While most Catholics know St. Teresa of Calcutta as a beacon of hope for the poor, she also was one of the most influential figures in the hospice movement of the 20th century. Mother Teresa and her order of sisters, the Missionaries of Charity, dedicate the majority of their work to care for the dying. Aging with Dignity Founder and CEO, Jim Towey, was her friend and legal advisor for the final twelve years of her life and lived for a year at her home for the dying in Washington, D.C. Mother's example of compassionate accompaniment of the dying changed his life. One year before her death, Mother wrote a letter to Jim encouraging him to found Aging with Dignity, to "bring God's love and compassion to the elderly poor." She is the gold standard of compassionate care for the vulnerable.
A faithful, easy-to-read guide for Catholics on end-of-life care
A tender tribute and first-hand profile of Mother Teresa
"Both Finishing Life Faithfully and Five Wishes deserve to be widely known and broadly distributed"
Cardinal Timothy Dolan New York, New York"Five Wishes and Finishing Life Faithfully: A Guide for Catholics on End-of-Life Care are helpful tools that protect the right of patient self-determination and inform its exercise with the light of faith."
Archbishop Gregory Aymond New Orleans, LA (Chairman, NCBC)"It’s my hope that parish communities and families will use these publications, which are grounded in the primacy of protecting God’s gift of life, for discerning end-of-life decisions."
Cardinal Emeritus Sean O'Malley Boston, MA"I had been hoping that you would come up with this companion document [Finishing Life Faithfully], as it goes into greater depth regarding the decisions that should be made by all of God's faithful, especially Catholics."
Bishop William Wack Pensacola-Tallahassee, FLThe Church considers assisted suicide “intrinsically evil” and forbidden “in every situation and circumstance.” Learn the arguments against this discriminatory practice.
How many Sundays have you heard a homily about planning for the end of life? Our bet is not many. Death can be a downer, and not all parishes are equipped with an easy-to-read, easy-to-implement program to educate the faithful on this sensitive but critically important topic.
If you represent a parish ministry or are simply someone who would like to educate their parish on end-of-life issues, we are here to help.
Yes. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) has disseminated clear guidance that supports the use of advance directives, provided they are not contrary to the Church’s teaching. Five Wishes contains nothing contrary to Church teaching. Cardinals Emeriti Timothy Dolan and Sean O’Malley have approved its use by Catholics, as has Archbishop Gregory Aymond, the Chairman of the National Catholic Bioethics Center (NCBC). For further information on advance care planning’s permissibility for Catholics, see our document addressing them here.
Every person is born with innate dignity and should be celebrated as being an integral part of humanity, especially in times of suffering. If we give people the “right to die,” then we are communicating to others that life only has value up to a point, and that when things get tough or people become burdensome, suicide is the proper response. And of course, many instances of miraculous or inexplicable recovery exist. Thus, it is of the utmost importance to value life at every stage, instead of hastening death.
No. Finishing Life Faithfully can be used by people of all faith traditions since it speaks to matters of the heart and eternity. Of course, many religious traditions differ from the Church’s teaching on death and dying, and so Finishing Life Faithfully may diverge slightly or substantially from the teachings of your espoused faith. As such, Finishing Life Faithfully is most effective for Catholics, but people of all faiths should ponder their mortality and prepare for that moment.
People understandably want to avoid pain and have autonomy at the end of their lives. And indeed, the Church supports patient autonomy in discerning what kinds of treatments are “extraordinary” or “ordinary.” However, by promoting the false autonomy of physician-assisted suicide, people come to believe that they only have the choice of pain (unwanted/ineffective treatment) or poison (physician-assisted suicide/euthanasia). By legalizing physician-assisted suicide, we put aside other end-of-life treatment options such as good pain management, avoiding extraordinary treatment, and other comfort care options that are meant to improve the life of the patient while maintaining their humanity, rather than eliminating the person altogether, which has never been the purpose of good medicine.
Yes, overwhelmingly so; the fact that this remains a common question shows the lengths to which physician-assisted suicide advocates have influenced public discourse with their advocacy. No matter how you define ‘slippery slope,’ it exists; from increasing annual deaths to the removal of guardrails to the lax enforcement of protocols. See this video that examines the question in-depth.
Wonderful – you can see our exhaustive list of Five Wishes FAQs at fivewishes.org, here.
