Dear Cardinal Mahony,
Dear Brother Bishops,
1. With joy and affection I welcome you, the Bishops of the Church in
California, Nevada and Hawaii , on the occasion of your visit ad Limina
Apostolorum. Your pilgrimage to the tombs of the Apostles Peter and Paul is
a celebration of the ecclesial bonds linking your particular Churches to the See
of Peter. Mindful that the Church throughout the world is preparing to celebrate
the Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, I have chosen to devote this series of
reflections with you and your Brother Bishops to the renewal of the Church's
life envisaged by the Second Vatican Council. The Council was a gift of the Holy
Spirit to the Church, and its full implementation is the best means of ensuring
that the Catholic community in the United States enters the new millennium
strengthened in faith and holiness, effectively contributing to a better society
through its witness to the truth about man that is revealed in Jesus Christ (cf
Gaudium et Spes, 24). Indeed, the marvelous responsibility of the
Church in your country is to spread this truth, which "enlightens man's
intelligence and shapes his freedom, leading him to know and love the Lord"
(Veritatis Splendor, Proem).
We are coming to the end of a century which began with confidence in
humanity's prospects of almost unlimited progress, but which is now ending in
widespread fear and moral confusion. If we want a springtime of the human
spirit, we must rediscover the foundations of hope (cf. Address to the 50th
General Assembly of the United Nations Organization, October 5, 1995,
16-18). Above all, society must learn to embrace once more the great gift of
life, to cherish it, to protect it, and to defend it against the culture of
death, itself an expression of the great fear that stalks our times. One of your
most noble tasks as Bishops is to stand firmly on the side of life, encouraging
those who defend it and building with them a genuine culture of life.
2. The Second Vatican Council was quite aware of the forces shaping
contemporary society when it spoke out clearly in defense of human life against
the many threats facing it (cf Gaudium et Spes, 27). The Council also
made a priceless contribution to the culture of life by its eloquent
presentation of the full meaning of married love (cf ibid.,
48-51). Following the lead of the Council and expounding its teaching, Pope
Paul VI wrote the prophetic Encyclical Humanae Vitae, the thirtieth
anniversary of which we are celebrating this year, in which he addressed the
moral implications of the power to cooperate with the Creator in bringing new
life into the world. The Creator has made man and woman to complement one
another in love, and their union is no less than a sharing in the creative power
of God himself. Conjugal love serves life not only insofar as it generates new
life but also because, rightly understood as the total gift of spouses to one
another, it shapes the loving and caring context in which new life is
wholeheartedly welcomed as a gift of incomparable value.
Thirty years after Humanae Vitae, we see that mistaken ideas about the
individual's moral autonomy continue to inflict wounds on the consciences of
many people and on the life of society. Paul VI pointed out some of the
consequences of separating the unitive aspect of conjugal love from its
procreative dimension: a gradual weakening of moral discipline; a trivialization
of human sexuality; the demeaning of women; marital infidelity, often leading to
broken families; state-sponsored programs of population control based on imposed
contraception and sterilization (cf Humanae Vitae, 17). The introduction
of legalized abortion and euthanasia, ever increasing recourse to in vitro
fertilization, and certain forms of genetic manipulation and embryo
experimentation are also closely related in law and public policy, as well as in
contemporary culture, to the idea of unlimited dominion over one's body and
life.
The teaching of Humanae Vitae honors married love, promotes the
dignity of women, and helps couples grow in understanding the truth of their
particular path to holiness. It is also a response to contemporary culture's
temptation to reduce life to a commodity. As Bishops, together with your
priests, deacons, seminarians, and other pastoral personnel, you must find the
right language and imagery to present this teaching in a comprehensible and
compelling way. Marriage preparation programs should include an honest and
complete presentation of the Church's teaching on responsible procreation, and
should explain the natural methods of regulating fertility, the legitimacy of
which is based on respect for the human meaning of sexual intimacy. Couples who
have embraced the teaching of Pope Paul VI have discovered that it is truly a
source of profound unity and joy, nourished by their increased mutual
understanding and respect; they should be invited to share their experience with
engaged couples taking part in marriage preparation programs.
3. Reflection on a very different anniversary serves to heighten the sense of
the urgency of the pro-life task. In the twenty-five years which have
passed since the judicial decision legalizing abortion in your country there has
been a widespread mobilization of consciences in support of life. The pro-life
movement is one of the most positive aspects of American public life, and the
support given it by the Bishops is a tribute to your pastoral leadership.
Despite the generous efforts of so many, however, the idea that elective
abortion is a "right" continues to be asserted. Moreover, there are signs of an
almost unimaginable insensitivity to the reality of what actually happens during
an abortion, as evidenced in recent events surrounding so-called "partial-birth"
abortion. This is a cause for deep concern. A society with a diminished sense of
the value of human life at its earliest stages has already opened the door to a
culture of death. As Pastors, you must make every effort to ensure that there is
no dulling of consciences regarding the seriousness of the crime of abortion --
a crime which cannot be morally justified by any circumstance, purpose or law
(cf Evangelium Vitae, 62).
Those who would defend life must make alternatives to abortion increasingly
visible and available. Your recent pastoral statement, Lights and Shadows,
draws attention to the need to support women in crisis pregnancies, and to
provide counseling services for those who have had an abortion and must cope
with its psychological and spiritual effects. Likewise, the unconditional
defense of life must always include the message that true healing is possible,
through reconciliation with the Body of Christ. In the spirit of the coming
Great Jubilee of the Year 2000, American Catholics should be more than ever
willing to open their hearts and their homes to "unwanted" and abandoned
children, to young people in difficulty, to the handicapped and those who have
no one to care for them.
