February 25, 2026

By Jim Towey

(Earlier this month, Aging with Dignity Founder Jim Towey was awarded the Thomas A. Horkan, Jr. Distinguished Catholic Leader Award by the Catholic Bishops of Florida. Below are excerpts of his remarks to over 500 attendees in attendance in Tallahassee in advance of their meetings with Florida’s lawmakers.)

Archbishop Wenski, Your Excellencies, and distinguished guests.

Thank you for this award. Tom Horkan was a role model for all lay people trying to live out their vocations in the public square.

Our Lord Jesus, on the morning of His death, made a remarkable declaration in response to Pontius Pilate’s questioning. He said, “The reason I was born, the reason I came into the world, is to testify to the truth.” Think about that. Jesus said the reason He was born was to testify, to be a witness to the truth.

It is in His name that you good people have come to Tallahassee, to testify to the truth. The truth was on trial in Jesus’ hour, and it remains on trial today. Unfortunately, in the halls of power like those you will soon walk, Pilate has many imitators. You, however, have been called to give witness, to testify that each person in this state bears the divine imprint, and is the summit of God’s creation.

You are here to proclaim that life is sacred from its conception to natural death, to proclaim that the poor and rejected demand our special affection and protection. This core message of yours will be opposed by some because, just as at the time of creation, man wants to be God and the ultimate authority.

High tech and artificial intelligence

There are many examples of man playing God today, but I will briefly cite two.

First, man has now fashioned a new golden calf to worship. I am speaking of advanced technology and artificial intelligence.  AI certainly offers many possibilities, but at its heart is a challenge to what it means to be human, an attack on humanity and truth itself, fraying social bonds, sowing distrust.

AI’s attack on truth makes it nearly impossible now for us to distinguish the real from the fake. So many phony videos, websites and social media platforms carrying doctored information, all designed to deceive. AI’s appeal dates back to Biblical times by offering heightened knowledge, things pleasing to the eye, sights of all the kingdoms of the world in their magnificence, in an instant, in a click. In other words, it offers the same promises, the usual lies, of the tempter.

The ethical guardrails the AI overlords pledged to protect civilized humanity from abuse have given way to greed, instituting a materialistic, utilitarian view of man. In such a world, the poor, the elderly and disabled, the imprisoned, those on death row, the sick, the refugees – all of these human beings made in the image and likeness of God have no place, no value in AI’s brave, dark world.

Assisted suicide

This brings me to my second example of man playing God, that is, the movement to legalize assisted suicide. You can be assured that this issue will be on the ballot in Florida early in the next governor’s term. Physician assisted suicide is legal in 12 states, and today in Canada, it is now the fourth leading cause of death. It is a money saver for governments and insurers, and an inheritance saver for relatives.

My friends, educate your elected officials. Suicide is not a solution to physical or existential suffering, and never has been, not in Judas’ time, not in our own. The Christian response to the suffering of others is compassion. We are our brother’s keeper, not our brother’s killer. When our sister is in misery with a terminal or chronic illness, we do not help her take her own life.

No, we love her the way Christ loves us. We accompany her, we treat her pain, we provide support and services, and most of all, we assure her that she is a gift to us, not a burden.

Mother Teresa

It is true, I had the privilege of knowing Mother Teresa of Calcutta, to be with her on a regular basis over the last 12 years of her life, and on occasion, travel with her and see her compassion in action. I didn’t deserve this privilege, God knows, and I’m trying to pay it back.

I wrote about what she taught me in my book, To Love and Be Loved: A Personal Portrait of Mother Teresa. In it, I tell of a time when a man approached her and said, “Mother Teresa, for every person you pick up off the streets of Calcutta, another 10 die all alone, and you have been doing this for 50 years and nothing seems to have changed.” He asked her, “Don’t you get discouraged?”

And Mother Teresa responded, “No. God doesn’t call me to be successful; God calls me to be faithful.”

My friends, the reason you are here in Tallahassee, and indeed, the very reason you were born, is to be faithful, just as she was, to be witnesses to the truth the Church teaches. That’s what Tom Horkan did. Go and do the same.

You may not succeed today in changing a single legislator’s mind, and that’s okay. You must do your part and try and encourage others to go and do the same. God calls you to be faithful.

(The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Aging with Dignity and/or its Board of Directors.)