In a recent article in the Them and Us series, it was stated:
"Religious leaders have consistently come out against medical advances. Hundreds of years ago, they were against autopsies and medical use of cadavers for research. In the 1800's Christians fought the use of anesthetics on the ground that suffering is God's will and therefore must be endured. This was particularly true for a woman's pain during childbirth, because they could quote the Bible to support their position."
Now, you might think that all that was a long time ago and that things have improved since then. But you would be wrong. In his encyclical Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II coined the phrase "culture of death". In his view, "great sections of public opinion justify certain crimes against life in the name of individual liberty." These "crimes" consist of helping terminally sick people to take leave of this world in peace and free from pain and suffering.
In Spain the reactionary Church hierarchy has carried this doctrine into practie enthusiastically. In recent months there has been a fierce controversy in Spain over the question of euthanasia and assisted deaths. The Roman Catholic Church has thrown all its considerable weight against any idea that people suffering from terminal illness and in terrible pain should be allowed to die with dignity. Doctors in Madrid, where the right wing Popular Party is in power, who have assisted in such cases by administering morphine and other pain-killing drugs have been persecuted to such a point that they are afraid to take any action that would help dying people to avoid the extremes of agony in their last days for fear of going to prison.
The Archbishop of Madrid, Antonio Maria Rouco Varela, added his own comments on the subject: "society cannot decide how a man should die. If it does, we would be lost." However, the Church claims for itself this very right. It sends its priests into hospitals in Madrid, whom the doctors, now terrified of legal prosecution, have to consult concerning the "permitted" kinds and amounts of drugs they may or may not administer to their patients.
Despite this, when the moment of truth arrives, many of these people change their tune. The Association for the Right to a Dignified Death says that among the many practicing Catholics who have asked for their help in the last twelve months, two were members of the ultra-conservative Catholic organization, Opus Dei.
This cruelty has been justified on theological grounds by members of the Church hierarchy, who consider that pain and suffering are equivalent to dignity. The Archbishop of Pamplona, Fernando Sebastian, is one of the most outspoken supporters of the view that people have to suffer pain. In his Easter message in Valladolid, the traditional Sermon of the Seven Words (referring to the last words uttered by Christ on the cross) he said: "Can anyone say that Jesus Christ's death was not dignified?"
Only two days before a Frenchwoman called Chantal Sebire was found dead in her home after the courts had denied her the right to die with dignity. How did the Archbishop react to this tragic death? "Jesus Christ looked this woman in the face, confidently, and accepted her with love and left her resting in the arms of the heavenly Father." He considered that her death was "absolutely dignified" although "she did not receive any palliative care."
We note in passing that euthanasia and palliative care are two entirely different things, but in the mind of the Archbishop they seem to be identical. The message is quite clear: men and women have a duty to suffer pain just as Jesus suffered when he was nailed to the cross.
As the paper Publico (31st May 2008) commented:
"The Catholic church preaches a doctrine of suffering that is expressed in the iconography with which it adorns the martyrdom of its saints, expressing the maximum degree of pain."
The human race is still being crucified senselessly in the name of religion.