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Vatican Archbishop: those who say Judas is in hell are ‘heretics’ and priests may ‘accompany’ assisted suicides
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<p><a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abp-paglia-on-judas" target="_blank">https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/abp-paglia-on-judas</a></p>
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<p>ROME, December 11, 2019 (<a href="https://www.lifesitenews.com/catholic" target="_blank">LifeSiteNews</a>)
— <span style="background-color:rgb(230,145,56)"><b>In a statement difficult to reconcile with<span style="background-color:rgb(252,229,205)"> <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">Scripture and Tradition</span></span>,
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Pontifical Academy for
Life</span>, has claimed on behalf of<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> the Catholic Church </span>that <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">anyone who says
Judas Iscariot is in hell is a heretic.</span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(230,145,56)"><b>In an even more disturbing<span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"> </span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>statement,</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(230,145,56)"><b>the Italian archbishop</b></span> <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>also
asserted <span style="background-color:rgb(230,145,56)">that a priest may legitimately remain at the beside of someone
undergoing assisted suicide in order to “hold their hand” and
“accompany” them.</span></b></span></p>
<p>Archbishop Paglia’s <a href="https://www.lastampa.it/vatican-insider/it/2019/12/10/news/monsignor-paglia-nessuno-sia-abbandonato-celebro-sempre-i-funerali-di-chi-si-uccide-1.38193325" target="_blank">comments</a> came on December 10, at the presentation of a multi-faith International Symposium on <i>Religion and Medical Ethics: Palliative Care and Elderly Mental Health</i>,
being held in Rome December 11-12. The symposium, co-sponsored by
the Pontifical Academy for Life and the World Innovation Summit for
Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation, is chiefly focused on
Christian and Muslim perspectives on end of life issues. </p>
<p>Following the formal presentation at the Holy See press office on
Tuesday, a journalist asked Archbishop Paglia for his views on a
December 5 <a href="https://agensir.it/europa/2019/12/06/the-swiss-bishops-on-assisted-suicide-the-church-cannot-be-present-during-the-termination-of-life/" target="_blank">statement issued</a> on
by the Bishops of Switzerland, requiring priests and Catholic pastoral
caregivers to leave the room before a lethal injection or other means of
suicide is administered. </p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">The 30-page <a href="https://agensir.it/europa/2019/12/06/the-swiss-bishops-on-assisted-suicide-the-church-cannot-be-present-during-the-termination-of-life/" target="_blank">document</a> of
the Swiss Bishops,</span> titled “Pastoral behavior with regard to the
practice of<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> assisted suicide</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">,” </span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">comes </span>in response to</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b> increasing rates of
assisted suicide in <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">Switzerland.</span></b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"> </span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">It</span> states that <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">assisted suicide</span> “is
radically against <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">the Gospel message</span>” and<span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"> its practice “is a serious
attack on</span> t<span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)">he preservation of the life of the human person that must be
protected from conception until natural death.”</span></b></span></p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(230,145,56)"><b>Archbishop Paglia, who serves as chancellor of the new John Paul II
Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences in Rome (and presided over
</b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>the former institute’s </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)"><b>demolition</b></span>), <span style="background-color:rgb(255,255,255)">said he has not read the statement
issued by the Swiss bishops “in detail” but doesn’t believe that “anyone
should ever be abandoned.” </span></p>
<p>“We are against assisted suicide because we do not want to do the
dirty work of death and because we are all well aware that, for
believers, life goes on,” he continued. “To accompany and hold the hand
of those who are dying” is therefore the “great task“ of every believer,
he said, along with fighting the culture of assisted suicide, which
represents “a great defeat for society.” </p>
<p>“We cannot turn [assisted suicide] into a wise choice,” he said. </p>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(230,145,56)"><b>Archbishop Paglia </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>then clarified: </b></span>“I always celebrate funerals for
those who commit suicide, because suicide is always a question of
unfulfilled love. We must also remember that, for the Catholic Church, <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>
<span style="background-color:rgb(230,145,56)">if someone says that Judas is in hell, he is a heretic.”</span></b></span></p>
<p>The assertion that saying Judas is in hell is tantamount to heresy is
surprising given the <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>clear teaching of Sacred Scripture, the Fathers
and Doctors of the Church and the liturgy. </b><b>As Cardinal Avery Dulles once
explained in <a href="https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/05/the-population-of-hell" target="_blank">an article</a> titled <span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)">‘The Population of Hell’:</span> </b></span></p>
<blockquote>
<p><span style="background-color:rgb(208,224,227)"><b>“The New Testament does not tell us in so many words that any
particular person is in hell. But several statements about Judas can
hardly be interpreted otherwise. Jesus says that he has kept all those
whom the Father has given him except the son of perdition (John 17:12).
At another point Jesus calls Judas a devil (John 6:70), and yet again
says of him: “It would be better for that man if he had never been born”
(Matthew 26:24; Mark 14:21). If Judas were among the saved, these
statements could hardly be true. Many saints and doctors of the Church,
including St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, have taken it as a
revealed truth that Judas was reprobated. Some of the Fathers place the
name of Nero in the same select company, but they do not give long lists
of names, as Dante would do.</b></span></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, <span style="background-color:rgb(255,242,204)"><b>Sacred Scripture, Pope St. Leo the Great, <a href="https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/03/damned-lies-on-destiny-of-judas-iscariot.html" target="_blank">St. Augustine</a>, St. Thomas Aquinas, St. Catherine of Siena, the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/TraditionalCatholics/comments/a6gbjq/judas_is_in_hell/?utm_source=amp&utm_medium=&utm_content=post_body" target="_blank">Catechism of the Council of Tren</a>t and the Church’s <a href="https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/03/damned-lies-on-destiny-of-judas-iscariot.html" target="_blank">liturgy</a> are all </b></span><span style="background-color:rgb(217,234,211)"><b>of <a href="https://rorate-caeli.blogspot.com/2015/03/damned-lies-on-destiny-of-judas-iscariot.html" target="_blank">one accord</a> regarding the fate of <span style="background-color:rgb(234,209,220)">Judas Iscariot</span>. </b></span></p>
<p>Asked if a priest can therefore “accompany a person who undergoes
assisted suicide,” Archbishop Paglia said the issue “goes beyond laws”
and that he “didn’t want to give a rule to contradict and so on.”</p>
<p>“I would like to remove ideology from these situations forever and
for everyone,” the archbishop said. “For me, those who take their own
lives manifest the failure of the whole of society, but not of God. And
God never abandons anyone.” </p>
<p>“Let's avoid getting stuck in ideological debates,” he said. “What is
most important is accompaniment. We think of laws when the most serious
thing is the abandonment of thousands and thousands of sick people,
even when there is a law. Perhaps because they don’t get votes.”</p>
<p>In comments to LifeSite, a priest close to the Vatican, speaking on
condition of anonymity, said: “Frankly, the first abandonment a Catholic
and a priest should worry about is the possible or likely abandonment
of a soul of such a person into hell, i.e. supernaturally provoked
abandonment and suicide of one’s soul for having voluntarily forsaken
God’s law, His plan and His love ... then we can talk about other
matters....” </p>
<p>“True accompaniment in this case means seeking to be close, yes, but
seeking first and foremost to save a soul, and telling that person what
is at stake, and not abandoning him to his bad judgment. Indeed, <i>that </i>would
be true abandonment, although perhaps it would be less troublesome for a
priest and allow him to continue to be praised by the world,” he
said. “But ours is not the spirit or criterion of the world. We are
creatures of the kingdom of heaven who wish to reach our true home.”</p>
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