Dialogue Document
Holy Living and Holy Dying 1989
Holy Living and Holy Dying: United Methodist/Roman Catholic Dialogue, April 2, 1989 (As printed in Origins, September 14, 1989. Vol. 19: NO. 15)
Ethical issues linked to death and dying are explored in an agreed statement released in August by the official Methodist-Roman Catholic dialogue in the United States. Pastoral care of the dying, the ethical nature of suicide and euthanasia , the use of modern, life-sustaining technology and the withholding or withdrawal of medical interventions are among questions treated by the dialogue group. The group's co-chairmen, Methodist Bishop Benjamin Oliphint of the Houston Area, and Catholic Bishop Joseph Delaney of the Diocese of Fort Worth, explain in the document's Foreword that in 1986, when the time came to begin another round of dialogue, "several parties in both churches suggested that a topic be chosen that would challenge the participants less in the area of dogmatic theology and more in the area of ethics and moral theology." Care of the dying, says the dialogue group, "must always be guided by the principle of loving stewardship of life." The group agreed that "the direct, intentional termination of innocent human life, either of oneself or another, has been generally treated in Christian tradition as contradictory to such stewardship because it is a claim to absolute dominion over human life." Full agreement was not reached in the dialogue, however, on whether there may be exceptions to the rejection of suicide and active euthanasia. The statement urges pastoral care for health-care workers who work with the dying. It urges the acknowledgement of dying "as apart of human existence" and the creation of a context in which relief of suffering can be accepted "as a goal for care of the dying rather than focusing primarily on cure or prolongation of life." Pastoral care for the dying, it says, "means engaging in a relationship with them so that they may know the signs of God's presence."