Here’s a report which is certainly curious and upsetting, to say the least.
Pope Francis has given a Belgian Religious Order until the end of August to stop offering euthanasia to psychiatric patients.
Brother Rene Stockman, Superior General of the Brothers of Charity, which runs 15 centers for psychiatric patients across Belgium, has been ordered to reverse its policy by the end of August. (Why murder should be continued until that deadline is anyone’s guess!)
Brother-members who serve on the Board of Directors of the Brothers of Charity Group, the organization that runs the centers, also must each sign a joint letter to their Superior General declaring that they “fully support the vision of the magisterium of the Catholic Church, which has always confirmed that human life must be respected and protected in absolute terms, from the moment of conception till its natural end.”
Those who refuse to sign will face sanctions under Canon Law, while the group can expect to face legal action and even expulsion from the Church itself, if it fails to change its policy.
The Religious Order must no longer consider euthanasia as a solution to human suffering under any circumstances (a situation impossible to comprehend).
This demand, issued at the beginning of August, follows repeated (?) requests (???) by the Holy See for the Order to drop its new policy of permitting doctors to perform euthanasia on “non-terminal” mentally ill patients on its premises.
It also follows a joint investigation by the Vatican’s congregations for the Doctrine of the Faith and for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. The ultimatum was devised by the two congregations and has the support of the pope.
We are not hearing a story about a lay Board of Directors instituting a policy which condones and participates in the murder of patients of institutions they oversee, but rather a Religious Order of Consecrated Men who supposedly give witness to the Catholic Faith while they systematically and intentionally violate one of the most fundamental teachings of the Church regarding the sanctity of the life of every individual.
The Vatican should not engage in any negotiations over such contemptible behavior. Rather, those who have been complicit in these crimes against humanity should be expelled from the Order, the Superior General should be forced to resign, and the Order itself be suppressed for the scandal it has caused.
Anything less and the Church risks giving scandal by appearing to compromise its own teachings and credibility in the minds and hearts of the Christian faithful.
This report truly is shocking, to think that a Religious Order would engage in such murderous pursuits would have been (prior to this moment) unthinkable.
Dearest Lord, please send the Holy Spirit to Your Church and cleanse the Church of Her many sins. Forgive us for all our dalliance with evil. Help us mirror the Light of Your Truth and the power of Your Grace to all those You entrust to our care.
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