GREENVILLE — St. Philip Church recently hosted a pro-life lecture series focusing on various practical and theological topics surrounding end-of-life issues. Organized by Dr. Peter Colosi, Ph.D., a professor of philosophy at Salve Regina University, the three-week-long event was part of the Deeper Discipleship Series, a catechetical program at St. Philip’s in which the parish organizes various lecture events deep-diving into various elements of the Catholic faith.
At the beginning of each lecture, Dr. Colosi would summarize certain aspects of the Catholic view on death and dying and how it related to the theme for that night.
“The foundational question here is, ‘Is the sick or dying person placed at the center of attention, or is the sick or dying person abandoned or isolated or ignored?’ I am going to suggest to you that, in the Catholic perspective, the sick or dying person is in the center of attention. With the euthanasia movement, the sick or dying person is abandoned, isolated and ignored,” said Dr. Colosi.
In the first lecture, Dr. Colosi presented alongside Deacon Timothy Flanigan, M.D., a professor at Brown University medical school and infectious disease doctor, to provide an outline of the Catholic view on euthanasia.
Dr. Colosi distinguished between death due to natural causes and death due to killing, that is, death caused by intentional human choices. Colosi went on to explain that, according to Catholic teaching, to intentionally do something to a sick or dying person, or withhold from a sick or dying person the necessary means of maintaining life, with the intention of hastening the dying process, constitutes a type of murder.
It is for this reason that euthanasia and physician-assisted are never morally acceptable.
Dr. Colosi distinguishes the Catholic view from certain extremes in the opposite direction, such as vitalism, which states that all life must be preserved even if one must resort to the most extreme measures. Colosi stated that the Catholic Church makes a distinction between ordinary and extraordinary means of maintaining life. The ordinary means of maintaining life refer to the most basic necessities connected with the maintaining of life, which the Catholic Church teaches must always be administered to sick or dying patients; yet, the extraordinary means of maintaining life must only be administered if there is a probable chance that they can reduce suffering or bring about healing.
Colosi concluded his first lecture by stating that while supporters of euthanasia claim that the desire to reduce the suffering of the terminally ill or dying is their primary goal, euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide inevitably leads to the notion that the sick and dying are a burden on others, and thus the restrictions on euthanasia begin to be progressively loosened. This thus leads away from the Catholic attitude towards death, which sees it as an opportunity to prepare for the afterlife and for those close to the dying patient to express loving care for them.
Deacon Flanigan spent most of his lecture relating stories from his career as a medical doctor that exemplify the Catholic attitude concerning death and dying. Dr. Flanigan noted how dying in a loving, caring context, surrounded by people who genuinely care for the sick or dying person on an intimate level, helps to maintain the dignity of the sick or dying person.
“One of the great evils or consequences of normalized physician-assisted suicide is the message, ‘Yes, you really are not worth being loved’,” Deacon Flanigan noted.
The second day of lectures began with Dr. Colosi and attorney Tracy Loignon, a local Catholic and practicing estate planning lawyer in Rhode Island. During their lecture, Dr. Colosi and Loignon analyzed end-of-life documents from a Catholic perspective.
Both Colosi and Loignon emphasized the importance of ensuring that one’s final medical wishes are in line with the moral teachings of the Catholic Church, and of appointing as one’s medical power of attorney one trusted to execute your wishes in accordance with the Catholic faith.
Chris DiIorio, a licensed funeral director with Carpenter-Jenks funeral home in West Warwick outlined the traditional Catholic views on what constitutes a proper burial, emphasizing how Church teaching centers on the need to respects the dignity of the deceased, and the theological underpinnings of these regulations.
On the third day of lectures, Dr. Colosi addressed the Lila Manfield Sapinsley Compassionate Care Act, a bill frequently proposed before the Rhode Island General Assembly that seeks to legalize physician-assisted suicide in certain limited circumstances.
Colosi used an analysis of the view of death implicit to this law as a springboard to speak of some of the philosophical and theological questions concerning the problem of evil and how it applies to suffering and death. In particular, Dr. Colosi focused on the traditional Catholic notion of redemptive suffering, that is, the belief that by uniting our suffering to that of Christ, we can grow in holiness and experience deeper union with God.
The final part of the talk was presented by Sister Laurelliya Jesuthasan, a member of the Little Sisters of the Poor.
Sister Larellyia works at a hospice run by the Little Sisters of the Poor in Pawtucket, and described their ministry in helping the sick and dying, especially among the elderly poor.
“I think [we need to see more people] becoming more aware of what it means to be vulnerable, because we all dependent on each other,” Dr. Colosi told the Rhode Island Catholic, going on to state that the biggest thing Catholics can do to help further the pro-life movement is to “wake up that Catholic sensibility of loving the vulnerable, having a warmth of heart for the vulnerable. That might be the heart of it, and all the other things we said this week grow out of that.”
