Pope Francis has said that Charlie Gard’s parents should be allowed to “accompany and care” for their child “to the end”.
His statement, issued on Sunday, was widely seen as supporting the parents’ wish for him to receive experimental treatment abroad.
Great Ormond Street Hospital, where Charlie was being treated, argued that this was not in his best interest. The courts upheld their decision.
The 10-month-old was born with mitochondrial DNA depletion syndrome, which causes progressive muscle weakness, brain damage and respiratory or liver failure. It is typically fatal.
Vatican spokesman Greg Burke said: “The Holy Father follows with affection and sadness the situation of Charlie Gard, and expresses his own closeness to his parents.
“He prays for them, wishing that their desire to accompany and care for their own child to the end will be respected.”
The statement came on the day that 100 people gathered outside Buckingham Palace to protest against the decision to turn off life-support.
The next day, President Donald Trump tweeted: “If we can help little #CharlieGard, as per our friends in the UK and the Pope, we would be delighted to do so.” As the Catholic Herald went to press, it was expected that doctors would turn off life support some time this week.
Hospital specialists had believed that Charlie had no chance of survival, but his parents, Chris Gard and Connie Yates, crowdfunded more than £1.3 million in four months to finance treatment in America. When hospital officials wanted to stop providing life-support for the baby, his parents went to a London court with their case, but the court ruled that the baby should be allowed to “die with dignity” and that doctors could stop providing life-support.
After the ruling was upheld by an appeals court and Britain’s Supreme Court dismissed the parents’ case, the parents turned to judges in the European Court of Human Rights. However, that court decided last week that it would not intervene. At the weekend the hospital said it would not allow his parents to take Charlie home to die, but kept him on life-support to allow them more time with him.
Connie Yates said: “We are really grateful for all the support from the public at this extremely difficult time. We’re making precious memories that we can treasure forever. Please respect our privacy while we prepare to say the final goodbye to our son Charlie.”
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said last week that the situation of Charlie and his parents “has meant both pain and hope for all of us” and he assured them of his prayers.
“We feel close to him, to his mother, his father, and all those who have cared for him and struggled together with him until now,” he said in a statement posted by Vatican Radio.
The important question to ask in this and similar cases, he said, is, “What are the best interests of the patient?”
“We must do what advances the health of the patient, but we must also accept the limits of medicine,” he said, and, according to Catholic teaching, “avoid aggressive medical procedures that are disproportionate to any expected results or excessively burdensome to the patient or the family”.
A spokesman for the bishops’ conference said that all sides had “sought to act with integrity and for Charlie’s good.”
A 25-year-old has become Ireland’s youngest priest.
Fr David Vard was ordained in his hometown of Newbridge, near Dublin, last week. He began his studies for the priesthood after he left secondary school. Fr Vard was the third person in as many years to have attended Scoil Mhuire senior school and the Patrician secondary school and to have gone on to become a priest. Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin praised the schools’ “unique record”.
An agency of the Scottish bishops’ conference has clashed with Scottish Labour leader Kezia Dugdale after she criticised a Catholic school for not being “inclusive”.
The school, St Kentigern’s Academy in Blackburn, West Lothian, had come under fire for making a pupil take off a gay pride badge. The website Pink News headlined the story: “Scottish student told to remove Pride badge because it ‘promoted’ homosexuality.”
A pupil told the site: “After I got upset about it, I was told by the teacher who told me to take it off that the school had ‘no problem’ with me being gay, but I was ‘promoting’ it by wearing the badge.”
A spokesman for West Lothian council clarified that the academy forbids the wearing of any kind of non-school badge.
Ms Dugdale shared the Pink News article on Twitter and then tweeted: “Proof that the fight for LGBTI equality isn’t over and it’s high time for inclusive education.”
Anthony Horan, director of the Catholic Parliamentary Office, said he had sent Ms Dugdale a copy of the Catholic Church’s anti-bullying strategy.
He said: “Catholic schools challenge discrimination and bullying on any grounds. The Scottish Catholic Education Service recently hosted a training day for teachers, which focused on anti-bullying and ensured all protected characteristics under the Equality Act 2010 were covered.”
Mr Horan also questioned Labour MSPs’ commitment to eradicating bullying in schools.
“A meeting held in March of this year to brief Labour MSPs on the work being done to tackle bullying in Catholic schools, was sadly attended by only four of your colleagues. This despite an invite being sent to all MSPs in the Labour group,” he said.
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