Catholic Medical Quarterly Vol 76 (2) May 2026

Editorial

Dr Pravin ThevathasanDr Pravin Thevathasan

Good News from Scotland

I write this on the day that Scotland voted against assisted suicide. I immediately had two thoughts. I was pleased that they had voted this way and I was also pleased that there was no rejoicing. Opponents of assisted suicide were "relieved" that the vote went this way. Many of us have known people who have not had a good death. Often,this is owing to poor resources and I was pleased to hear many politicians arguing in favour of better palliative care services. We in health care ought to be "assisting" people to die well. We should not be assisting them to commit suicide.

Cardinal Cupichor or Cardinal Newman?

When Newman was canonised, Austen Ivereigh noted that Newman would have been delighted to have been canonised by a pope who has "restored the role of conscience." This suggests that previous popes had undermined its role. His fellow-liberal Catholic the hugely influential Cardinal Cupich cited both Newman and Amoris Laetitia in claiming that "the voice of conscience could very well affirm the necessity of living at some distance from the Church's understanding of the ideal" This opinion led Cupich to later attempt to reward a Catholic politician who voted in favour of abortion up to birth.

For Newman,the voice of conscience is the voice of God. For him, it is not possible to put private conscience against the consistent teachings of the Church on matters of faith and morals. Similarly, for Cardinal Ratzinger, "conscience for Newman does not mean that the subject is the standard as regards the claims of authority...it is the overcoming of mere subjectivity in the encounter with the truth of God."

It goes without saying that there are many times when we can in good conscience disagree with papal positions. I think here of the liturgical restrictions imposed on the ancient Latin rite. Also, when a pope expresses a view on a scientific position such as climate change or a political position such as the precise way of managing refugees, we may respectfully disagree with him. In these cases, I shall drink to conscience first and to the pope afterwards.

Reference
Newman on the conscience by Thomas Carr, The Catholic Education Resource Centre, January, 2020

F the rules

In early September 2025, a thousand or so "gay and lesbian Catholics" were welcomed into the Basilica of St Peter for a jubilee year celebration of diversity and inclusion. The most memorable image of the event was a man holding hands with another man wearing a T-shirt that said "F The Rules."

Should we be surprised? In 1968, many of us said the same thing when Humanae Vitae came out. We may not have worn the T-shirt but we may as well have done so. As the philosopher Elizabeth Anscombe so well argued, once you accept contraception, you have to accept homosexual activity.

Cardinal Zen and several other bishops heroicallly called for act of reparation. Cardinal Zen referenced the call for acts of reparation made by four bishops: Bishop Athanasius Schneider, auxiliary bishop of Astana, Kazakhstan; Bishop Joseph Strickland, bishop emeritus of Tyler, Texas; Bishop Marian Eleganti, emeritus auxiliary bishop of Chur, Switzerland; and Bishop Robert Mutsaerts, auxiliary of ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Nether-lands.

Cadinal Zen said that “This was not a Jubilee pilgrimage (where believers renew baptismal vows, repent sins, and commit to reform). Such actions gravely insult the Catholic faith and the dignity of St.Peter’s Basilica – a serious offense against God!”

He said that he strongly supports this call and suggested that after the mid-autumn festival in China, the faithful should “gather with neighbouring parishioners for three days to recite …. prayers.”

Clearly we believe in and attest the right to free speech. But free speech does not really include the right to gravely insult and to silence others. As Cardinal Gerhard Müller stated that it was “undoubtedly”a sacrilege.

So we welcome the quietly written and thoughtful article in this issue by Garrett Johnson on Courage. His heroic and thoughtful approach to same sex attraction appears as a beacon of hope in the face of the widespread LGBT campaigns of today. Many people with same sex attraction have trod similar paths in the past.

So we are very pleased to be able to publish Garrett’s article, Free speech demands that he is not silenced.

References