Denver Newsroom, Sep 3, 2020 / 15:01 pm
The Archdiocese of San Francisco is set to begin training volunteers who will help parishes support Catholics in making end-of-life decisions for themselves and loved ones, informed by Catholic teaching about death.
Deacon Fred Totah, director of pastoral ministry for the archdiocese, told CNA that he fields a lot of questions about end-of-life problems in his parish- more so now than ever, amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Catholic end-of-life ministry is a response to California's 2015 legalization of assisted suicide under the End of Life Option Act, which took effect during June 2016. Under the law, patients may request and physicians may prescribe life-ending medications.
The Catholic Church teaches that assisted suicide and euthanasia- which both involve the intentional taking of life- are never permissible. Withholding "extraordinary means" of medical treatment and allowing death to occur naturally can be morally permissible under Catholic teaching.