Denver Catholic

10 JANUARY 23-FEBRUARY 12, 2016 | DENVER CATHOLIC Open House Preschool through 8th Grade You're Invited to Our Take a tour of our school and see firsthand the goodness, truth and beauty of a Catholic education. "At St. Mary, my children are challenged and educated by phenomenal teachers. Each of their teachers has been dedicated to helping my kids grow in many ways: academically, socially, and spiritually. Our children have daily contact with people who not only care about their education, but care that they learn about and live their faith." – St. Mary Parent Sunday, January 24 Parish Mass at 9:30 AM Open House 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM Monday, January 25 All School Mass at 8:15 AM Open House 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Kindergarten Information Session 9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Please join us! St. Mary Catholic School 6833 South Prince Street Littleton, Colorado 80120 303.798.2375 littletoncatholicschool.com 1250 Newport Street, Denver, CO 80220 303-333-8275 www.stjamesdenver.org/school OPEN HOUSE Sunday, January 31 9:00-2:00 p.m. OPEN HOUSE WEEK Monday through Friday, February 1-5 Stop by for tour each day from 9:00 -11:00a.m. Friday February 5th - Join us at St. James Church for 8:15 a.m. All School Mass Traditional Catholic Education following the Magisterium of Catholic Church • Rigorous curriculum for Preschool – 8th grade •High School prep for Honors & AP classes • Sacramental preparation • Student Mentor Honor Program •Competitive sports: cross country track, basketball, volleyball, baseball • All teachers are practicing Catholics, state licensed & teach in their degreed content area; all faculty have bachelor's degrees & 50% of teachers hold master's degrees in their content area • Academic Decathlon, Destination Imagination, Speech, Spelling Bee, Liturgical Choir and Band offered • Academic Enrichment Program provides after school tutoring & homework help • Singapore Math K-8, Classic Literature instruction & experience Grades 5-8, Theology of the Body 8th grade • Annual Science Fair and annual 8th grade week long retreat/pilgrimage • St. James students have earned the top score in the Archdiocese of Denver on H.S. Placement Test in 4 of the last 8 years T wo identical bills that aim to make physician-assisted suicide legal in Colorado were introduced Jan. 13 in the State Senate and House—Senate Bill 25 and House Bill 1054. A bill to do the same was introduced last year and defeated. This year's bill is extreme. The advocacy group Compassion & Choices, which claims to have been instrumental in passing similar legis- lation in California, is promoting the bill and lobbying our lawmakers here in Colorado. In an ež ort to arm our read- ers with the best information available, we are publishing some of the most common myths promoted by the physi- cian-assisted suicide lobby, and the facts to refute them. MYTH #1: No one will be®pressured®to end their life.®®®®® FACT: When Oregon passed its own euthanasia bill in 1997, they soon discovered that many lower-income patients were being disqualifi ed for hospital care under Medicaid or Medicare, because it was cheaper to give them a bottle of suicide pills. Time Magazine interviewed one such woman, Barbara Wagner, for a story enti- tled "There's Nothing Progressive About Physician-Assisted Suicide", published in October 2015. "To say to someone, 'we'll pay for you to die, but not pay for you to live,' it's cruel," Wagner said. MYTH #2: Most people choose euthanasia because they don't want to suž er. FACT: According to the same Time article, the top three reasons people in Oregon chose euthanasia was because of fear of losing autonomy (91.5 percent), decreasing ability to engage in enjoy- able activities (88.7 percent) and losing dignity (79.3 percent). Only 23 percent listed physical pain or fear of physical pain as a reason for their choice. In other words, people are choosing suicide because they're afraid of losing independence, fun and dignity. That begs the question—do we want to become a society in which those who are most vulnerable among us would rather kill themselves rather than risk losing their independence or becoming a burden? MYTH #3: The heart of the battle is the "right to die." FACT: Anyone can die. In fact, people do it every day. However, until now, we have not allowed our doctors to pur- posefully hurt patients. We actually require them to take an oath to "do no harm." ®What's at stake is our under- standing of physicians and what it means to be a doctor. Are they supposed to heal and treat us, or are they the gate- keepers between life and death? We're also looking at redefi ning suicide itself. Rocky Shaw said in an interview by the New York Times that before Califor- nia legalized euthanasia last year, the act of someone taking a lethal dose of drugs was ruled as a suicide. The new law states that "self-administration of an aid-in-dy- ing drug is not suicide." Physician-assisted suicide: Myths vs. facts January 30 Day of Prayer (9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.) February 5-7 Weekend Retreat (Men) February 10 Day of Prayer (9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.) February 12-14 Weekend Retreat (Couples) February 19-21 Weekend Retreat (Women) February 23 Day of Prayer (9:30 a.m. - 2:30 p.m.) 4801 North Highway 67, P.O. Box 185, Sedalia, CO 80135 Phone: 303-688-4198 ext. 122 (information/reservations) Website: www.sacredheartretreat.org BY MELISSA KEATING 303-715-3123 melissa.keating@archden.org www.twitter.com/mkeats42 Around the Archdiocese

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