PERTH, WA: May 18, 1995
PRINT POST APPROVED PP602669/00303
Number 2945
POST ADDRESS: PO Box 50, Northbridge, 6000 W.A. LOCATION: 587 Newcastle Street, Cnr Douglas St (near Loftus St)
TELEPHONE: (09) 22 77 080
FAX: (09) 22 77 087
PRICE 600
World food organisation official says hunger and malnutrition claiming thousands of lives daily because there is...
o ust ce
OME (CNS) - Hunger and malnutrition continue both world wars combined. Most were young chil- economic and religious rights, prejudice and violence thrive, and most often poverty thrives 'along with R o claim the lives of tens of thousands of people dren," she said. daily because of a lack of justice and solidarity in the The World Food Program, often cooperating with them," she said. world, the director of the World Food Program told Caritas Internationalis. Catherine Bertini, head of the United Nations' food aid agency, was the keynote speaker at the May 8-13 general assembly of the organization of national Catholic charities. "How can we speak of the sanctity of life or a culture of life when during the short time we have been together today nearly a thousand young children died because they were poor and malnourished?" she asked the 400 people attending the assembly in Rome. "We have a moral obligation to feed these children," she said. "We have not yet done enough." People of any faith who try to offer a moral vision to the world have an obligation to make that vision a reality by dedicating money, personnel and creative energy to making a difference, Ms. Bertini said. While May celebrations marked the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II and heads of state honored those who died in the conflict, people die everyday of hunger and no one mourns their passing, she said. "In the last decade alone, more people have died because they were badly nourished than we lost in
local Catholic charities, delivers food to the poor in areas stricken by poverty, war and disaster. The program delivered 3.3 million tons of food last year and fed 57 million people, Ms. Bertini said. The U.N. official praised the Caritas organizations, which include Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities USA, for bringing hope and faith to the world's poor and hungry. "In a world that seems with every passing day to be losing its conscience, all of you here are making a tremendous contribution in keeping compassion alive," she said. But handouts, even on a massive scale, will never solve the problem, Ms. Berlin' said. "It is the lack of social justice, the absence of solidarity, that fuel so many of the conflicts we see today - in Rwanda and Burundi, in Bosnia and in the newly independent states" of the former Soviet bloc, she said. Even where political crises have not created a food emergency, a lack of justice and solidarity contribute to the hunger and malnutrition of the poor, she said. "What undermines societies most is inequality. Where women and men of all ethnic and racial groups do not share the same fundamental social,
Fewer resources available for emergency and development aid should not mean competition between relief agencies, but rather cooperation, Ms. Bertini said. The World Food Program and Caritas agencies have a history of ad hoc cooperation, especially in responding to huge disasters such as those in Rwanda and Burundi, but a more comprehensive approach is needed, she said. The program's first comprehensive operational agreement with a nongovernmental agency was signed in January with Catholic Relief Services, the U.S. bishops' overseas relief and development agency. "This working agreement covers collaboration in emergency relief operations, establishing a partnership based on the comparative advantages of both our organizations," Ms. Bertini told the meeting. "WFP will largely be responsible for mobilizing resources, transport and delivery, while CRS will focus on local food distribution and monitoring." She urged other national Caritas agencies to expand their cooperation with the U.N. agency, particularly in becoming "earlywarning devices" for potential food emergencies. • See page 7
Pastoral Leiter on euthanasia E STATEMENT on euthanasia issued by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has now been incorporated into a Pastoral Letter to the people of Australia. It reads: Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ, Euthanasia is when a doctor, not an illness, kills the patient. No doctor in Australia at the present time has the right to kill anyone. If we accept euthanasia we give a doctor a licence to kill. There are big steps and there are little steps. The biggest step is a leap from saying "no one may kill" to saying "some may kill". The little step is from saying that "someone may kill this person" to saying that "someone may also kill that person." Euthanasia would put at risk all those people whom others think would be better off dead. The Dutch took the big step some years ago, and ever since then they haven't been
obligation to prolong life unnecessarily. able to stop taking many little steps. "We do not live to ourselves, and we do Indeed, it is the patient, not the doctor, not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to who should decide whether painful, the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; expensive or complicated means should so then, whether we live or whether we be used to prolong the life of a dying person. die, we are the Lord's" (Romans 14: 7-8) The patient is free not to receive such Human beings must not start playing treatments, and we would welcome public God. debate on this topic, so that patients might Australia must not take the big step. more aware of their options and their be A private member's bill to legalize euthanasia has been introduced into the rights. It is also legitimate for a doctor to use parliament in the Northern Territory. Similar legislation has been foreshadowed any and every approved drug to take away the pain and suffering of a dying person. in other Australian parliaments. The debate over euthanasia is a highly Those who argue for euthanasia usually emotional one, for everyone is afraid of do not give modern medicine the credit for prolonged suffering, and it is heartbreak- what it has achieved in this field. ing to see others suffer. The science of palliative care, as it is has made remarkable progress. We called, argument in of the is the force This favour of euthanasia, but we appeal to all commend and praise the work of all those people to think seriously about whether who devote themselves to the care of the euthanasia is really the answer to this terminally ill. problem. Euthanasia goes beyond not prolonging No patient and no doctor is under any life. It is direct and intentional killing.
We argue that this involves playing God and it places a most dangerous power in the hands of human beings. Most doctors are opposed to euthanasia. Their profession is one of saving life, not extinguishing it, and legalising euthanasia would place intolerable pressures on them. "Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains just a single seed, but if it dies it bears much fruit" (John 12:24). The fear of suffering should not so dominate our thinking as to prevent us from seeing the true and positive reality of death. Death is the supreme moment of life, when we enter most deeply into the mystery of the life that God has given us. There is no virtue in suffering for its own sake, but the experience of death is a profoundly Christian experience when we go to meet God at the moment when God chooses to call us.