Canada Catholic head: 'Unjust' to force doctors on assisted suicide

Canada Catholic head: 'Unjust' to force doctors on assisted suicide | Canada | Reuters

JMJ

I have placed this under the 'crisis of the Church' because I believe that ultimately the woes of our society are due to the failure of the Catholic Church, her hierarchy and members.

P^3

Source: Reuters


Canada Catholic head: 'Unjust' to force doctors on assisted suicide

Mon Mar 7, 2016 11:33pm EST

 








1 of 1Full Size


TORONTO (Reuters) - The head of Canada's biggest Catholic group opposed the country's pending doctor-assisted suicide legislation in a statement to be read at 225 Toronto churches on Sunday, saying it was "unjust" to force doctors to act against their conscience.

"It is unjust to force people to act against their conscience in order to be allowed to practice as a physician," Cardinal Thomas Collins, head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Toronto, said in the text of his statement.

Canada's Supreme Court struck down a ban on assisted suicide in 2015 and gave lawmakers a year to come up with legislation to regulate the practice.

The newly elected Liberal government was given a four-month extension this year to a develop a national law for the practice, under which doctors opposed to assisted suicide have to recommend someone willing to perform it.

Collins who is expected to deliver his statement personally during mass at St. Paul's Basilica, home to Toronto's oldest Catholic congregation, said while assisted suicide is "never justified," those with terminal illnesses could refuse treatment.

Collins also criticized what he says is the broadness of the proposed law, which offers assisted suicide to minors and those with psychiatric conditions.   

The French-speaking province of Quebec had already put its own law into effect in December. Since the change in provincial law on Dec. 10, at least one person carried out an assisted suicide in Quebec City.

Polls show physician-assisted suicide has broad support but the issue has divided politicians in Parliament as they grapple with how to protect vulnerable Canadians while respecting their rights and choices at the end of life.



(Reporting by Ethan Lou; Editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

Comments

News Roundup: October 19, 2026

+ JMJ Well ... I was looking in my blog drafts and found this list from after my News is an Addiction post. So ... yep ... not totally able to disconnect from the news world at this point. Frankly, I haven't read all of these articles - they catch my eye as I check for SSPX news regarding the exco's etc. So let's consider these topics as part of a higher level chronicle. They may not be key inflection points but helps to understand the flow of the world as perceived by the authors and myself who captured them as a snapshot in time. P^3 1 Popes Past Present and Future Benedict XVI and the Reforms of the Second Vatican Council: Re-Catholicizing the Liturgy—Part I - Adoremus RORATE CÆLI: France: Pope Lays Down the Law on Euthanasia RORATE CÆLI: "I went to France to preach the Gospel -- the Defense of Life is something that the Church believes very deeply" RORATE CÆLI: Image of the Day: the Pope at the Rebuilt Notre-Dame de Paris RORATE CÆLI: Leo XIV and the Place...

The Debt Canadian Traditional Catholics Owe to Fr. Yves Normandin (RIP)

+ JMJ On this All Souls day, I'd like to remind all Traditional Catholics in Canada the debt that they owe to Fr. Yves Normandin (RIP). Fr. Normandin stepped into the breach in the 1970's offering the Tridentine Mass across Canada for close to a decade before returning to his diocese for a number years before returning to the SSPX. I had the grace to visit him in Quebec twice and each time left with a greater appreciation of the fruits of his efforts. All of us 'old-timers' probably remembers Masses in Chapels, Homes, Halls, Funeral Homes, and event convention centres. I make the assertion that this laid the ground for all the Traditional Mass Communities, SSPX, FSSP, Diocesan and others. Probably a pretty safe assertion! In addition to praying for the repose of the Soul of Fr. Normandin, I'd ask you also pray for the repose of the soul of his Mother. I remember seeing her picture once and everyone has a Mom and she is worthy of our prayers for producing such a so...

Morning and Evening and other sundry Prayers

+ JMJ Along the theme of P^3 (Prayer, Penance, Patience), and for my own reference ... here is a collection of Morning and Evening prayers from the Ideal Daily Missal along with some additional prayers. In this crisis of the Church, I do not think it is possible to do too much prayer, penance and have patience. P^3

SSPX: Requiescat in Pace - Nov. Devotions

+ JMJ Recently, the St. Gertrude prayer was recommended to me and given my devotion to the Holy Souls in Purgatory, I thought it a good inclusion in the morning prayers and post it here for as a reminder for November - the Month of the Holy Souls. P^3 Courtesy of SSPX.org “Forget not the dead and hasten to pray for them!” - such is the Church's recommendation, beautifully summarized by St. Augustine. In Purgatory until the End of the World Our Lady Herself referred to Purgatory when, at the first Fatima apparition in May 1917, she was asked by Lucia about the souls of two young village girls who had recently died. The Virgin answered that the first one, Maria das Nevas, who died when about 16 years of age, was in Heaven. But of Amelia, a young lady of 18 years at her death, "will be in purgatory until the end of the world.” The disclosure about Amelia’s prolonged period of expiation never fails to shock and trouble. We are so easily misled to believe that Heaven is our natura...

The News is an Addiction ...

+ JMJ People seem to be mesmerised by train wrecks. They just can't turn away as the disaster creeps forward along train tracks towards the crossing where a car, truck, bus, trailer awaits its destruction. Trads have been watching the train wreck that is this crisis of the Catholic Church for decades. The trade war between the Canada and the US has reminded me that the news is addictive. The first time I was addicted what from 2009 to 2014 when I was closely following the Rome / SSPX discussions. I was at work watching a live-stream as Bishop Fellay disappeared into the Vatican. The lead-up to this moment had been intense as the 'resistance' got freaked out and the cultural cracks between doctrine and conspiracy theory widened. In the decade since then other things have emerged, wars, rumours of wars, conspiracies, celebrity Catholics etc. Now we have a new addiction and its name is Trump. Lately, no matter how much I try, I find myself wonderin...

Tradicat

Search This Blog