Scottish Catholic Observer

ARCHBISHOP Mario Conti has launched a scathing attack on Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill.

Speaking at St Joseph’s home for the elderly the Archbishop of Glasgow contrasted the ‘delicacy and serenity’ with which the elderly are treated by the Little Sisters of the Poor there with the ‘doctor’s syringe’ solution proposed by the advocates of the bill.

Archbishop Conti said it was a great joy to be at the home to mark the first anniversary of the Canonisation of the Foundress of the congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor, St Jeanne Jugan.

His Grace said that the Glasgow Archdiocese owed the sisters a special debt of ‘because here in this lovely facility you offer a welcome to many priests of the archdiocese who have retired from active service.’

“In this case the love for and care for the elderly is in striking contrast to those in our society who would see old age as a kind of failure which must be resisted, and see infirmity as a burden to be despised, culminating in a desire to promote euthanasia as an alternative to natural decline,” he said. “Here, in this place, we read a very different story to that told by supporters of Margo MacDonald’s bill currently before the Scottish Parliament which seeks to legalise assisted suicide.

“Human beings living with the burden of age and in declining strength are assisted to live—not to die. The concept of the frail elderly being a ‘burden’ to others is alien to those who care for you here and who recognise in each and every resident, a person made in the image and likeness of God, worthy of the highest levels of care in surroundings characterised by delicacy and serenity.”

He added: “Care not Killing is the name of the alliance which has been set up to resist the slippery slope to euthanasia. Care not killing is what happens here too. And who can argue that this oasis of loving tenderness, rather than the doctor’s syringe, is what is truly meant by ‘dignity in dying?’ So in that sense every act of charity and concern for the residents here in St Joseph’s is a challenge to our selfish society—an affirmation that there is another way, a better way.”

The archbishop also quoted the words of the Pope at the Canonisation Mass for St Jeanne Jugan.

“Through her admirable work in the service of the poorest elderly, St Marie de la Croix is also like a beacon to guide our societies which must always rediscover the place and unique contribution of this period of life,” the Pope said. “Her charism is always relevant, while so many aged persons suffer different types of poverty and solitude, sometimes even abandoned by their families. The spirit of hospitality and fraternal love, founded on limitless trust in Providence, which Jeanne Jugan drew from the Beatitudes, illuminated her whole existence.

“The evangelical impulse is followed today throughout the world in the Congregation of the Little Sisters of the Poor, which she founded and which bears witness to her following the mercy of God and the compassionate love of the Heart of Jesus for the littlest ones. May St Jeanne Jugan be for the elderly a living source of hope and for the persons so generously placing themselves at their service a powerful stimulus to pursue and develop her work.”

Archbishop Conti said he was sure all present would say ‘Amen’ to the Pope’s words.

The Scottish Parliament committee that is examining Margo MacDonald’s End of Life Assistance (Scotland) Bill has finished taking evidence and will issue a stage one report next month.

John Deighan, the Catholic Church’s parliamentary officer said he hoped they would heed Archbishop Conti’s words.

“Right now the human right to life is being undermined across the whole of Europe because of assisted suicide being permitted in countries like Holland and Switzerland,” he said. “So across the continent people are coming to see it as acceptable, I think it is a key role of the Church to stand up and say we cannot lose sight of our fundamental values, so I hope politicians take a lead from the archbishop and realise that assisted suicide and euthanasia are unacceptable.”

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