End of Life Care
Surround them with love, support, and companionship that are “anchored in unconditional respect for their human dignity, beginning with respect for the inherent value of their lives.”
—To Live Each Day with Dignity, USCCB
Church Documents and Articles on End of Life Issues
Samaritanus bonus is a document put out in 2020 by the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith reaffirming the Church’s teaching on end of life care. The USCCB put out a compendium of this document as well as a parish resource kit
Palliative Care vs. Assisted Suicide “Killing the Pain, Not the Patient”
Life-Sustaining Treatments & The Vegetative State Address by Pope John Paul II
Caring for Loved Ones at Life’s End
Catholic considerations for our Earthly Passing
Some of the many resources available on these issues are listed on the USCCB website here.
Advanced Directives and Living Wills
As human persons, we have the capacity to make informed, un-coerced decisions about the actions we take. This capacity, called autonomy, is a fundamental and essential ethical principle in all human decision making. In terms of health care decisions, autonomy is of the utmost importance.However, when you become seriously ill or near death, exercising your autonomy to make health care decisions may not be possible to do. And so, others must make them for you. As Catholics, we believe in the sacredness of every human life. We believe that every medical intervention on the human body not only affects its tissues, organs and their functioning, it also affects the total person, body and soul as a unified whole. “By virtue of its substantial union with a spiritual soul, the human body cannot be considered as a mere complex of tissues, organs and functions, nor can it be evaluated in the same way as the body of animals; rather it is a constitutive part of the person who manifests and expresses himself through it.” Instruction on Respect for Human Life, Donum Vitae #3. Thus, it is important for you to choose someone to make health care decisions for you that uphold your Catholic vision of the human person. Advance Health Care Directives, also known as Living Wills and Health Care Power of Attorney Documents allow you to formally do this.e:
Advance Medical Directives: Planning for Your Future
Advance Health Care Directives
Make Your Will for Free | Catholic Foundation of Greater Philadelphia
National Catholic Bioethics Center
The NCBC website offers a wide range of information on bioethical issues as well as an opportunity to “Ask An Ethicist” about a particular situation.
For immediate assistance with urgent bioethics or end-of life questions, the National Catholic Bioethics Center has a free 24/7 hotline: 215-877-2660
Funeral and Burial Norms
Because of our belief not only in the immortality of the soul, but also in the resurrection of the body, the Church professes hope in the face of death, and acts with charity in the funeral rites. The Church provides a number of prayers for the faithful to offer both to accompany the dying of a loved one and to strengthen our faith upon their death. Through private prayer and public funeral rites, we strengthen our faith and hope, comfort those who mourn, and bury the bodily remains of the deceased with care befitting what was the Temple of the Holy Spirit.
Guidelines for words of remembrance
Bereavement Groups
Red Bird Ministries serves ordinary families who have been given an extraordinary cross to carry.
An organization that systematically guides individuals and couples through the complexity and trauma that happens with the loss of a child through miscarriage and stillbirth or as an infant, child, adolescent, or adult. We also serve families who have experienced the loss of a loved one to suicide. Learn more here or as the Office for Life & Family about starting a local chapter in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.