It’s notable and of a piece with their arrogance that those who shout the loudest about “religions forcing their beliefs on others” are the same ones who are most vindictive about forcing their beliefs on the religious. For them, it’s not about freedom of religion: it’s about erasing religion. At least, the Christian religion.
The latest sortie in the war on Christianity in Australia comes, unsurprisingly, from the State-Sanctioned Suicide (SSS) lobby.
Right-to-die groups have denounced a senior Catholic Church leader for flagging that the last rites could be withheld from users of voluntary assisted dying programs.
The Australian
Why would anyone who is knowingly choosing to kill themselves expect to receive the last rites? Suicide has for 2000 years been regarded as a mortal sin in Catholic doctrine. The last rites are administered after a Penance — a confession of sin. If someone is choosing to end their life (strip away the fancy euphemisms, like “Voluntary Assisted Dying”, and the fact remains that it is an act of suicide), they are clearly not penitent.
Terminally ill people who end their lives with voluntary euthanasia could be denied the last rites from a Catholic priest when Queensland becomes the fourth state to operate a right-to-die program on January 1.
Uniting Church ministers in the state will also have discretion to refuse absolution to those who choose voluntary assisted dying, The Australian understands.
Note that the churches are not saying they will be denied. But that they could. This is in line with Catholic doctrine first outlined by John Paul II, that “grave psychological disturbances” or “suffering” can “diminish the responsibility of the one committing suicide”. So, the church can give the benefit of the doubt to a suicide and will commonly grant a Catholic funeral and burial.
But not necessarily the last rites.
Catholic Archbishop of Brisbane and former president of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference Mark Coleridge said people undertaking VAD would generally not receive the sacrament of Viaticum – Holy Communion for the dying – a key part of the last rites.
In situations where the person had persistently rejected the church’s teachings on the sanctity of life, the concluding Prayer for the Dead could also be withheld, Archbishop Coleridge said.Asked if Catholics should assume they would not receive Viaticum in the event that they resorted to VAD, he said: “I think that’s a fairly safe thing to say.
“That does not mean that the church can’t offer pastoral care, can’t surround the person and his or her family with prayer.”
Why would anyone expect any different? The Church is the Catholics’ “club”: they get to set the rules and anyone who wants to be a member ought to expect to abide by them. If you don’t like the rules, don’t join the club.
The anti-Christian lobby have already succeeded in forcing church-run hospitals to allow medical suicide on their premises, whether they want it or not.
The state’s largest private hospital service, the Catholic-aligned Mater Group, has reluctantly accepted that VAD will be conducted on its premises in the “rare” event that an alternative site can’t be found, or the patient is too ill to be moved.
The Australian
Naturally, though, that’s not enough for the rabidly anti-religious. They demand to force all their beliefs on to everyone.
TV identity Andrew Denton, whose powerful advocacy was important to the state by state rollout of VAD, rejected the comments by Archbishop of Brisbane Mark Coleridge as “a shameful act, devoid of love or Christian mercy towards the dying”.
Because, when it comes to matters of life, death and religion, a has-been talk-show host and loudmouth porch atheist is the guy we should be taking dictation from.
Then comes this stunning piece of un-self-awareness.
“If the leaders of this institution – which receives enormous subsidies from Australian taxpayers – wish to continue their acts of ferocity and contempt towards the wishes and laws of the broader community, then they can expect to see more of the same.”
The Australian
Andrew Denton owes his entire career to the Australian taxpayer, courtesy of the taxpayer-funded ABC. People in glass houses, Andrew.
Especially when the only “ferocity and contempt” on display is your ferocious contempt for Christianity.
But someone who not only refuses to join a club, but actively and violently hates the club, demanding that the club change its rules that only affect its members, to suit his beliefs is pretty much where we’re at in the Woke War on Christianity.