Vatican launches Belgium euthanasia investigation
Simon Caldwell Catholic News Service | May. 5, 2017
MANCHESTER, ENGLAND The Vatican is investigating the decision of a group of psychiatric care centers run by a Catholic religious order in Belgium to permit doctors to perform euthanasia of "nonterminal" mentally ill patients on its premises.
Brother Rene Stockman, superior general of the Brothers of Charity, told Catholic News Service that Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican Secretary of State, is personally examining the situation.
Stockman complained directly to Rome after the Brothers of Charity Group, which runs 15 centers for psychiatric patients across Belgium, rejected a formal request from him to reverse the new policy.
In a May 4 email to CNS, Stockman said: "Because it is a matter of the Belgian group, I informed the Belgian bishops' conference in order to ask for their opinion and to ask a clear statement of them.
"At the same time, I am in contact with the Vatican — the Congregation (for Institutes) of Consecrated Life (and Societies of Apostolic Life) and the secretary of state who asked me for more information," said Stockman, a psychiatric care specialist.
"I hope that there will come a clear answer from the Belgian bishops and the Vatican," he continued. "I have trust in it."
He suggested that the new policy could force the brothers from providing psychiatric care in Belgium.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/vatican-launches-belgium-euthanasia-investigation
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