Fr. Z's Blog | Formerly entitled: "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" – Clear, straight commentary on Catholic issues, liturgy and life by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf o{]:¬)

Symbolon Quicumque

Posted on 2 May 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

trinity I penned this for the Catholic Herald, the UK’s best Catholic weekly.

The mighty foe of Arians, St Athanasius of Alexandria (d 373), Bishop and Doctor of the Church, is celebrated on 2 May in both the newer and the traditional Roman calendars. In his struggles to defend Catholic Truth, Athanasius took on gangs of heretics, bishops and emperors. For his efforts he was rewarded with exile five times.

Confusion reigns in many spheres of the Church right now about what the Church truly holds to be true about faith and morals. Some well-placed pundits ignore the fact of the Church’s perennial interpretations and now imply that we can’t know for sure what the Lord taught. Others respond that the doctrinal and practical controversies of these our own days bear a strong resemblance to the era when Holy Church was torn asunder by Arian heresy.

When controversies arose in the past, the Church issued Creeds, dense bullet points, which we could recite and, thereby, avoid error and maintain unity. We all know the common Creeds, such as the Apostles Creed and the Nicean-Constantinopolitan Creed recited at Mass. But there are other Creeds. For example, in 1968 Paul VI issued the comprehensive, non-liturgical “Credo of the People of God”.

Speaking of Athanasius, we also have the magnificent “Athanasian” Creed (Symbolon Quicumque), commonly attributed to the saintly doctor. A mediaeval legend holds that Athanasius, during one of his exiles, gave the text to Pope Julius I. J.N.D. Kelly, who wrote a book on this Creed, (USA HERE – UK HERE) suggests that St Vincent of Lérin (d c 435) might have been the author. Authorship aside, it contains precise Trinitarian and Christological statements and ends with the less-than-ambiguous: “This is the Catholic Faith; which except a man believe truly and firmly, he cannot be saved.”

The “Athanasian Creed”, against Arianism, Sabellianism, Nestorianism, and Eutychianism, could be a wonderful starting point for study, prayer and meditation.

Our classical Creeds are for the head what our good works are for the heart. We recite the basics of the Faith in which we believe (fides quae creditur) so that we, and others, can know who we are. The Creeds are rehearsals of Faith and preparations for moments of truth called witness (martyrdom).

Look up the Athanasian Creed. Print it out. Pocket it. Review it occasionally. Host a gathering or a meal with friends. Hand out copies, stand up and recite it aloud with a full, strong voice. Savor the lack of ambiguity!

Here is the Athanasian Creed:

Whoever wants to be saved should above all cling to the Catholic faith. Whoever does not guard it whole and inviolable will doubtless perish eternally. Now this is the Catholic faith: We venerate one God in trinity and the Trinity in unity (unum Deum in Trinitate, et Trinitatem in unitate veneremur), neither confusing the persons nor dividing the divine being. For the Father is one Person, the Son is another, and the Spirit is still another. But the deity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit is one, equal in glory, coeternal in majesty. What the Father is, the Son is, and so is the Holy Spirit. Uncreated is the Father; uncreated is the Son; uncreated is the Spirit. The Father is infinite; the Son is infinite; the Holy Spirit is infinite. Eternal is the Father; eternal is the Son; eternal is the Spirit: And yet there are not three eternal beings, but one who is eternal; as there are not three uncreated and unlimited beings, but one who is uncreated and unlimited. Almighty is the Father; almighty is the Son; almighty is the Spirit: And yet there are not three almighty beings, but one who is almighty. Thus the Father is God; the Son is God; the Holy Spirit is God: And yet there are not three gods, but one God. Thus the Father is Lord; the Son is Lord; the Holy Spirit is Lord: And yet there are not three lords, but one Lord. As Christian truth compels us to acknowledge each distinct person as God and Lord, so Catholic religion forbids us to say that there are three gods or lords. The Father was neither made nor created nor begotten; the Son was neither made nor created, but was alone begotten of the Father; the Spirit was neither made nor created, but is proceeding from the Father and the Son. Thus there is one Father, not three fathers; one Son, not three sons; one Holy Spirit, not three spirits. And in this Trinity, no one is before or after, greater or less than the other; but all three Persons are in themselves, coeternal and coequal (coaeternae sibi sunt et coaequales); and so we must worship the Trinity in unity and the one God in three Persons. Whoever wants to be saved should think thus about the Trinity.

