The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith has written to Italian bishops and religious superiors seeking action against 41 priests who signed an online petition approving the removal of food and hydration from patients. Lifesite News reports that in August, the Vatican's doctrinal office, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, (CDF) sent a letter to diocesan bishops and provincial superiors of religious orders asking the bishops to "summon the priests" who signed the letter and "to call them to order and possibly punish them" for their public support for euthanasia.
The letter continued, "Death is a natural event to which all are called, which for believers is the apex of the life lived, the threshold that brings eternity. The decision to end a semblance of existence is the exclusive domain of the person concerned who has the right to expose it in advance in a will or to family in consultation with the doctor acting on this knowledge."
Five months ago, in a letter titled "For Freedom at the End of Life" and composed by Fr Paolo Farinella of Genoa, the group complained that a living wills law being prepared by Prime Minister Berlusconi's government excluded the possibility that food and hydration could be withdrawn from patients by doctors to bring about their deaths.
Farinella, the author of the article "The right to live a duty to die," is a well-known supporter of euthanasia, Lifesite News says.
Published by Micromega, a magazine known for its strong secular and anticlerical views, the letter said, "The law on living wills for which the government and the majority [in Parliament] are preparing to vote imprisons freedom of all actors involved at the supreme moment of death."
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