The following comes from a November 22 Christian Newswire article:
Life Legal hosted a conversation about life and death between two of the nation’s most prominent faith leaders to discuss problems with assisted suicide laws.
Pastor Rick Warren is the head Saddleback Church in Orange County, California, which attracts over 20,000 weekly attendees to its 18 campuses worldwide. Bishop Robert Barron serves as auxiliary archbishop to the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, which is the largest archdiocese in the United States with over 5 million professing members.
The two met for the first time last week. They discussed their concerns about assisted suicide and the problems inherent in legislation that allows doctors to kill their patients.
Pastor Warren talked about his son’s death by suicide in 2013 and how his personal tragedy helped shape his opposition to assisted suicide. “The fact is, we belong to God. Theologically, we are not our own… I didn’t choose when I came into the world and I don’t get to choose when I go out of the world. It’s appointed by God…It’s not a political issue for me; it’s a moral issue. And of course it’s a practical issue, having had a son who took his life by suicide. I care very deeply about this.”
Bishop Barron explained the philosophical underpinnings of Catholic theology and then called for Christians of all faith traditions to minister to those who are suffering with untreatable illness. “One way the Catholic tradition deals with this more philosophically is this idea of the inviolable dignity of the individual so that it’s intrinsic evil ever to take a human life from the moment of conception to natural death—meaning there’s no motive, there’s no circumstance, no consequence that would ever justify such a move…But it’s not just an abstract moral issue…It’s a summons to the Christian community now to engage in good ministry.”
The conversation between Pastor Warren and Bishop Barren is available at lifelegaldefense.org.
All pro-life warriors are welcome to the battlefield in this fight against assisted suicide. Emotion laden stories about people dying in pain cannot overshadow the fact that we are being asked to accept killing as treatment. Recognize that this is an outrage! We do not help those in need by killing them, and can never bow to the culture of death by making exceptions. In this fight, there is no retreat and definitively no surrender.
May the soul of Matthew Warren, through the mercy of God, rest in peace.
Did Bishop Barron really say this: “it’s intrinsic evil ever to take a human life from the moment of conception to natural death, meaning there’s no motive, there’s no circumstance, no consequence that would ever justify such a move”?
He’s wrong about that. Self-defense, defense of another, just war, capital punishment are all examples in which killing a human being could be morally justifiable.
Sloppy, shoddy, incorrect statements from Bishop Barron.
Bishop Barron would do well by getting back to Santa Barbara and promoting the Latin Mass. His appearance with this Protestant wannabe Pope and heretic is confusing to the laity and a potential cause for a scandal! Pax vobiscum!
Actually, Protestants accuse Warren of flirting with Catholicism. It’s even said he watches EWTN and prays the Divine Mercy Chaplet.
Meanwhile, Barron seems to be experiencing a mid-Amish life crisis.