Posted in Hard-Identity Catholicism, Patristiblogging | Tagged Athanasian Creed, Symbolon Quicumque
11 Comments

Archd. Kansas City breaks with Girl Scouts, tied to Big Business Abortion provider Planned Parenthood, etc.

Posted on 1 May 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was alerted to a statement (HERE) from His Excellency Most Reverend Joseph Naumann that the Archdiocese of Kansas City (Kansas) is instructing parishes to cut their ties with the Girl Scouts because of their support of Big Business Abortion – Planned Parenthood.

Statement Regarding Archdiocesan Transition from Girl Scouts to American Heritage Girls
By Archbishop Joseph F Naumann
May 1, 2017

After several consultations with the Presbyteral Council and with the recommendation of our Office for Youth Ministry, I have asked the pastors of the Archdiocese to begin the process of transitioning away from the hosting of parish Girl Scout troops and toward the chartering of American Heritage Girls troops. [I haven’t heard of them. But this is a good sign.]

Pastors were given the choice of making this transition quickly, [recommended] or to, over the next several years, “graduate” the Scouts currently in the program. Regardless of whether they chose the immediate or phased transition, parishes should be in the process of forming American Heritage Girl troops, at least for their kindergarteners, this fall.

The decision to end our relationship with Girl Scouting was not an easy one. Over a period of many years, our Archdiocesan Youth Ministry staff spent hundreds of hours researching concerns regarding the policies of both the International and the National Girl Scouting organizations. In addition, they have spent hundreds of hours in dialogue with Scouts, parents, pastors, and national Girl Scouting representatives regarding our concerns with disturbing content in materials and resources developed and promulgated by the national organization. I personally have been in conversation with national and local Girl Scout leaders regarding my concerns about the new direction of national Girl Scouting reflected in the content of their program materials.

Eventually it came down to this. Our greatest responsibility as a church is to the children and young people in our care. We have a limited time and number of opportunities to impact the formation of our young people. It is essential that all youth programs at our parishes affirm virtues and values consistent with our Catholic faith. [Do I hear an “Amen!”?]

To follow Jesus and his Gospel will often require us to be counter-cultural. With the promotion by Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) of programs and materials reflective of many of the troubling trends in our secular culture, they are no longer a compatible partner in helping us form young women with the virtues and values of the Gospel.

The national organization, for example, contributes more than a million dollars each year to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGS), an organization tied to International Planned Parenthood and its advocacy for legislation that includes both contraception and abortion as preventive health care for women.

Margret Sanger, Betsy Friedan and Gloria Steinem are frequently held up in materials as role models for young Scouts. [Disgusting.] These as well as many other “role models” in the GSUSA’s new manuals and web content not only do not reflect our Catholic worldview but stand in stark opposition to what we believe.

While I am grateful that offensive and completely age-inappropriate material was recently removed by GSUSA from portions of their Journey series of manuals in response to concerns raised by the Archdiocese of Kansas City in Kansas and others, it is disturbing such an intervention on our part was necessary. We prefer to partner with youth organizations that share our values and vision for youth ministry, not ones that we have to monitor constantly to protect our children from being misled and misinformed.

American Heritage Girls, a program based on Christian values, we believe is a much better fit for our parishes. I encourage you to read more about the American Heritage Girl program by going to its website, www.americanheritagegirls.org. For more information about the history of and issues surrounding our Girl Scouting decision, go to www.archkck.org/scouting-home.

On a final note, I want to express my appreciation for the many extraordinary Girl Scout leaders of the archdiocese who have served so many so well. We look forward to having as many of them as are willing join us in leadership roles as we take this new step into the formation of our girls. I will always be grateful for their exceptional service.

Fr. Z kudos to Archbishop Naumann.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices | Tagged abortion, Archd. Kansas City, big business abortion, Girl Scouts, Planned Parenthood
40 Comments

Hurray! It’s Maÿ!

