Dear Readers,

“I am not dying, I am entering life.” These words of the little Therese encapsulate the mystery of life and death. The meditation of the last ends, and particularly of death and the hereafter, have always been an integral part of the Catholic upbringing. Indeed, the last moments of human life are crucial to one’s eternity and define the entire life on earth.

This is one of the reasons why the Church has paid so much attention to the last moments of life as to its beginnings, that is, these moments when the person is most helpless. Extreme Unction, the viaticum and other special blessings, manifest Holy Mother’s care for her children in greatest need. Any civilization is measured by the way it cares for its elderly, and Christian civilization has always had first prize on this matter.

Likewise, time and again, the Sovereign Pontiffs have taught the proper respect due to persons bedridden and unconscious. Life is God’s gift and no man can take it away from those who are not criminals. Death, in God’s good time, reminds each one of us of our total dependence on our Creator whereas suicide and euthanasia, which haunt our Western horizons, mark another defiance of God. The revolution is raising its ugly head.

Two cultures are struggling for power: the culture of death with sterilized food and clean streets where death is an unwelcomed visitor; the culture of life with children in rags running around the streets smiling, with the deformed and invalid begging around street corners, where sickness as well as health, death as well as new born children, are welcomed as God’s undisputable gift. It comes as no surprise that the same groups which promote sterilization and abortion are also pushing to violate the natural end of human life and override God’s will.

Fr. Jürgen Wegner

Publisher