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Health Care Ruling Welcomed
Catholic moral leaders in the United States this week welcomed a Vatican document which clarifies the Church’s position on artificial nutrition and hydration for persons in a vegetative state.
The Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith’s clarification affirms the Church’s belief in the value of all human lives in spite of the circumstances of their condition.
The Vatican Congregation is not breaking new ground here. It is simply answering questions which were posed concerning a 2004 talk by Pope John Paul II in which he said nutrition and hydration, even by artificial means such as feeding tubes, should generally be considered ordinary care and not extraordinary medical treatment.
The Vatican’s commentary notes that John Paul II’s address conforms to previous tradition, and is not, in any way, an innovation or abandonment of previous teaching.
Sister Carol Keenan, president of the U.S. Catholic Health Association, said the latest missive makes clear that “the provision of artificially administered nutrition and hydration to patients in a vegetative state is morally obligatory except when they cannot be assimilated by the patient’s body (and, hence, don’t achieve their purpose) or cause significant discomfort.”
When applied to a specific case – such as the Terri Schiavo case – it is clear that the Church would have supported the continuation of food and water to her, and not the withholding of nutrition as the court ruled.
Happy 80th Birthday, Bishop Daily
At the celebration of Diocesan Migration Day last weekend, Msgr. Ronald Marino, director of the Migration Office, acknowledged that retired Bishop Thomas V. Daily will turn 80 years of age on Sept. 23. The church burst into applause and the soon-to-be octogenarian bishop acknowledged the recognition with a wave and a nod of the head.
For 13 years, we were fortunate to have Bishop Daily as our chief shepherd. When he arrived in the diocese in 1990, he was pretty much unknown to us. We didn’t know what to expect. But it didn’t take long before his outgoing personality and good will grew on us all. It didn’t take long before we realized that we had an extraordinary bishop.
A missionary at heart, he put his faith on view, by marching in street processions, speaking out on public issues and praying in front of abortion clinics. There was never any equivocation about where Bishop Daily stood.
Thankfully, Bishop Daily continues to reside here in the diocese and still is a public presence. He has been blessed with good health and we wish him many more years of ministry. Happy birthday, Bishop Daily. Ad Multos Annos!
Be Smarter Than a Fifth-Grader
It is about time for something to be said about the pollution that clutters our evening airways and is getting worse. We say “pollution” because it is almost as destructive as material which comes under the original and literal use of the term. We refer to the proliferation of “quiz” shows which feature trivial questions and offer unimaginable rewards. The latest hit show pools the ignorance of the general public and offers prizes of millions of dollars. Where will it end?
Our airways are a precious public resource, not to be trivialized. One learns the price that we put on them whenever one tries to buy time on a major station during prime time. Yet big advertisers pay the money.
Of course, popular wisdom is that you get what you pay for and can pay for. But, we are coming to recognize that not everything that seems pleasing and is cheap to produce is good for you and that some of it leaves us unhealthy and should be avoided. How about that which makes us mentally fat and lazy? Yet, we feed each evening on fare that does just that.
We do not advocate that every evening show should be a catechism or text book, but there must be an alternative for the line-up of evening “News” that has been, by the admission of TV executives, edited for “entertainment value,” followed by a “quiz” that tests your ability to repeat verbatim the lyrics of a popular song, your ability to remember a fifth-grade lesson or worse, the percentage of Americans answering a silly question.
Meanwhile the country is at war, people are losing homes and are out of work and there are numerous items of public interest about which politicians are seeking to make views known. News panels are relegated to Sunday morning and the rest of important issues are at the end of the dial. It is not that we have no news or nothing important to discuss, but again the stations are as cluttered as the highway during the morning rush hour.
We have to ask what can be done. Our stations and networks are more or less given to us, but must we accept them? Communications people are most sensitive to ratings and popularity. If we do not look or listen, perhaps we will be smarter than a fifth-grader in something that really matters and we will not be called upon to remember the long forgotten lyrics of a generation ago.
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