Pastor's Page: January 8, 2012
Sacredness of Life
THE SACREDNESS OF LIFE and the implications of the Christmas message
Life Principles:
- Respect, protect, love and serve life; every human life.
- Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God.
1) The life of every individual, from its very beginning, is part of God’s plan.
2) The believer knows that life is a gift and is in the hands of a loving, life-giving God. We are not
the masters of life, or of death. Legitimate defense is supported in the Judeo-Christian tradition. It
can be not only a right but a grave duty to defend another’s life or the lives of the nation.
3) If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor, then bloodless
means must be used.
4) The human being is to be respected and treated as a person from the moment of conception
right up until the time of natural death.
5) Whatever is opposed to life itself, murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful selfdestruction
is morally wrong and sinful.
6) It is morally impermissible to take control of death and bring it about before its time. There is a
kind of “culture of death” in society, marked by an excessive preoccupation with efficiency and
autonomy. The elderly and disabled are considered a burden on society. This culture thinks that
impaired life has no value.
7) When death is clearly imminent and inevitable, one can in conscience, refuse forms of
treatment that are futile. Extraordinary and disproportionate means may be refused. This is not
suicide or euthanasia but acceptance of the human condition in the face of death. Pain
management through narcotics is acceptable in these cases.
8) One cannot assist another person to commit suicide. It is never licit to kill another, even if he/
she should wish it or request it.. Euthanasia is a false mercy and a perversion of mercy since true
compassion means sharing another’s pain, not killing the person whose suffering we cannot bear.
What is needed at the time of death is companionship, sympathy, and loving support in the time
of trial.
9) There is a grave and clear obligation to oppose laws which destroy individual lives and the
common good. This opposition must be through conscientious objection and never through
violence. A culture of life needs to be promoted and embraced.
10) Whatever violates the integrity of the human person, mutilation, torture, or coercion is morally
evil.
11) Whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions, arbitrary imprisonment,
deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women or children, disgraceful working conditions,
is morally evil.
Peace and love,
Father Bruce
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