Loading...
Loading...
Click here if you don’t see subscription options

Belgium is embroiled in a religious freedom controversy after the new head of the country’s Roman Catholic Church demanded that church-run hospitals and nursing homes have the right to refuse to euthanize their patients. Euthanasia for terminally ill adults was legalized in Belgium in 2002 and has been broadly supported. But opposition has grown as lawmakers extended the practice to terminally ill children and people with severe psychological problems. In a newspaper interview published the day after Christmas, the nation’s new primate, Archbishop Jozef De Kesel of Mechelen-Brussels, acknowledged that secular-minded Belgians had no problem with abortion or euthanasia. “But it is not obvious from my faith,” he said. “I think that we have the right, on an institutional level, to decide not to do it.” Despite dwindling Mass attendance, the church still plays an important role in Belgium’s mixed private and public health care system. Catholic hospitals, which receive state subsidies, officially offer only palliative care for end-of-life patients, but not all of them have an outright ban on euthanasia in their guidelines.

Comments are automatically closed two weeks after an article's initial publication. See our comments policy for more.

The latest from america

Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, and former President Donald Trump, the Republican nominee, are seen in a combination of file photographs taken in Chandler, Ariz., Oct. 10, 2024 and Evans, Ga., Oct. 4, 2024. (OSV News photo/Evelyn Hockstein and Octavio Jones, Reuters)
While we are going to continue to advocate for the dignity of the unborn, let’s admit Kamala Harris has Catholic cred on other important issues.
Jeannie GaffiganNovember 01, 2024
Mats Steen was known as Ibelin in the video game World of Warcraft (World of Warcraft and Blizzard Entertainment/Netflix)
“The Remarkable Life of Ibelin” presents the internet as a place where true connection is possible and limitations can be transcended.
John DoughertyNovember 01, 2024
A Homily for the Solemnity of All Souls, by Father Terrance Klein
Terrance KleinNovember 01, 2024
Cardinal McElroy shared his reflections on the synod with America Vatican correspondent Gerard O'Connell in this wide-ranging interview at the North American College in Rome.
Gerard O’ConnellNovember 01, 2024