Vatican Blasts Dutch Euthanasia Law

L'OSSERVATORE ROMANO , April 12 –– Using the strongest of terms, the Vatican has criticized the Netherlands’ recent decision to legalize euthanasia, calling it abhorrent and criminal, and the doctors who perform it “butchers.”

The forceful denunciation was contained in an editorial written for the Vatican daily by Father Gino Concetti, a moral theologian whose views on euthanasia reflect those of Pope John Paul II.

"The Dutch law is worthy of condemnation and reprobation. Euthanasia is an abhorrent choice and killing a patient is a criminal gesture,’” the editorial said. “It is hard to believe how a choice which is so macabre can be called ‘civil’ and ‘humanitarian’ … Can it really be true that, at the dawn of the third millennium, there can be slaves to desperation and that one can give up the hope of life? And can a doctor legitimately take on the role of a butcher?”

The upper house of the Dutch parliament on April 10 defied thousands of protesters and voted by a clear majority to permit so-called “mercy killing,” a practice that has been tolerated in the Netherlands for over two decades.

Vatican Applauds British Pedophilia Panel

THE TIMES , April 18 –– Vatican officials have welcomed a plan by London Cardinal Archbishop Cormac Murphy-O'Connor to review the problem of pedophilia among priests in his archdiocese, the London daily reported.

Calling the plan to set up a committee chaired by a distinguished Catholic layman whose integrity and independence could not be questioned a “courageous initiative,” an unidentified Vatican spokesman told the Times that “if the recommendations prove successful, they could be applied elsewhere.”

The Vatican spokesman told the Times that the Holy See would not comment on the report's findings until they had been published in full later this year and discussed in Britain.

"In the meantime,” the spokesman said, “it is a matter for the bishops of England and Wales.” Other Vatican sources said the commit-tee's preliminary findings would be “studied with interest.”

Pope Hints at Newman Sainthood

IL MESSAGGERO , April 16 –– Pope John Paul II marked Good Friday by reading meditations and prayers composed by Cardinal John Henry Newman, the Vatican daily reported.

Those seeking to have Britain's most celebrated convert from Anglicanism declared a saint welcomed the gesture. The Pope's use of texts by Cardinal Newman (1801-1890) was partly a tribute to mark his birth 200 years ago. But it was also viewed by Vatican-watchers as a sign of the Holy Father's support for Newman's cause.

Newman came to prominence in the 1830s by leading the Oxford Movement, whose aim was to reinstate high church rituals and beliefs in the Church of England. He resigned as vicar of St Mary's, Oxford, in 1843 and was received into the Catholic Church two years later. He is perhaps best known for his writings on the Fathers of the Church, the development of doctrine and educational reforms, and for anticipating the teachings of the Second Vatican Council.