St. Mary's Church of Pecatonica

"No man's life, liberty, or property are safe while the legislature is in session." - attributed by various sources to Daniel Webster, Gideon Tucker, or Mark Twain.

The Illinois legislature (called the Illinois General Assembly) ended its spring session on May 31st without passing a bill to legalize physician-assisted suicide in Illinois.  THANK GOD!  However, it was poised to do so, with the bill having passed the Illinois House by a wide margin, and it probably was only a few votes short in the Illinois Senate, which is why it did not get called for a vote.  This is a continuing danger in Illinois, and it is almost certain to be introduced again in the fall or next spring.

Those who are attuned to the life issues recognize that those in the legislature looking to pass physician-assisted suicide (PAS), but which they prefer to call medical aid in dying (MAID), are very committed to their cause, and will use whatever maneuvers they can to eventually pass this legislation.  This would be disastrous, not only for the poor souls that would make use of this, but also for their families and for everyone in our state who would have to adjust to this "brave new world" which will lead eventually to euthanasia, as experience has shown in other places that have allowed this. It would further diminish the respect that should be accorded to each and every human being.  It would also corrupt the medical profession, which should shun any participation in the killing of dying, sick, or disabled people.

While the temptation would be to just think we have dodged a bullet and turn our attention to more urgent matters, we really need to help ourselves and others, especially Catholics and even non-Catholic family members and friends, in three ways:

1.  Educate ourselves and others about this matter and how serious a danger it poses, including by reading the material on it posted on the website of the Illinois Catholic Conference (the official organization through which the Illinois Catholic bishops set out their positions), www.ilcatholic.org and posted by other organizations such as those that promote the interests of disabled people.

2.  Pray for conversion of minds and hearts that everyone would more greatly respect the gift of human life given to them and everyone else and make the sacrifice of time and effort (and even some money) to promote life and to oppose efforts that have the effect of diminishing respect for human life, such as assisted suicide.

3.  Become more politically aware and active, at least by finding out who our Illinois state senator and Illinois state representative are, how to express our views on this matter and other important matters, and then to do so.  (Contact information can be obtained through www.ilcatholic.org.)

One of the troubling things that became apparent in this most recent attempt to legalize assisted suicide in Illinois is that most people in Illinois apparently do not care about this enough to make their voices heard.  Maybe they think it is not their problem and that other people can shoulder the burden of opposing this.  This was reflected in the fact that so-called "witness slips" supporting or opposing this proposed legislation (which are easy to file on a computer), were heavily in favor of this proposed legislation.  This shows that the groups who are committed to this have engaged their supporters greatly, while those who oppose this proposed legislation have not.  As the saying goes, it's not the size of the dog in the fight but the size of the fight in the dog that often determines the outcome on important issues.  Committed groups, even tiny ones, often get their way, even when what they want is harmful to the general public.

Catholics in general, like the electorate in general, are not that interested in public policy issues, at least not enough to make their voices heard, as is our right and our duty as citizens and as people of God.  This needs to change, and may God give us the grace to change.  Separation of church and state does not mean that people of faith should do nothing and let those without faith determine public policy without any opposition.  Our values count, too, and we should not be intimidated into silence by those who do not care about us or our values.

All things are possible with God.  Unfortunately, all bad things are possible when God is left out of consideration.  Please do what you can to convert our culture into a culture of life.

Easter is not just for one Sunday of the year.  It is a whole season of 50 days, even longer than Lent.  Easter celebrates the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, which changes everything in a world conditioned on death and the threat of death in one form or another: our own death, the death of loved ones, war, crime, sins of all sorts, addictions and dysfunctions of all sorts, illness, loss of job, alienation from other people, accidents, natural disasters, etc. Despite all these evils, the resurrection of Jesus Christ tells us that these do not have the last word: there is life beyond the confines of this short and limited life.  There is not only life after death, there is life at a higher level that can be lived in this life.  Jesus came not only to atone for sins so that we can be assured of forgiveness of them, but to share his divine life with us.  Whereas he is human and divine by his nature, we can share in his divine nature by adoption as God's children.  In this way he can live in us and we in him, so that we can have his mind and heart more and more.  Then we can bring him more and more into a world that so badly needs what he has to offer: eternal life with God.

Happy Easter, everyone!