Posted on 1 May 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

UPDATE 2 May:

On a day when we are getting frost warnings from NOAH this comes from a reader, but as I listened I could hear lots of birds out of doors, especially the chicakdees who are chatting…

You may/may not have come across this. The chap reading is an Australian, but a professor of English who’s studied Barnes’s poetry and the Dorset dialect. What’s interesting, though, is that he has different words in places to the poem you put up on the blog.

I was going to attempt to read it, but my accent would’ve been a bit too Zumerzet y, to be accurate!

I enjoyed the recording. Scroll down to find it HERE.

__ Originally Published on: May 1, 2017 __

A few years ago I found a wonderful poem about the merry month of May over at the site of the always-to-be-followed Laudator. It is too good not to repost today.

Read it aloud!

I would love to have a recording of this read by a native of Dorset. Can any of you readers help? Record it and send it to me by email!

William Barnes (1801-1886), Maÿ, from Poems of Rural Life in the Dorset Dialect (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1898), pp. 20-22. (US HERE – UK HERE)

The Oxford Companion to English Literature (US HERE – UK HERE) says, “According to his many admirers, who included Tennyson, G.M. Hopkins, Hardy, and Gosse, Barnes was a lyric poet of the first rank, but the difficulties presented by the Dorset dialect have restricted his audience and contributed to the image of a quaint provincial versifier.” The “difficulties presented by the Dorset dialect” are minimal — one soon figures out that v is sometimes substituted for f, d for th, z for s, etc. The only words that gave me pause in Maÿ were alassen = lest, mid = might, parrock = small field, and rig = climb:

Come out o’ door, ’tis Spring! ’tis Maÿ
The trees be green, the vields be gaÿ;
The weather’s warm, the winter blast,
Wi’ all his traïn o’ clouds, is past;
The zun do rise while vo’k do sleep,
To teäke a higher daily zweep,
Wi’ cloudless feäce a-flingèn down
His sparklèn light upon the groun’.

The aïrs a-streamèn soft,—come drow
The winder open; let it blow
In drough the house, where vire, an’ door
A-shut, kept out the cwold avore.
Come, let the vew dull embers die,
An’ come below the open sky;
An’ wear your best, vor fear the groun’
In colours gaÿ mid sheäme your gown:
An’ goo an’ rig wi’ me a mile
Or two up over geäte an’ stile,
Drough zunny parrocks that do leäd,
Wi’ crooked hedges, to the meäd,
Where elems high, in steätely ranks,
Do rise vrom yollow cowslip-banks,
An’ birds do twitter vrom the spraÿ
O’ bushes deck’d wi’ snow-white maÿ;
An’ gil’cups, wi’ the deäisy bed,
Be under ev’ry step you tread.

We’ll wind up roun’ the hill, an’ look
All down the thickly-timber’d nook,
Out where the squier’s house do show
His grey-wall’d peaks up drough the row
O’ sheädy elems, where the rook
Do build her nest; an’ where the brook
Do creep along the meäds, an’ lie
To catch the brightness o’ the sky;
An’ cows, in water to theïr knees,
Do stan’ a-whiskèn off the vlees.

Mother o’ blossoms, and ov all
That’s feäir, a-vield vrom Spring till Fall,
The gookoo over white-weäv’d seas
Do come to zing in thy green trees,
An’ buttervlees, in giddy flight,
Do gleäm the mwost by thy gaÿ light
Oh! when, at last, my fleshly eyes
Shall shut upon the vields an’ skies,
Mid zummer’s zunny days be gone,
An’ winter’s clouds be comèn on:
Nor mid I draw upon the e’th,
O’ thy sweet air my leätest breath;
Alassen I mid want to staÿ
Behine’ for thee, O flow’ry Maÿ!

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Posted in Linking Back, Poetry | Tagged Dorset, May, Poetry, Willam Barnes
1 Comment

1 May: Feast of the Prophet St. Jeremiah

Posted on 1 May 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Today is not only the feast of St. Joseph the worker, but also the feast of the prophet Jeremiah.

Some people do not know that many figures of the Old Testament are considered saints by the Catholic Church. They are not celebrated on our main liturgical calendar but they are in the Roman Martyrology, an official liturgical book.

Here is the text of the 2005 MartRom, which I will leave to you readers to work through animi caussa (just for fun)!

