The bishop of the Pemba Diocese in northern Mozambique has expressed sadness and solidarity with victims of violence in a region where Islamist insurgency has persisted for nearly nine years.
![Canadian priest offered euthanasia twice while recovering from hip fracture #Catholic A priest from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, recovering from a hip fracture at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) said he was twice offered assisted death by healthcare staff who knew he was a priest and opposed to euthanasia — a practice critics say is growing as medical professionals are increasingly encouraged to initiate such conversations.“There are some things you just don’t talk about to some people,” said Father Larry Holland, who has completed studies in healthcare chaplaincy in addition to serving at numerous parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.He described his reaction when a doctor brought up the option of medical aid in dying (MAID) should his condition deteriorate. “I think I was very shocked,” he said. “It is such a sensitive subject.”Holland, 79, is currently convalescing at VGH after suffering a hip fracture from a fall in his bathroom on Christmas Day. He spoke to The B.C. Catholic about the offers of MAID from two healthcare professionals, despite their knowing he was a Catholic priest.Holland said he wasn’t dying then or now and that the doctor’s mention of MAID left him “kind of silent” for a moment. The doctor then raised the subject again, saying it’s “something they have to discuss with someone who’s been given a terminal diagnosis.”Holland recalled telling the doctor he was morally opposed to euthanasia. The doctor explained that “he just wanted to make sure that, if a [terminal] diagnosis came up or not … I knew of the different services I had access to.”Weeks later, a second offer of MAID came from a nurse who the priest said seemed uncomfortable raising the topic and was likely doing so out of compassion because of the pain he was enduring.“It’s a false compassion, really,” he said.A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates VGH, told The B.C. Catholic in an email that “staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgment, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.”Staff are also “responsible for answering questions when patients bring up the topic of MAID,” the spokesman said.The two incidents arise as Canada approaches 100,000 assisted dying deaths.Father Larry Lynn, the archdiocese’s pro-life chaplain, said he was shocked to hear about Holland’s case.“This must surely be among the most appalling examples of Canada’s coercive and insensitive euthanasia regime,” Lynn said in an interview.He said it’s disturbing that a healthcare provider suggests euthanasia with any patient, and particularly when the patient is a consecrated religious known to be morally opposed. “It places the medical practitioner into the role of the devil, tempting a vulnerable person into mortal sin.”He’s equally troubled that Canadian euthanasia providers aren’t ruling out initiating discussions with Roman Catholics about MAID. In a document titled “Bringing up Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) as a Clinical Care Option,” the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers recommends against assuming patients oppose MAID because of their faith.The document says: “Healthcare professionals may draw incorrect assumptions about a person’s views on MAID; e.g., they may assume that a patient objects to MAID because she is a Roman Catholic nun, and yet Roman Catholic nuns and others dedicated to a faith-based way of life have requested MAID.” The booklet does not provide a source for the information.An updated version published in March removes the Catholic reference but gives the same advice regarding people of a “faith community” and even those of “strong faith.”Lynn called it “diabolical” to use a nun as an example for overcoming a patient’s moral objections.The booklet reflects a recent trend of encouraging healthcare personnel to initiate MAID discussions with patients. In November 2025, The B.C. Catholic reported on a little-known 2023 Health Canada document urging health authorities and professional bodies to adopt “practice standards” requiring doctors and nurse practitioners to raise MAID with certain patients.The MAID assessors and providers document similarly says physicians and nurse practitioners involved in care planning and consent processes “have a professional obligation to initiate a discussion about MAID if a patient might be eligible for MAID.” However, Health Canada does not have the authority to require provinces or health authorities to adopt such guidelines and The B.C. Catholic found no evidence of any public agency or professional body in British Columbia doing so.Amanda Achtman, creator of the anti-euthanasia project Dying to Meet You and ethics director of Canadian Physicians for Life, said initiating MAID discussions in a medical setting is a form of coercion that attacks patients’ deepest convictions when they’re vulnerable. To “torment” someone who has deeply held beliefs with an offer of MAID is “an attack on their identity,” Achtman said.Holland admitted he was in so much pain that he could “feel the temptation” to accept MAID. “It’s a human reaction. We always look for the easy way out.”Conservative member of Parliament Garnett Genuis has introduced Bill C-260, An Act to Prevent Coercion of Persons Not Seeking Medical Assistance in Dying, which would prohibit federal employees from proactively offering or recommending MAID. The bill resulted from incidents of bureaucrats such as veterans counselors trying to steer vulnerable