<strong>Care in Canada</strong><br><br>Sir – In relation to what is happening regarding assisted dying in Canada, Simon Caldwell is <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/canadian-archbishop-fights-for-right-of-church-hospice-to-refuse-euthanasia/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">right to note</mark></a> that “no-one ever slides up a slippery slope” (17 May, 2024). The dystopia seems to be unstoppable. First, it was the terminally ill, then it was those with physical disabilities; <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/zoraya-ter-beek-deserved-doctors-who-cherished-her-life-as-precious/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">those suffering from mental illness will be next</mark></a>, and a parliamentary committee has recommended that it should be offered to children without parental consent. Meanwhile, Archbishop Christian Lépine is fighting to prevent Catholic hospices from being forced to administer euthanasia should they continue to provide palliative care. Please will <em>Herald</em> readers pray for him? We need all the help we can get, and Canadians – Catholic or otherwise – need access to end-of-life services that do not simply amount to state-sanctioned murder.<br><br>Angéline Simard<br>Montreal, Canada
<strong>An atheist PM?</strong><br><br>Sir – Your cover line in May 2024 of “Number 10 without God” was something of a red herring. If it hasn’t made a difference that Rishi Sunak is a practising Hindu, then <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/should-catholics-worry-about-having-an-atheist-prime-minister/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">how much does it matter if Sir Keir Starmer is an atheist</mark></a>? Lord Goodman was right to cite Fr Mark Vickers’s excellent <em>God in Number 10</em>; there have been plenty of prime ministers in recent decades who have only very reluctantly let God into Downing Street – among them some of the most successful leaders we have had. The sad reality now is that public opinion is indifferent to the personal creed of the leader of His Majesty’s Government. The <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/cardinal-nichols-on-uk-elections-how-do-we-construct-a-society-in-which-families-flourish/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">challenge for Catholics</mark></a> – from bishops to laypeople alike – is to ensure that whoever emerges victorious from the next general election is held to account, constantly, on matters of human dignity. At this stage it’s surely as simple as that.<br><br>Freddy Morley<br>Oundle, UK
<strong>Painful truths</strong>
Sir – If Flora Watkins wishes to reconsider IVF, she might also consider the meaning of suffering (May 2024). Our Lenten endeavours should have deepened our understanding of a truth that few who have kept their Faith in adversity will struggle to comprehend: that earthly suffering has a purpose. Viewing children as rights to be enjoyed is a popular and pernicious notion which devalues human life and often underlies the thinking of proponents of abortion and euthanasia. Dressing up immorality as tolerance seems a common pastime today, but it is not one for which Catholics should have much time: the truth sometimes hurts. It is simplistic at best to equate an assistive technology such as an antibiotic or a blood transfusion with a process which replaces the conjugal act. Most of all, the idea that the begetting of children, the loss of children or the sickness of children are the product of chance or a “fertility lottery”, sadly ignores the profound and beautiful truth that God’s purposes can only be understood in the light of eternity; it is only in the next life that we may understand that which may torment us today.
Miranda de Burgh<br>London, UK
<strong>IVF is not pro-life</strong>
Sir – Flora Watkins asks if it is not time for the Church to rethink her opposition to IVF, especially at a time when birth rates are in drastic decline, citing the case of a friend who has had several miscarriages and suggesting “Why not help women have babies?” (May 2024). Every miscarriage is tragic, but some of those who have undergone IVF have also suffered trauma, often resulting in no children at all. The fertility industry is hugely profitable, but it would be better described as an infertility industry, since it encourages people to believe that they can have children well into middle age, a time when fertility is naturally waning. While it enjoys the reputation of being life-giving, <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/church-teaching-and-ivf-its-all-about-human-dignity-buttressed-by-love-support-and-information/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">this industry is hugely wasteful of unborn life</mark></a>. It is also mired in eugenics, encouraging people to choose the “best” embryos and discard those found to be less than perfect. IVF is seen as meeting a need for “wanted” children, but at the same time, growing numbers of children lack families. However, Ms Watkins dismisses adoption as an answer to childlessness, saying that would-be adopters face “challenges”. Instead of succumbing to pressure to dehumanise children further by treating them like commodities, the Church should support improvements in the adoption process to give each parentless child the chance of a happy life. IVF is not pro-life.
Ann Farmer<br>Woodford Green, UK
<strong>Dominican dates</strong><br><br>Sir – I read with great interest Michael Hodges’s article about the Dominican Church of Our Lady of the Rosary in London (May 2024). I was born in the Dominican parish of St Peter’s, Hinckley, in Leicestershire. Fr John Clarkson OP came to the area to be chaplain to a family in Aston Flamville, near Hinckley, in 1734. With other English Dominican priests over the next few years the Hinkley mission grew; by 1759, Fr Matthew Thomas Norton OP was ministering in Hinckley, Leicester and Coventry. In 1765 , Fr Norton purchased a small house in Hinkley and built a modest chapel behind it. In 1814, the Master General of the Order of Preachers authorised the establishment of a priory and novitiate there; thus Hinckley became the first Dominican priory in England after the Reformation and the mother house of the English Province.
Peter Ginns<br>Cheltenham, UK
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<strong><em>This Letters page originally appeared in the June 2024 edition of the </em>Catholic Herald<em> magazine. To read further insightful and counter-cultural writing, subscribe <a href="https://catholicherald.co.uk/subscribe/?swcfpc=1"><mark style="background-color:rgba(0, 0, 0, 0)" class="has-inline-color has-vivid-cyan-blue-color">here</mark></a>.</em></strong>
