Respect for Life You are lovable because God made you.
The Beginning of Respect for Life
Love of Self (Self-Esteem) 1. You should love yourself because you are made in God’s image. 2. You should love yourself because Jesus loves you, forgives your sins, and died on the Cross for you. 3. You should love yourself because of your unique talents and inherent dignity.
The Beginning of Respect for Life
The Fourth Commandment
“Honor your father and your mother.”
The Fourth Commandment
The Domestic Church recognizes the family as the Church in miniature. The Domestic Church models: • the love and community of the Triune God • the theological virtues • God’s Word • prayer
The Fourth Commandment
Responsibility to the Fourth Commandment Parents Children • educate their children • obey parents’ reasonable wishes intellectually, socially • honor others who • provide a safe warm nourish their faith and environment of care, growth love, forgiveness, • as adults, seek advice of tenderness and parents, express service gratitude, support them spiritually, • educate their children psychologically and religiously and morally financially if necessary The Fourth Commandment Other ways to keep the Fourth Commandment • Honor legitimate government and Church authorities; authorities honor all people by upholding basic human rights. • Citizens must obey the legitimate regulations of people who hold authority (teachers and police officers). • Catholics must bring Christ to the world by working for social justice causes. • Never forget that God is always the ultimate authority.
The Fourth Commandment
The Fifth Commandment “Thou shall not kill.”
• Teaches respect for human life.
• Condemns direct killing of an innocent person as gravely sinful. • Disobedience of the commandment springs from anger, hatred and vengeance.
The Fifth Commandment
Pope Francis on the Death Penalty
“The death penalty is inadmissible
because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,” reads the Catechism of the Catholic Church now on the death penalty, with the addition that the Church “works with determination for its abolition worldwide” (August 2, 2018).
The Fifth Commandment
Is Self-defense a justifiable reason for killing? “The act of self-defense can have a double effect: the preservation of one’s own life; and the killing of the aggressor. . . .The one is intended, the other is not” (CCC, 2263, quoting St. Thomas Aquinas). Assignment What is a recent example of genocide from the news? What is the origin of this genocide? How can it be solved?
In 1994, 75 percent of the Tutsi ethnic population in
Rwanda was brutally killed in a state-led genocide. The Sin of Abortion • Abortion is a violation of natural law.
• Abortion is a direct challenge to the
ethics of Jesus, who clearly instructed his followers to care for the weakest and most defenseless.
• Abortion incurs excommunication,
the condition of a baptized person’s no longer being “in communion” with the Church. Sins against the Fifth Commandment Euthanasia is defined as • Any “action or omission which of itself and by intention causes death, with the purpose of eliminating all suffering” (Evangelium Vitae, 65). • Remember that good intentions do not justify evil means.
Sins against the Fifth Commandment
What are morally permissible choices at the end of life? • 2278 Discontinuing medical procedures that are burdensome, dangerous, extraordinary, or disproportionate to the expected outcome can be legitimate…. Here one does not will to cause death; one's inability to impede it is merely accepted.
• 2279 …. The use of painkillers to alleviate the sufferings of the dying,
even at the risk of shortening their days, can be morally in conformity with human dignity if death is not willed as either an end or a means, but only foreseen and tolerated as inevitable. Catholic options for those considering abortion
• Option Line (optionline.org): Toll-free resource connecting callers to
pregnancy resource centers to answer questions about abortion, pregnancy tests, STD’s, adoption, parenting, medical referrals, housing and other issues • Birthright (birthright.org): network of almost one thousand pregnancy help centers through the US offering testing, counseling and resources such as medical, financial and person assistance. Philosophy: “every woman… is a human being looking for help and support in a time of need” • National Life Center (nationallifecenter.com): 24 hour hotline for pregnancy crisis • Other organizations: Bethany Christian Services, The Nurturing Network, Several Sources Foundation, Gabriel Project Violations against the Fifth Commandment Factors that Contribute to an Unhealthy Body
• Tobacco use • Misuse and abuse of drugs • Eating disorders • Bulimia • Anorexia nervosa • Compulsive overeating
The Fifth Commandment and Personal Health
Ways to Take Drugs There are basically three ways to take drugs: 1. Use—only as intended, when needed, and as directed 2. Misuse—against medical instructions (e.g., using another person’s prescription to get high or steroids to build strength at an artificial rate) 3. Abuse—in a way that is not medically intended and is illegal Only the first way is correct. The Church teaches that the use of drugs, “except on strictly therapeutic grounds, is a grave offense” (CCC, 2291).
The Fifth Commandment of Personal Health
Virtue of Temperance Temperance regulates your attraction to pleasure and helps you use God’s creative goods in a balanced way. • Abstinence tempers your desire for food and other pleasure-producing substances. • Sobriety moderates your desire for alcohol. • Chastity helps you control your sex drive in a way that is compatible with your state in life. The Allegory of Temperance Luca Giordano, 1680’s The Fifth Commandment of Personal Health References • https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2018/08/02/pope-francis-changes- teaching-on-death-penalty-its-inadmissible/ • http://www.priestsforlife.org/crisis.html