4. The Church likewise offers a truly vital service to the nation when she
awakens public awareness to the morally objectionable nature of campaigns for
the legalization of physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia. Euthanasia and
suicide are grave violations of God's law (cf Evangelium Vitae, 65 and
66); their legalization introduces a direct threat to the persons least
capable of defending themselves and it proves most harmful to the democratic
institutions of society. The fact that Catholics have worked successfully with
members of other Christian communities to resist efforts to legalize
physician-assisted suicide is a very hopeful sign for the future of ecumenical
public witness in your country and I urge you to build an even broader
ecumenical and inter-religious movement in defense of the culture of life and
the civilization of love.
As ecumenical witness in defense of life develops, a great teaching effort is
needed to clarify the substantive moral difference between discontinuing medical
procedures that may be burdensome, dangerous or disproportionate to the expected
outcome - what the Catechism of the Catholic Church calls "the refusal of
'over-zealous' treatment" (No. 2278; cf Evangelium Vitae, 65) - and
taking away the ordinary means of preserving life, such as feeding, hydration
and normal medical care. The statement of the United States Bishops' Pro-Life
Committee, Nutrition and Hydration: Moral and Pastoral Considerations,
rightly emphasizes that the omission of nutrition and hydration intended to
cause a patient's death must be rejected and that, while giving careful
consideration to all the factors involved, the presumption should be in favor of
providing medically assisted nutrition and hydration to all patients who need
them. To blur this distinction is to introduce a source of countless injustices
and much additional anguish, affecting both those already suffering from ill
health or the deterioration which comes with age, and their loved ones.
5. In a culture that has difficulty in defining the meaning of life,
death and suffering, the Christian message is the good news of Christ's victory
over death and the certain hope of resurrection. The Christian accepts death as
the supreme act of obedience to the Father, and is ready to meet death at the
"hour" known only to him (cf Mk 13:32). Life is a pilgrimage in faith to the
Father, on which we travel in the company of his Son and the Saints in heaven.
Precisely for this reason, the very real trial of suffering can become a source
of good. Through suffering, we actually have a part in Christ's redemptive work
for the Church and humanity (cf Salvifici Doloris, 14-24). This is so
when suffering is "experienced for love and with love through sharing, by God's
gracious gift and one's own personal and free choice, in the suffering of Christ
crucified" (Evangelium Vitae, 67).
The work of Catholic health care institutions in meeting the physical
and spiritual needs of the sick is a form of imitation of Christ who, in the
words of Saint Ignatius of Antioch, is "the doctor of the flesh and of the
spirit" (Ad Ephesios, 7, 2). Doctors, nurses and other medical personnel
deal with people in their time of trial, when they have an acute sense of life's
fragility and precariousness; just when they most resemble the suffering Jesus
in Gethsemane and on Calvary. Health care professionals should always bear in
mind that their work is directed to individuals, unique persons in whom God's
image is present in a singular way and in whom he has invested his infinite
love. The sickness of a family member, friend or neighbor is a call to
Christians to demonstrate true compassion, that gentle and persevering
sharing in another's pain. Likewise, the handicapped and those who are ill must
never feel that they are a burden; they are persons being visited by the Lord.
The terminally ill in particular deserve the solidarity, communion and affection
of those around them; they often need to be able to forgive and to be forgiven,
to make peace with God and with others. All priests should appreciate the
pastoral importance of celebrating the Sacrament of the Anointing of the Sick,
particularly when it is the prelude to the final journey to the Father's house:
when its meaning as the sacramentum exeuntium is particularly evident (cf
Catechism of the Catholic Church, 1523).
6. An essential feature of support for the inalienable right to life, from
conception to natural death, is the effort to provide legal protection for the
unborn, the handicapped, the elderly, and those suffering from terminal illness.
As Bishops, you must continue to draw attention to the relationship of the moral
law to constitutional and positive law in your society: "Laws which legitimize
the direct killing of innocent human beings are in complete opposition to the
inviolable right to life proper to every individual; they thus deny the equality
of everyone before the law" (Evangelium Vitae, 72). What is at stake here
is nothing less than the indivisible truth about the human person on which the
Founding Fathers staked your nation's claim to independence. The life of a
country is much more than its material development and its power in the world. A
nation needs a "soul". It needs the wisdom and courage to overcome the moral
ills and spiritual temptations inherent in its march through history. In union
with all those who favor a "culture of life" over a "culture of death",
Catholics, and especially Catholic legislators, must continue to make their
voices heard in the formulation of cultural, economic, political and legislative
projects which, "with respect for all and in keeping with democratic principles,
will contribute to the building of a society in which the dignity of each
person is recognized and the lives of all are defended and enhanced" (Evangelium
Vitae, 90). Democracy stands or falls with the values which it
embodies and promotes (cf. Evangelium Vitae, 70). In defending life you
are defending an original and vital part of the vision on which your country was
built. America must become, again, a hospitable society, in which every unborn
child and every handicapped or terminally ill person is cherished and enjoys the
protection of the law.
7. Dear Brother Bishops, Catholic moral teaching
