teaching. The NCBC also has an online consultation form, with a free response by a Catholic ethicist, available at ncbcenter.org.
INSIDE THIS WEEK’S EDITION On the Street . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2 News in Brief . . . . . . . . . . 4-5 New principals . . . . . . . . . . . 6 Local news . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10 George Weigel. . . . . . . . . . . 13
Annual high school information booklet ~ Inside ~ September 16, 2011
‘What happened?’ An inmate’s story ~ Page 12 ~
Book recounts St. Brigid fight ~ Page 18 ~
ONE DOLLAR
Mary Magdalene, disciple. . 14 Datebook . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
www.catholic-sf.org VOLUME 13
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