“If the penitent, having been made aware of the gravity of the situation, is open to learning the Church’s teaching on this issue, and open to reconsidering the decision, the priest can absolve,” it says. “There is at least the beginning of contrition, a willingness to reconsider and thus possibly rectify their situation.”
“If they are not open at least to prayerfully considering the rescinding of their request — now that they know it is a grave sin – they would be choosing to do something gravely wrong, that is to say, deciding to remain in a situation of sin rather than seek to amend their life,” the bishops write.
“In this case, the minister would need to delay absolution to a later time when the person may be properly disposed.”
The anointing of the sick usually follows reconciliation or confession, the bishops write, but it can be given to an unconscious person. It presumes repentance. Those who refuse to repent, who are not contrite, are not “properly disposed” to receive the sacrament.
“The request for euthanasia or assisted suicide is in direct contradiction to the baptismal call of the dying believer to proclaim at all times, especially at the approach of death, that ‘It is no longer I who live but Christ who lives in me,'” the bishops write. The priest is encouraged to “implore the sick person with gentle firmness to turn away from this determination in repentance and trust.”
If you're looking for a full-dress Catholic funeral it seems your chances are better if you just off yourself - gun, knife, rope, pills - that sort of thing. Go the assisted dying route and you're on your own, pal.
“The case of assisted suicide or euthanasia, however, is a situation where more can sometimes be known of the disposition of the person and the freedom of the chronically ill man or woman, particularly if it is high-profile or notorious,” they write.
“In such cases, it may not be possible to celebrate a Christian funeral. If the Church were to refuse a funeral to someone, it is not to punish the person but to recognise his or her decision – a decision that has brought him or her to an action that is contrary to the Christian faith, that is somehow notorious and public, and would do harm to the Christian community and the larger culture.”
Well, the RC church (and pretty much all the rest of them) hasn't really come to terms with the Age of Enlightenment and secular values, the Romantics, and political theory of the 19th century, let alone the modern world. Dress up some man in a set of white cloths on the body, a book full of fables in the left hand and a wagging finger on the right hand, mumble some choice words of voodoo, then issue dire warnings about what'll happen to you if you don't follow their homemade rules, and that about sums up religion. It's a farce, a power play. The Muslim world happily trails along using much the same line of tripe, just a few centuries behind.
ReplyDeleteGo forth and multiply muchly, and if you screw up your environment due to your multiplication into overly teeming masses, remember all will come good in the end, my son, because the good lord says so. It's just another case of nosy busybodies telling you how to live your life with little regard of reality. Naw, keep the clerics unaware of married life as well. so they be even more other wordly.
Yup, that's the basis of their planning, with of course a healthy dollop of dogma, and rules, rules, rules, all designed to keep the adoring masses in line for the feudal lords (now known as the 1%) to keep you down on the farm/factory, toiling away to make your betters richer and more powerful. The church and lord of the manor duopoly worked well for a thousand years to control the timid huddling masses. And it's trying to make a comeback, as always.
I reject all this horse manure. Let the clergy mumble into their cups with their incantations and pay them no attention, to include sobbing relatives who haven't bothered to educate themselves in any meaningful way and want to believe a series of old wives' tales that procribes their mental freedom. The belief system and "faith", which implies no rational explanation of why you're being ordered around will ever be given, is no better than a bush witch doctor, and very probably worse. It appeals to the fear of darkness and ghosts in all of us.
For a decent summary of all this, a recent book review by T P Wilkinson dispassionately shows the latest thinking on how WW1 actually came about, and the struggle to free society from clerics and feudal lords, neither of which want to give up control. Warning, it's dense writing and assumes you have some basic adult knowledge of history since 1750. You may have to read it thrice, my son, before the essence sinks in.
http://dissidentvoice.org/2016/09/romanticism-and-war-contextualising-a-theory-of-interpretation/
.. well hell ! I guess an ex altar boy like me is well n truly f'd .. ! % # €
ReplyDeleteI probably listened to far too much John Prine in my youth-hood
and so now, I can't follow in W P Kinsella's footsteps
n get to The Field Of Dreams ..
ReplyDeleteSal, I have it on good authority that you'll be fine, forgiven, absolved and everything. All this nonsense was just bullshit intended to make you play ball.
Anyong.....6:31 PM "old wives tales". Aren't you labeling the wrong gender? Those tales were spewed out by whom?
ReplyDelete