people toward assisted dying.The Alberta government introduced legislation in March that would restrict regulated health professionals from providing information about MAID to their patients unless the patient brings it up. The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act would also restrict the public display of MAID information, such as posters, within healthcare facilities.The bill is worth supporting, said Achtman, who lives in Calgary. “Simply being offered euthanasia already kills the person, because it defeats and deflates their sense of self-worth and value.”The unwanted initiation of MAID discussions in Canada made international headlines in March after Achtman shared the story of an 84-year-old woman, Miriam Lancaster, who went to VGH last year for severe back pain. She said the first doctor she spoke with in the emergency room raised MAID before any diagnostic work had been done. Lancaster’s daughter was present and confirmed the incident, adding her mother eventually responded to rehabilitation and rest.The Catholic chaplain at VGH, Father Ronald Sequeira, said it’s a constant struggle to help suffering patients not lose hope. He said he tries to offer them “some kind of encouragement and comfort,” but many give up.“The moment you lose hope, the devil comes in, in different personalities, and says, ‘Do you want MAID? I don’t want people to suffer.’”Patients often don’t realize that suffering is redemptive, he said. “God makes us more pure, more strong, through the suffering when we offer it up,” Sequeira said. “So we give hope — help them not to lose hope.”Holland said turning down an offer of death opens one to new experiences. Even enduring pain “can encourage growth,” he said. “It can motivate you, it can open up new worlds, new vistas, new opportunities,” including enriched relationships.He said he is sharing his story in the hope it will help others. “I went through it; you can go through it, too.”This story was first published in The B.C. Catholic and is reprinted here with permission and adaptations.](https://unitedyam.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/canadian-priest-offered-euthanasia-twice-while-recovering-from-hip-fracture-catholic-a-priest-from-vancouver-british-columbia-canada-recovering-from-a-hip-fracture-at-vancouver-general-hospital-v.png "Canadian priest offered euthanasia twice while recovering from hip fracture #Catholic A priest from Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, recovering from a hip fracture at Vancouver General Hospital (VGH) said he was twice offered assisted death by healthcare staff who knew he was a priest and opposed to euthanasia — a practice critics say is growing as medical professionals are increasingly encouraged to initiate such conversations.“There are some things you just don’t talk about to some people,” said Father Larry Holland, who has completed studies in healthcare chaplaincy in addition to serving at numerous parishes in the Archdiocese of Vancouver.He described his reaction when a doctor brought up the option of medical aid in dying (MAID) should his condition deteriorate. “I think I was very shocked,” he said. “It is such a sensitive subject.”Holland, 79, is currently convalescing at VGH after suffering a hip fracture from a fall in his bathroom on Christmas Day. He spoke to The B.C. Catholic about the offers of MAID from two healthcare professionals, despite their knowing he was a Catholic priest.Holland said he wasn’t dying then or now and that the doctor’s mention of MAID left him “kind of silent” for a moment. The doctor then raised the subject again, saying it’s “something they have to discuss with someone who’s been given a terminal diagnosis.”Holland recalled telling the doctor he was morally opposed to euthanasia. The doctor explained that “he just wanted to make sure that, if a [terminal] diagnosis came up or not … I knew of the different services I had access to.”Weeks later, a second offer of MAID came from a nurse who the priest said seemed uncomfortable raising the topic and was likely doing so out of compassion because of the pain he was enduring.“It’s a false compassion, really,” he said.A spokesman for Vancouver Coastal Health, which operates VGH, told The B.C. Catholic in an email that “staff may consider bringing up MAID based on their clinical judgment, provided they possess the necessary knowledge and skills to do so.”Staff are also “responsible for answering questions when patients bring up the topic of MAID,” the spokesman said.The two incidents arise as Canada approaches 100,000 assisted dying deaths.Father Larry Lynn, the archdiocese’s pro-life chaplain, said he was shocked to hear about Holland’s case.“This must surely be among the most appalling examples of Canada’s coercive and insensitive euthanasia regime,” Lynn said in an interview.He said it’s disturbing that a healthcare provider suggests euthanasia with any patient, and particularly when the patient is a consecrated religious known to be morally opposed. “It places the medical practitioner into the role of the devil, tempting a vulnerable person into mortal sin.”He’s equally troubled that Canadian euthanasia providers aren’t ruling out initiating discussions with Roman Catholics about MAID. In a document titled “Bringing up Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) as a Clinical Care Option,” the Canadian Association of MAID Assessors and Providers recommends against assuming patients oppose MAID because of their faith.The document says: “Healthcare professionals may draw incorrect assumptions about a person’s views on MAID; e.g., they may assume that a patient objects to MAID because she is a Roman Catholic nun, and yet Roman Catholic