VANCOUVER—A non-profit educational group has embarked on a tour to help ordinary lay people speak their minds about physician-assisted suicide.
Catholic Voices Canada is travelling across the Lower Mainland and Calgary to help those against the practice to articulate their thoughts.
“There are a lot of people who are very concerned about the issue, but it’s a real challenge to pit the case against assisted suicide and to shed light rather than generate heat,” said Peter Nation, head of CVC.
The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in favour of physician-assisted suicide Feb. 6, igniting many conversations and debates on the topic.
Nation is reaching out to crowds of high school students, parish groups, deacons in training, and the Catholic faithful in a series of lectures. (See sidebar on Page 11 for a complete tour listing.)
“The ways that we address these issues is via the common good of society, balancing that with individual rights, and basing it on natural law,” Nation explained.
Though it is a Catholic organization, he won’t be quoting much from the Catechism of the Catholic Church. “Often, not bringing up anything directly from Church teaching, even with Catholics, is the most effective way to go.”
His talk will be based on a book published in 2012 by Catholic Voices U.K. founder Austen Ivereigh: How to Defend the Faith Without Raising Your Voice. Nation will also shed some light on palliative care.
“It is an issue that we care about,” said Sharon McVeigh, the coordinator of Respect For Life Ministry at St. Nicholas Parish. Nation gave a presentation to 30-40 parishioners there Feb. 23.
“We are not just pro-life regarding abortion. We are pro-life everything,” she said. The Respect For Life ministry just started up a few months ago as a way to educate parishioners. The assisted suicide talk was their first official event.
“I thought it was very good,” McVeigh continued. “We learned a few things that we hadn’t known. One of them for me in particular was this slippery slope with this new legislation now, or lack of it, and the effect it may have on palliative care.”
Catholic Voices was founded in the U.K. in 2010 to train average Catholics to defend their faith when they speak to the media in TV, radio, and newspaper interviews.
Nation said this tour is part of Catholic Voices Academy, a program that is open to anyone who wants to know how to bring up hot topics like assisted suicide, abortion, or clerical sexual abuse with friends or co-workers.
More information is available at www.catholicvoices.ca.
