The Catholic Leader - 7 May

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The Catholic Leader, May 7, 2017
News
MISPLACED compassion can
lead to calls for euthanasia and
doctor-assisted suicide, accord-
ing to a pastoral letter issued by
four bishops in Victoria.
The letter was issued amid a
renewed push in Victoria and
elsewhere in Australia to intro-
duce “right-to-die” laws.
The bishops, headed by Mel-
bourne Archbishop Denis Hart,
have called on the Catholic
community to continue to com-
mit to care for the frail, elderly,
sick and dying at every stage of
their life journey, and to ensure
that they have “appropriate care,
support and pain management”
at all times.
“Assistance in our time of dy-
ing is something that we should
all want for ourselves and for
others – however, this should
not involve a lethal injection
or offering a lethal dose,” the
bishops said.
The letter urges Catholics not
to abandon their loved ones but
to continue to love and care for
them.
It quotes Pope Francis who
recently said: “The predomi-
nant school of thought some-
times leads to a ‘false compas-
sion’ which holds that it is ...
an act of dignity to perform
euthanasia.
“Instead, the compassion of
the Gospel is what accompanies
us in times of need, that com-
passion of the Good Samaritan,
who ‘sees’, ‘has compassion’,
draws near and provides con-
crete help.”
The bishops’ pastoral letter
states bluntly that “euthanasia
and assisted suicide are the
opposite of care and represent
the abandonment of the sick and
the suffering, of older and dying
persons”.
It calls upon Catholics not
only to pray but also to act,
encouraging individuals, lay
groups, associations, parishes
and priests to step up their
efforts in opposing euthanasia,
in contacting their members
of parliament, in contributing
locally and powerfully to pro-
mote life and increase commit-
ment to excellence in palliative
care.
“We should be clear – there is
no safe way to kill people or to
help them to their own suicide,”
the letter says.
CultureWatch’s Bill Mue-
hlenberg, who recently released
a book The Challenge of Eutha-
nasia, described the worldwide
experience of euthanasia as “a
slippery slope”.
“Consider the Remmelink
Report, an official Dutch
government survey of euthana-
sia practices, found that more
than one thousand patients are
involuntarily euthanised each
year,” Mr Muehlenberg said,
speaking at a recent forum at
the Queensland Parliamentary
Annex in Brisbane, promoting
his new book.
“As one Oxford philosopher
put it, the Dutch experience
clearly shows that ‘even with
stringent safeguards, once
voluntary euthanasia is legalised
the descent down the slippery
slope is inevitable’.”
– Mark Bowling
Bishops
speaking
out about
euthanasia
‘This is no way for a child to grow up, without an
education, without a proper home’
Reaching out: Ora Duffley with one of the children she met while volunteering in northern Iraq recently.
Lending a hand in Iraq
By Mark Bowling
BRISBANE Catholic teach-
er Ora Duffley has returned
from a confronting few
weeks on mission helping
Christian refugees in north-
ern Iraq.
Miss Duffley set off before Easter to
join the French Catholic mission SOS
Chrétien’s d’Orient, working hand in
hand with local people and parishes on
the ground.
Even though she was well-read on
the ongoing war against ISIS, she said
nothing could prepare her for what she
encountered.
“To see the Blackhawks (military
helicopters) and the abandoned build-
ings … the country is just in ruins,
because of war after war,” she said.
Miss Duffley arrived in Erbil where
SOS teams work with refugee fami-
lies, mainly Chaldean Catholics and
other Christians, who fled from Mosul
and the surrounding Nineveh Plains
towns of Bashika, Bartella, Teleskuf,
Karemless and Qaraqosh.
They help in whatever way is needed
including supplying washing machines,
cookers, furniture, water filters, medi-
cal and hygiene packs, food, toys for
the children and school supplies.
“I have seen children too sick
to move, whose families have lost
everything and now sleep together on
the floor and live on the charity of the
Church and the donations of SOS Chré-
tien’s d’Orient,” Miss Duffley said.
While confronted by dismal living
conditions, she said the refugee fami-
lies were “resourceful and resilient”.
“They touch your heart, because
they make the best of such a terrible
situation which has been cast upon
them through no fault of their own,”
Miss Duffley said.
“They live in makeshift tents, too
hot in the summer, too cold in the win-
ter, and despite this harsh existence,
they smile, they laugh and play.
“But this is no way for a child
to grow up, without an education,
without a proper home, without loved
ones, many of whom have been killed
or have simply disappeared since
Daesh (ISIS) destroyed their peaceful
existence and its soldiers overran the
Nineveh Plains in 2014.
“Again and again, I listened through
tears, as old women relived the horror
of living with ISIS who took their
village.”
About 70 per cent of Iraq’s Chris-
tians are from the Chaldean Catholic
tradition.
In northern Iraq, it’s estimated that
at the time Mosul was invaded by
ISIS in June 2014, only about 3000
Christians were left from the 35,000
there in 2003.
The challenge for international
aid groups and volunteers is to make
Christians feel safe enough to return to
their war-ravaged region and rebuild
their communities.
During her stay, Miss Duffley
helped deliver 400 water filters to peo-
ple returning to the town of Teleskuf.
The filters were partly funded by
money she raised in Brisbane, includ-
ing donations from readers of The
Catholic Leader.
“We were able to present them with
a means to have clean, safe water,”
she said.
“Up until that point they had not
had that.
“It was another step forward,
another sign of hope that life can get
back to normal.”
On Palm Sunday, Miss Duffley
travelled to the once-thriving Christian
town of Qaraqosh.
“I have read the stories of the
atrocities carried out there, but it was
overwhelming and shocking to actu-
ally see, to actually walk the ground,”
she said.
“Nothing prepared me for that and it
struck me to the core.
“We stood there, other volunteers
and I, in the midst of a bombed and
burnt-out church, our tears flowed.
“It had once been the pride of the
town, the place at the heart of the town
where people had gone to worship, a
place they loved.”
Miss Duffley attended a Palm Sun-
day Mass in the church ruins, the first
Mass held there since Qaraqosh was
abandoned in 2014.
Returning families filled the
church, including women dressed
in their colourful traditional cloth-
ing, flanked by a special unit of the
new Iraqi army made up of Christian
soldiers.
“I offered a prayer that one day this
city, its people and its churches will
once again flourish,” Miss Duffley said.
She intends to return to northern
Iraqi to resume her volunteer mission
work with SOS later this year.
Miss Duffley encouraged other Aus-
tralians to also take up the volunteer
call.
“Particularly tradesmen are
needed,” she said.
“Their skills are needed for the mas-
sive rebuilding underway. And also to
train young Iraqis to have the skills to
continue with that work.”
To donate to help Miss Duffley’s
volunteer work, go to
.
Return: Military protect the Christians in Qaraqosh, Northern Iraq, during their
first Palm Sunday parade for a few years. The town has been destroyed.
Photo: SOS Chretiens d’Orient