nuns and others dedicated to a faith-based way of life have requested MAID.” The booklet does not provide a source for the information.An updated version published in March removes the Catholic reference but gives the same advice regarding people of a “faith community” and even those of “strong faith.”Lynn called it “diabolical” to use a nun as an example for overcoming a patient’s moral objections.The booklet reflects a recent trend of encouraging healthcare personnel to initiate MAID discussions with patients. In November 2025, The B.C. Catholic reported on a little-known 2023 Health Canada document urging health authorities and professional bodies to adopt “practice standards” requiring doctors and nurse practitioners to raise MAID with certain patients.The MAID assessors and providers document similarly says physicians and nurse practitioners involved in care planning and consent processes “have a professional obligation to initiate a discussion about MAID if a patient might be eligible for MAID.” However, Health Canada does not have the authority to require provinces or health authorities to adopt such guidelines and The B.C. Catholic found no evidence of any public agency or professional body in British Columbia doing so.Amanda Achtman, creator of the anti-euthanasia project Dying to Meet You and ethics director of Canadian Physicians for Life, said initiating MAID discussions in a medical setting is a form of coercion that attacks patients’ deepest convictions when they’re vulnerable. To “torment” someone who has deeply held beliefs with an offer of MAID is “an attack on their identity,” Achtman said.Holland admitted he was in so much pain that he could “feel the temptation” to accept MAID. “It’s a human reaction. We always look for the easy way out.”Conservative member of Parliament Garnett Genuis has introduced Bill C-260, An Act to Prevent Coercion of Persons Not Seeking Medical Assistance in Dying, which would prohibit federal employees from proactively offering or recommending MAID. The bill resulted from incidents of bureaucrats such as veterans counselors trying to steer vulnerable people toward assisted dying.The Alberta government introduced legislation in March that would restrict regulated health professionals from providing information about MAID to their patients unless the patient brings it up. The Safeguards for Last Resort Termination of Life Act would also restrict the public display of MAID information, such as posters, within healthcare facilities.The bill is worth supporting, said Achtman, who lives in Calgary. “Simply being offered euthanasia already kills the person, because it defeats and deflates their sense of self-worth and value.”The unwanted initiation of MAID discussions in Canada made international headlines in March after Achtman shared the story of an 84-year-old woman, Miriam Lancaster, who went to VGH last year for severe back pain. She said the first doctor she spoke with in the emergency room raised MAID before any diagnostic work had been done. Lancaster’s daughter was present and confirmed the incident, adding her mother eventually responded to rehabilitation and rest.The Catholic chaplain at VGH, Father Ronald Sequeira, said it’s a constant struggle to help suffering patients not lose hope. He said he tries to offer them “some kind of encouragement and comfort,” but many give up.“The moment you lose hope, the devil comes in, in different personalities, and says, ‘Do you want MAID? I don’t want people to suffer.’”Patients often don’t realize that suffering is redemptive, he said. “God makes us more pure, more strong, through the suffering when we offer it up,” Sequeira said. “So we give hope — help them not to lose hope.”Holland said turning down an offer of death opens one to new experiences. Even enduring pain “can encourage growth,” he said. “It can motivate you, it can open up new worlds, new vistas, new opportunities,” including enriched relationships.He said he is sharing his story in the hope it will help others. “I went through it; you can go through it, too.”This story was first published in The B.C. Catholic and is reprinted here with permission and adaptations.")
A Vancouver priest says he was twice offered assisted death by hospital medical staff who knew he was a priest and opposed to euthanasia — a practice critics say is growing.
Another day, another massacre in Europe.
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Please continue to pray for Rudy Giuliani.
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A taxpayer-funded waterpark in a Texas city has sparked online fury after announcing they would openly discriminate against non-Muslims to celebrate an Islamic holiday.
The post Taxpayer-Funded Texas Waterpark Announces “MUSLIMS ONLY” Day – Will Require “Dress in Accordance with Islamic Values” and Serve Only Halal-Slaughtered Meat appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.
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The long-distance train route from Chicago to the Pacific Northwest passes city skylines, national parks, lakes, small towns, and more.
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Two experts analyze the state of the Catholic faith among Spanish youth today, noting that while Spain is increasingly secularized, the faith is growing among young people.
What would Earth be like if there were no Moon? Peter Allen RhodesNorth Bellmore, New York Without the Moon, Earth’s geology, biology, and climate — as well as human philosophy — would be different in many significant ways. If Earth had no Moon, the postulated origin of the Moon through a collision between the proto-EarthContinue reading “What would Earth be like if there were no Moon?”
