Synod:
Vital role of family in affirming human dignity
(Vatican
Radio) Participants at the Synod of Bishops on the Family on Wednesday got down
to their closed door work in the 13 Circuli Minores, or small working groups
divided into five different languages. Together with input from the lay men and
women, and non-Catholic representatives, the bishops are discussing the first
of three sections focused on the challenges facing families today.
Professor
Pia Matthews is one of just two women named as experts at this Synod on the
family - she lectures in Healthcare Ethics at St. Mary's University
College in London and teaches bioethics to seminary students. She talked to
Philippa Hitchen about the professional and personal perspectives she’ll be
sharing during the small group work…
Professor
Matthews says she’ll be sharing her experience of forming priests in seminaries
but also her personal experience of looking after a child with disability so
she says she’s very interested in issues of inclusion, “how we are welcoming as
parish communities, how everybody is recognized in their full human dignity”…..
She
believes the family has a vital role in “affirming and confirming the dignity
of every human being from the very beginning to the natural end”…
Speaking
of her work with seminarians, Professor Matthews describes the kinds of bioethics
questions that parish priests must be equipped to answer – from issues around
IVF to concerns for elderly hospitalized relatives who may have their food and
fluids withdrawn. But underneath all these practical questions, she
notes, “is a much deeper principle about our relationship with God and with
other people”.
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