A listener named Kay asks Fr. Dave, “How does the Church want one to complete an advanced directive?”
Father Dave first defines the term. “That would mean an advanced medical directive for end- of- life care. So a lot of this would be referring to a person planning – hopefully with their family and others involved – for what inevitably happens for all of us,” he says. “We believe that we [can] live on in eternal life with our Lord Jesus in the kingdom of heaven, but this body will die.” He explains that this directive is a document or a person that helps outline medical wishes when one can no longer make those decisions.
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“As faithful Catholics, we would say that there are certain treatments available through modern science that go beyond the bounds of our faith and are immoral,” Father Dave continues. “On the flip side of things, there will be some aggressive ways in which modern culture and society would maybe choose to hasten death that would not be in keeping with our moral and ethical bounds that we are given by the Church.”
Father Dave notes that it is difficult to have an exhaustive list of what is or is not permissible since medicine continually evolves, but references the most recent resources provided by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. While a written legal document can help, he suggests that having a person appointed to make decisions on your behalf is the best option for making nuanced choices for end-of-life care.
“You have to sit down with this person in advance; you can’t wait until it happens,” Father Dave says. “Ideally, there is someone in your family or someone you’re close to who is Catholic or really understands well the Catholic teaching around end of life and morality, so that this person can confidently make a decision on your behalf.” This person is referred to in different terms depending on location, such as a health care agent, but needs to be legally designated while one is of sound mind.
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He reminds listeners that this person may need to be changed throughout the years depending on their own health circumstances. Father Dave says, “I’ve recently had a few experiences with some of the elderly Paulists that I live and work with who hadn’t updated some of their documents for so long that those people [they designated] had died, and now legally, there’s no one to fill that place.”
Father Dave notes that this person does not need to be an expert moral theologian, but rather someone you trust. “It’s saying, ‘You’re my loved one, and I trust you to make those decisions. I’m sorry if that’s a burden, but that’s a better choice than having none of these options, and who knows what might happen in the hands of somebody else.’”
