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Rosminians to face ‘loss of faith’ claims in abuse action Report, page 34


Warning on assisted suicide


Elena Curti


OPPONENTS OF assisted suicide and euthanasia have a huge battle on their hands, said Britain’s leading Reform rabbi, Baroness (Julia) Neuberger, in her Tyburn Lecture last week.


Baroness Neuberger, who is senior rabbi at the West London Synagogue, told her audi- ence at London’s Tyburn Convent that there was tremendous pressure on the Government to allow assisted suicide and polls suggested that many younger people were in favour of it. “This debate is going to run and run. At some point we are going to see some change in public policy,” said the peer during the eleventh annual lecture at the Hyde Park Place premises. She said she was opposed to euthanasia and rejected the idea that health professionals should help people to die. But she sympathised with the idea that people who are terminally ill should be


■Catholics can find true happiness in the Sacrament of Reconciliation, the Archbishop of Birmingham has said, writes Christopher Lamb. Speaking at the launch of Day for Life on


Monday, which this year focuses on happiness, Archbishop Bernard Longley emphasised that Confession “is fundamentally the sacrament that re-establishes our true happiness within ourselves making us one with God, one with our neighbour and one with ourselves.” He added: “I think it’s why there is an


given “the wherewithal” to take their own lives. “There are some cases where life becomes


unbearable when they can’t control the pain. I think it is the exception. All the experience where that [assisted suicide] has been tried, for instance, in Washington state in the United States has shown that when people are given the wherewithal they barely ever use it, which suggests they want the reassur- ance rather than the actual capacity to deal with it,” she said. In her lecture, entitled “Dying Well”, Baroness Neuberger stressed that people should be allowed to determine where they die, decide who should be with them, make decisions about pain relief (she applauded those hospices that allow patients to administer their own pain relief via a but- ton) and have access to spiritual and moral support.


She said that Catholics were better than


Jews at accepting death as a fact of life because the Jewish instinct is to do everything possible to preserve life. Her view is that there is a point when medical intervention should stop and this is well understood by Catholics and the hospice movement. However, she said Jews were better at dealing with the process of grieving, pointing to the Jewish tradition of Shiva – seven days of deep mourning in which those bereaved stay at home while a steady stream of visitors bring food.


increasing interest within the Church in the Sacrament of Reconciliation.” A spokesman for the archbishop said he


was referring to an increase he had noticed in the number of people going to Confession, especially after Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to Britain last year. The archbishop explained that for the


Christian it is communion or koinonia which brings contentment and this is found in the sacraments. Day for Life is organised by the Church in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland to celebrate life from conception to natural death.


IN BRIEF


Challenge to cheap alcohol sales The Church of England has threatened to withdraw investment from any super- markets or retailers that promote and sell cheap alcohol in a way it deems irrespon- sible. A new investment policy will ensure any company that receives more than 5 per cent of its income from alcohol sales will be scrutinised over pricing and pro- motion with the threat of the Church withdrawing its investment if concerns are not met. The Church has £86 million worth of shares in supermarkets.


Widowed deacons to remarry? The prohibition on remarriage for deacons who are widowed should be examined again, the fifth National Assembly of Deacons was told last weekend. Nelleke Wijngaards Serrarens, who is on the board of the International Diaconate Centre and is married to a deacon, said the possibility of easing restrictions should be looked at. Widowed deacons are only allowed to remarry under certain conditions. The assembly took place at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham and was sponsored by The Tablet.


Change to abortion rules Abortion regulations could be changed to ensure that providers are not allowed to counsel women considering a termi- nation. The Government has said it wants women thinking about having an abortion to access independent counselling. The Government hopes to change existing regulations to make this happen without an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill, tabled by MPs Nadine Dorries and Frank Field, which has proposed a separation between providers and coun- sellors.


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Tablet Binders Order from: The Tablet, 1 King Street Cloisters, Clifton Walk, London W6 0GY.


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2 July 2011 | THE TABLET | 33


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