The post What would Earth be like if there were no Moon? appeared first on Astronomy Magazine.
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Paterson hits record, sending letters to seminarians through Knights #Catholic – 
Seminarian John Peter Zappe sometimes feels discouraged by challenging classes and assignments, asking himself, “Why am I doing this?”
Recently, Zappe, a seminarian of the Paterson Diocese, N.J., received several faith-filled letters and cards of encouragement in his studies from local Catholic children. Among these, Nina L., of the religious education program at Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Parish in Wayne, N.J., wrote one of these moving and inspiring letter.
“Congratulations as you begin this sacred journey into the priesthood,” Nina wrote to Zappe, 27. He is finishing his second year of theology studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South Orange, N.J. She continued, “Becoming a priest takes great courage, trust, and compassion. I hope that you will be filled with strength, comfort in prayer, and joy that your work will be making a difference in other people’s lives. May God bless you always.”
In March, as part of this ongoing support, Zappe and the diocese’s nine other seminarians received stacks of children’s letters of support, prayers, and appreciation, including from Nina A., courtesy of the Seminarian Letter Project, an annual initiative of the N.J. State Council of the Knights of Columbus.
“These days, it’s nice to get physical letters from students who write that they are praying for you, a man who is studying in seminary and is planning to go into the priesthood. The answer to ‘Why am I doing this?” is them: these young people of God, who are waiting for me to serve them in the future,” said Zappe, who emphasized that he also finds encouragement from other sources, especially from God in prayer. Additionally, he noted, “It’s also great to see that by writing these letters, the children are thinking about their own vocations.”
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This year, the Paterson Diocese set a record by sending more letters and cards to seminarians than ever before. Students in religious-education programs from four parishes provided over 100 pieces of encouragement. Statewide, Catholic school students also participated, according to John Tirado, the council’s faith director who has overseen the Project for 25 years.
In one letter, Linda, also of the Paterson Diocese, sought to motivate the seminarians by writing, “You got this and God’s got you.” Younger children drew cartoon crosses and angels on their cards.
Participating from the Paterson Diocese were: Father Joseph A. Cassidy, Council 6100 in the Budd Lake neighborhood of Mount Olive, N.J.; St. John Vianney Council 12649 in the Stockholm neighborhood of Hardyston, N.J.; John Fitzgerald Kennedy Council 5486 in Lincoln Park, N.J.; and IHM Council 10206 in Wayne. These councils will be recognized at the State Knights’ convention in Wildwood, N.J., in May, Tirado said.
Throughout the state, local Knights’ council Project chairmen coordinate the letter-writing efforts with their Catholic schools and religious education programs. Tirado collects them and forwards them to each diocese. For the Paterson Diocese seminarians, the letters were delivered from the Vocations Office at the annual Chrism Mass on March 31 at the Cathedral of St. John the Baptist in Paterson, N.J.
“The letters are fresh, inspiring, thoughtful, and honest. They are surprising in their depth, and the children’s thinking about the church and vocations. It’s a spiritual gift the seminarians respond to. You don’t get that with Artificial Intelligence,” said Tirado. He noted that their insights get deeper with each successive grade level. “They are also thinking about the men who will be there for them and their families when they get older,” he said.
This year marked the first time the Hardyston and Mount Olive councils participated. The St. John Vianney Council serves St. Thomas the Apostle Parish in the Oak Ridge neighborhood of Jefferson, N.J., and St. John Vianney Parish in Hardyston.
Summing up the project’s impact, Joseph Tarallo, St. John Vianney’s grand knight and Project chairman, said, “The letters brighten the seminarians’ day. If we don’t encourage our seminarians, we won’t have priests. Writing a letter to them is easy to do. The kids enjoy it,” he said.
– Seminarian John Peter Zappe sometimes feels discouraged by challenging classes and assignments, asking himself, “Why am I doing this?” Recently, Zappe, a seminarian of the Paterson Diocese, N.J., received several faith-filled letters and cards of encouragement in his studies from local Catholic children. Among these, Nina L., of the religious education program at Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) Parish in Wayne, N.J., wrote one of these moving and inspiring letter. “Congratulations as you begin this sacred journey into the priesthood,” Nina wrote to Zappe, 27. He is finishing his second year of theology studies at Immaculate Conception Seminary in South
Several hundred supporters gathered to celebrate the ecumenical think tank that engages on public policy questions within the context of America’s historic Judeo-Christian moral framework.