Commemoratio sancti Ieremiae, prophetae, qui, tempore Ioachim et Sedeciae, regum Iudae, Civitatis Sanctae eversionem populique deportationem monens, multas persecutiones passus est, quam ob rem Ecclesia eum habuit ut Christi patientis figuram. Novum aeternumque insuper Testamentum in ipso Christo Iesu consummandum praenuntiavit, quo Pater omnipotens legem suam in imo filiorum Israel corde scriberet, ut esset ipse iis in Deum et essent illi ei in populum.

Enjoy!

The moderation queue is ON so that you can work on your own English version without the distraction of someone else’s. I’ll release them later in the day.

Posted in Saints: Stories & Symbols | Tagged Jeremiah
2 Comments

Confraternity of Catholic Clergy: a question

Posted on 30 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fathers.

Have you heard if there is much going on with the various national iterations of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy? I’ve look around on their websites, but I don’t see all that much posted.

Inquiring minds what to know.

The moderation queue is ON. I read everything.

Posted in Mail from priests, Priests and Priesthood | Tagged Confraternity of Catholic Clergy
2 Comments

Your Sunday Sermon Notes and a “fervorino”

Posted on 30 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Was there a good point in the sermon you heard for your Mass of Sunday obligation?

Let us know.

Here’s a mini-sermon, a bloggy fervorino for this Sunday.

For a couple days one of you readers has been sending me high resolution images of beautiful old holy cards. They simultaneously reflect the deep piety of the people and of the era of their making, and they also increase piety by looking at them. I am sincerely moved by the images, which can be both simple and packed. Some people might dub them old-fashioned or even saccharine, I don’t care. They work!

Because today is, in the older, traditional Roman Rite, nicknamed Good Shepherd Sunday, here is a lovely card which I received. It shamelessly mixes metaphors (shepherd, tossed boat), but aptly sums up what our own attitude ought to be in the chaos of the Church today. It is also perfect for this Sunday. Have a good look, then read the readings for the day, below.

The jaded might scratch their heads and wonder why the lamb is in a boat. Maybe the lamb got lost? I say lamb, because its age and size are proportioned to the Lord, who appears to be young. I suppose this was a card intended for children.

Now consider today’s Epistle, in which the Lord is described as being both Shepherd and Bishop of the soul.

Lesson
Lesson from the first letter of St Peter the Apostle
1 Pet 2:21-25

Dearly beloved, Christ suffered for us, leaving you an example, that you should follow His steps who did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth. Who when He was reviled, did not revile: when He suffered, He threatened not, but delivered Himself to him that judged Him unjustly: who His own self bore our sins in His body upon the tree: that we, being dead to sins, should live to justice; by whose stripes you were healed. For you were as sheep going astray: but you are now converted to the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.

Allelúia, allelúia
Luke 24:35.
The disciples knew the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread. Allelúia
John 10:14.
I am the good Shepherd: and I know My sheep, and Mine know Me.
Allelúia.

Now let’s bring in another text, the Collect of the Mass, as an interpretive aid. It says:

O God, who, by the humility of Thy Son, didst lift up a fallen world, grant unending happiness to Thy faithful: that those whom Thou hast snatched from the perils of endless death, Thou mayest cause to rejoice in everlasting days….

The perils of death… endless death. In our holy card, things aren’t looking good for the lamb’s future… if it weren’t for the Lord, look over him. In the image, the Lord is the lamb’s Shepherd (pastor) and, literal, Over-Looker (episcopus).

However, can drill a little more into the boat and bishop connection? What’s with the lamb in the storm-tossed boat and Christ as the “Bishop of our souls”?

The word for Bishop in 1 Peter 2:25 is episkopos (epi-, which intensifies, and –skopos, “seer”, as in English telescope, microscope, etc.), so, “keen observer”. In ancient times the episkopos inspected troops before for battle. In the Church, the episkopos, the bishop, inspects, guides and governs the soldier pilgrims of the Church Militant, He makes sure that they are ready for what is to come so that they can attain their goal: victory and return to the fatherland. A similar figure and language shows up in our liturgical prayers. Another image like the episcopus, and also military, is the gubernator. Gubernator, in our sumptuous Lewis & Short Dictionary is from guberno, “to steer or pilot a ship”. Logically, it also means “to direct, manage, conduct, govern, guide”. The Liddell, Scott, Jones Greek Lexicon, or LSJ, says that kubernao is “steer”, “drive” and, metaphorically “guide, govern” and then “act as a pilot”. The episcopus and the gubernator do pretty much the same thing, one on the land, the other on the sea… or, ecclesiastically, in the see.

