Interim Staff
On Dec. 2, 2005 the Ontario Conference of Catholic Bishops and the Catholic Bioethics Institute hosted a meeting in Toronto for the purpose of bringing Catholic leaders from across Ontario together to focus on euthanasia and assisted suicide.
Alex Schadenberg, of the Euthanasia Prevention Coalition, found the meeting to be an excellent opportunity to bring leaders from the Knights of Columbus, CWL, dioceses, Catholic health care, the Catholic Civil Rights League and other significant Catholic groups together to discuss common concerns related to euthanasia and assisted suicide. The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada also attended the meeting as an equal partner in a common concern.
These groups had the opportunity to express their thoughts and establish a common understanding of the current cultural problems that lead to euthanasia and assisted suicide, stated Schadenberg. They came to an agreement of the need to work together and, with other concerned groups, oppose the further cultural and political drift towards the acceptance of euthanasia.
Jim Hughes, of Campaign Life Coalition thought that the meeting was an excellent first step toward bringing people of faith to a common concern for the moral and political crisis we are facing in our nation. Euthanasia appears to be the next issue the social engineers insist on tampering with in order to change our country into a nation that rejects the notion of the sanctity of human life.
This meeting came from a series of conference calls among a working group on euthanasia that was established by the Ontario bishops. The working group has effectively identified key concerns and hopes to be able to work on implementing a common strategy for Catholics throughout Ontario.
