The Vatican is investigating the decision of a group of psychiatric care centres run by a Catholic religious order in Belgium to permit doctors to perform euthanasia of “non-terminal” mentally ill patients on its premises.
Brother René Stockman, superior general of the Brothers of Charity, told the Catholic News Service (CNS) that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, is personally examining the situation.
Brother Stockman, who is also a psychiatric care specialist, complained directly to Rome after the Brothers of Charity Group, which runs 15 centres for psychiatric patients across Belgium, rejected a formal request from him to reverse the new policy.
Brother Stockman told CNS that he had informed the Belgian bishops’ conference of the situation.
“At the same time, I am in contact with the Vatican – the Congregation [for Institutes] of Consecrated Life [and Societies of Apostolic Life] and the Secretary of State who asked me for more information,” he said, adding that he hoped that both the Belgian bishops and the Vatican would give a “clear answer”.
Brother Stockman suggested that the new policy could prevent the Brothers from giving psychiatric care in Belgium. They look after about 12,000 patients.
Brother Stockman said: “I wait for the clear answer of the Church and that answer will be presented to our organisation, in the hope that it will adapt its vision … I hope we will not have to withdraw our responsibility in the field of mental health care in the place where we started as a congregation with such care more than 200 years ago.”
Radical ideologies are a danger, says Benedict XVI
Radical Islam and radical atheism create “a dangerous situation for our age”, Benedict XVI has said.
He made the remarks in a statement read at an academic conference on “The Concept of the State From the Perspective of the Teachings of Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI”, held in Warsaw to mark his 90th birthday.
The topic was of key significance to the future of Europe, he said, in remarks translated by the National Catholic Register. “The contrast between the concepts of the radically atheistic state and the creation of the radically theocratic state by Muslim movements creates a dangerous situation for our age,” he wrote, “one whose effects we experience each day. These radical ideologies require us to urgently develop a convincing concept of the state that will stand up to the confrontation between these challenges and help to overcome it.”
Benedict referred to two “great” Poles, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński and Pope St John Paul II, “who not only reflected upon these issues, but also carried within themselves suffering and vivid experiences; thus they continue to give us guidelines for the future.”
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