Look again at our image, above. Christ is both Good Shepherd of the soul (hence, the lamb), and Bishop of the soul (hence the boat). He is our true Captain, as it were, in this storm-tossed barque which is the Church.

Gospel

Cleanse my heart and my lips, O almighty God, who didst cleanse the lips of the prophet Isaias with a burning coal, and vouchsafe, through Thy gracious mercy, so to purify me, that I may worthily announce Thy holy Gospel. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Give me Thy blessing, O Lord. The Lord be in my heart and on my lips, that I may worthily and in a becoming manner, proclaim His holy Gospel. Amen.

P. The Lord be with you.
S. And with thy spirit.
Continuation ? of the Holy Gospel according to John
R. Glory be to Thee, O Lord.
John 10:11-16.

At that time Jesus said to the Pharisees: I am the good Shepherd. The good Shepherd giveth his life for his sheep. But the hireling, and he that is not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming and leaveth the sheep and flieth: and the wolf catcheth and scattereth the sheep: and the hireling flieth, because he is a hireling, and he hath no care for the sheep. I am the good Shepherd: and I know Mine, and Mine know Me, as the Father knoweth Me, and I know the Father: and I lay down My life for My sheep. And other sheep I have that are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear My voice, and there shall be one fold and one shepherd.

R. Praise be to Thee, O Christ.
S. By the words of the Gospel may our sins be blotted out.

Posted in Our Catholic Identity | Tagged Good Shepherd Sunday, holy cards
15 Comments

ASK FATHER: TLM of “anticipation” on Saturday evening

Posted on 29 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a priest…

QUAERITUR:

Dear Fr. Zuhlsdorf in Christ,

A blessed Eastertide to you. I hope you are well.

Although I’ve been offering the Extraordinary Form almost exclusively (unless I’m called upon to offer an NO Mass in some parish), I’m unclear about the rules for EF Mass of Anticipation.

After what time must I offer the Sunday Mass – or may I offer a “Mass of BVM on Saturday” around 7:00 pm or so?

I greatly appreciate your help with this and my previous questions. God’s blessings for you and your work.

In Christ and His Sorrowful Mother,…

A priest can now say a Traditional Mass at, say, 7 PM. That’s not a problem, even though waaaay back in the day it wasn’t common. As a matter of fact, I think that it was not allowed, once upon a time, for Mass to begin after noon. If memory serves, Pius XII allowed for evening Masses for people who had to work in the morning. Moreover, way back, there were’t electric lights in the church and in the streets and paths to church. But I digress. Back when, for evening Masses, the texts of that same day were used, not of the next day.

A traditional Mass celebrated at 7 PM on a Saturday evening would still use the texts of the Saturday, whatever it was.

Also, no matter which texts were used for the Mass on Saturday evening, participation at that Mass would fulfill the Sunday obligation.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, ASK FATHER Question Box, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, Mail from priests | Tagged anticipated Mass, Saturday evening Masses
7 Comments

“Things have gone terribly, terribly wrong.”

Posted on 29 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The other day, I posted a thought about a ridiculous claim (HERE). I wrote:

There is no lack of priestly vocations where bishops are capable of projecting solid clerical identity and where they teach perennial Catholic truth in charity and in clarity.

I come from a parish where in 30 years there were 30 First Masses. I live in a diocese where in a decade the bishop turned around vocations from 6 to 30.

The proportion of priests to people is more or less constant. Why? Lay people get the priests that they produce and that they deserve. Lower Mass attendance results in falling numbers of priests, not the other way around.

Today I read a perspicacious piece by Phil Lawler at Catholic Culture. He addressed the issue of the number of churches being opened or closed in the Archdiocese of Boston – though what he wrote could easily apply to just about any diocese you can name – throw a dart at the map. He also touched on vocations to the priesthood. He wrote:

There were about 1.8 million Catholics registered in the area covered by the Boston archdiocese 50 years ago; today the official figure is 1.9 million.

