Euthanasia Will Be Key Issue as Bishops Meet : Church’s Opposition Effort Will Intensify

When the U.S. Roman Catholic bishops gather next week in Portland, Ore., the first state to legalize doctor-assisted suicide, they will use the setting to highlight the church’s intensifying campaign against euthanasia--an issue that is likely to become nearly as important a policy concern as abortion for the leaders of America’s 60 million Roman Catholics.

The action is likely to take the form of a message on behalf of the country’s 300 bishops, issued over the name of Bishop Anthony M. Pilla of Cleveland, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops (NCCB).

“We expect there will be several bishops who will want to address this [euthanasia] from the floor,” said Richard Doerflinger, associate director for policy development of the bishops’ Committee for Pro-Life Activities.

Since Oregon voters passed a referendum in November 1994 allowing patients with less than six months to live to ask a doctor for suicide drugs, the bishops have individually and collectively condemned the trend toward allowing assisted suicide and are participating in organized efforts to block the implementation of the law.

About 250 bishops are expected to attend the three-day meeting, which begins Thursday. It is being held in Portland to mark the 150th anniversary of the establishment of the archdiocese, the second oldest in the United States, after the Archdiocese of Baltimore.

In addition to euthanasia, the agenda includes matters of secular politics, continued liturgical reform, efforts to attract more men and women to religious vocations, and the sometimes tense relations between Catholic colleges and the bishops.

For lay Catholics, the issue with the most immediate impact will be a vote on whether to ask the Vatican for permission to allow the full celebration of the church’s funeral rites for those whose bodies have been cremated.

On another issue with potential impact on the laity, Pilla is scheduled to give a major address on the role of the church in public affairs.

It comes just weeks before the national conventions of the two major political parties and at a time when the conservative Christian Coalition is making efforts to woo Catholics into its fold. Pilla is expected to underscore the bishops’ position on a number of issues while stressing the nonpartisan stance of the church.

A number of bishops have publicly expressed concern about the Christian Coalition’s effort, and last November the issue was raised in a closed-door session of the prelates.

While the bishops’ conference agrees with conservatives in opposing abortion rights, it disagrees with the conservative agenda calling for welfare cuts, tighter immigration policy and a de-emphasis of the role of the federal government in efforts to alleviate poverty.

Other items on the bishops’ agenda are:

* Votes on the translation of texts for the church’s liturgies and prayer book, including the prayers said after Communion and those said on saints’ feast days.

* Discussion of ways to increase the number of men and women who choose religious vocations.

* A vote on whether to finance a new Office for the Third Millennium that would coordinate the bishops’ efforts at celebrating the Jubilee Year 2000.

* Debate on the latest version of the document “Ex Corde Ecclesiae,” which outlines the way a Catholic college or university is to relate to church authorities and that includes a procedure for resolving disputes between a bishop and a theologian.