The trouble, of course, is that most of those 1.9 million Catholics aren’t practicing the faith. Consequently it should be no surprise that their sons don’t aspire to the priesthood. There were just over 2,500 priests working in the archdiocese 50 years ago; now there are fewer than 300. That’s right; nearly 90% of the priests are gone. If you can’t replace the priests, you can’t keep open the parishes.

Let’s be frank. These figures are not a cause for concern; they are a cause for horror. Panic is never useful, but something close to panic is appropriate here. Things have gone terribly, terribly wrong.

He also wrote:

Yes, the Lord promised that the Church would last through the end of time. But he did not promise that the Archdiocese of Boston (or your own diocese) would last forever. The faith can disappear, indeed has disappeared, from large geographical areas—northern Africa, for instance.

Exactly. This echoes what I’ve written on many occasions (for example HERE and HERE):

While the Lord promised that the hell would in the end not prevail, He did not promise it would not prevail in, say, your home town, your country. Think of the mighty Churches of ancient times, in Turkey and North Africa. They are gone and now we have echos of their memory in certain bishops who serve the Church everywhere but where those sees were. [i.e., auxiliary bishops]

Whole regions of Churches can be broken and swept away like sand. Parishes close in dioceses. Jesus did not found your parish. He didn’t promise that it would last until He returned.

GMTA!

Lawler adds:

[E]ven if we could safely assume that the faith will recover in another 10 or 20 or 50 years, that would not absolve us, in this current generation, of our responsibility to evangelize. Right now, people are going without the benefit of the sacraments, because of our failure and our complacency. Lives are being lost; souls are being lost. We are accountable.

Go read the whole thing over there.

If you are worried about what’s going on, you are not alone.

I, of course, will restate what I always state. The success of every initiative we undertake in the Church, either ad intra or ad extra, depends on a revitalization of our sacred liturgical worship. If that doesn’t happen, neither will any other good thing we attempt. Our Catholic identity flows from and back to worship. We can’t know who we are without it. Nor can we have the divine aid we need to do what has to be done.

Finally, FATHERS! Please, I implore you, to take a look at

>>THIS<<

Bishops, priests, please. Take a look especially at the end.

Posted in "How To..." - Practical Notes, Liturgy Science Theatre 3000, New Evangelization, Our Catholic Identity, The Coming Storm, The future and our choices | Tagged lack of vocations, Phil Lawler, vocations
38 Comments

BELGIUM: Brothers of Charity, Catholic psychiatric hospitals to provide euthanasia

Posted on 29 April 2017 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

A couple times lately, in reaction to a seriously messed up claim (HERE) about downward trend of priestly vocations and how wonderful everything would be if only we could throw off the bad stuff that Vatican II tried to get rid of, I’ve mentioned Belgium. Belgium: a place where the liberal agenda has worked so well for the Church that now only 5% of Catholics go to Mass.

This is a really disturbing sign of the times. Once again, dear readers, Belgium.

From BioEdge:

Belgian Catholic psychiatric hospitals ‘adjust’ their view of euthanasia

One of the last substantial barriers to increasing the number of euthanasia cases for non-terminally-ill psychiatric patients in Belgium seems to have crumbled.

A religious order in the Catholic Church, the Brothers of Charity, is responsible for a large proportion of beds for psychiatric patients in Belgium – about 5,000 of them. The international head of the order, Brother René Stockman, is a Belgian who has been one of the leading opponents of euthanasia in recent years.

Nonetheless, in a surprise move this week, the board controlling the institutions of the Brothers of Charity announced that from now on, it will allow euthanasia to take place in their psychiatric hospitals. [I wonder what the local bishops and the CDF have to say about this.]

In a statement posted on their website the Brothers of Charity explain the policy shift. “We take seriously unbearable and hopeless suffering and patients’ request for euthanasia. On the other hand, we do want to protect lives and ensure that euthanasia is performed only if there is no more possibility to provide a reasonable perspective to treat the patient.”

Euthanasia for psychiatric patients has already happened dozens of times in Belgium. But from now on it will probably be easier for people suffering from schizophrenia, personality
disorders, depression, autism, or loneliness to access it. In fact, it will be hard to find an institution in Belgium where euthanasia is not being offered as an option.

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