ERDs & “Evangelization to People with Disabilities”

For many years, people were inspired by the selfless generosity of religious sisters caring for the ill and impoverished – a “secret weapon” if you will in Catholic evangelization.

Anyone who has ever lovingly cared for someone has also witnessed to the sanctity of that person’s life, whether it is a parent caring for a sick child, a rescue worker going to save a stranger, a nurse caring for a dying patient, or an elderly person fulfilling their marriage vows with their ill spouse.

Especially since St Pope John Paul II’s magnificent Evangelium Vitae, we are beautifully reminded of how Catholics can announce Christ’s Good News, via their devotion to the sanctity of each and every human life – from the first moment of origin (usually fertilization) until natural end.  Our treatment of people with disabilities and our healthcare witness speak volumes about the authenticity of our witness.

Last October, I wrote about modern guidance from the U.S. Catholic bishops, regarding people with disabilities and medical ethics:

the Pastoral Statement of U.S. Catholic Bishops on Persons with Disabilities (United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, 1978) [will soon be 47 years old]….On June 16, 2023, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) approved drafting a new pastoral statement….

In June 2023, the USCCB voted to incorporate [the Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body (USCCB, 3/20/23)] into its Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services [ERDs]….In March 2024, paragraphs 55 to 60 of the Vatican’s Dignitas Infinita addressed ‘gender theory’ and so-called ‘sex change.’  Yet, we are still awaiting the USCCB’s [ERDs] update.

(Forty Six Years Later, a New Pastoral is in the Works, Catholic Stand, 10/3/24); this article is meant to be an update on the announced revisions to the Pastoral Statement on Persons with Disabilities and Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.

Evangelization to People with Disabilities

I wondered if the “Evangelization to People with Disabilities” on the USCCB website was the promised follow-up to the 1978 Pastoral Statement.  Drafting a new statement appears to have been put on hold.  As per a 6/27/25 email from the USCCB,

The USCCB page “Evangelization to People with Disabilities” is not a pastoral statement from the bishops, nor a follow-up to the 1978 pastoral statement. Rather, it is a compilation of different resources put together by the USCCB Secretariat of Evangelization and Catechesis. These resources are from the National Catholic Partnership on Disability and the USCCB and are for welcoming and supporting persons with disabilities in the Church.

Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services [ERDs]

The purpose of these Ethical and Religious Directives…is twofold: first, to reaffirm the ethical standards of behavior in health care that flow from the Church’s teaching about the dignity of the human person; second, to provide authoritative guidance on certain moral issues that face Catholic health care today” (U.S. Catholic Bishops, Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services, 6^th ed, 2018).

Some claim confusion on the morality of matters which should be quite clear, such as transgenderism, embryo transfers, emergency so-called contraception, brain death criteria, and induced pluripotent stem cells (cf, Amazon customer review of the New Charter for Health Care Workers, English edition, 12/12/17)

Transgenderism

The USCCB’s 3/20/23 Doctrinal Note on the Moral Limits to Technological Manipulation of the Human Body should have already been incorporated into its Ethical and Religious Directives for Catholic Health Care Services.  Our sexualities are a gift from God!  How can any Catholic leader not realize that Catholicism excludes the promotion of transgenderism?

Embryo Transfers

Though Catholicism clearly excluded embryo transfers (aka snowflake adoptions) in Dignitas Personae # 19 of 2009:

The proposal that these embryos could be put at the disposal of infertile couples as a treatment for infertility is not ethically acceptable for the same reasons which make artificial heterologous procreation illicit as well as any form of surrogate motherhood; this practice would also lead to other problems of a medical, psychological and legal nature.

It has also been proposed, solely in order to allow human beings to be born who are otherwise condemned to destruction, that there could be a form of “prenatal adoption”. This proposal, praiseworthy with regard to the intention of respecting and defending human life, presents however various problems not dissimilar to those mentioned above.

All things considered, it needs to be recognized that the thousands of abandoned embryos represent a situation of injustice which in fact cannot be resolved.  Therefore John Paul II made an “appeal to the conscience of the world’s scientific authorities and in particular to doctors, that the production of human embryos be halted, taking into account that there seems to be no morally licit solution regarding the human destiny of the thousands and thousands of ‘frozen’ embryos which are and remain the subjects of essential rights and should therefore be protected by law as human persons”. [39]

To act as though the morality of embryo transfers were an open question strikes me as scandalous (cf, National Catholic Bioethics Center releases new book on embryo adoption debate, CatholicVote org, 6/28/25).

Emergency So Called Contraception

While Directive 36 of the USCCB’s ERDs appears to theoretically allow a protocol for using (so-called) emergency contraception for female victims of sexual assault, the protocol is not scientifically valid.  The Catholic Medical Association has long ruled out (so-called) emergency contraception because of its abortifacient potential (cf, Statement on Emergency Contraception in Cases of Rape, Catholic Medical Association, 9/14/15).

Brain Death Criteria

Removing a vital organ for transplant requires certainty that the donor is truly dead.  As per Pope Benedict XVI:

individual vital organs cannot be extracted except ex cadavere….science has accomplished further progress in certifying the death of the patient. It is good, therefore, that the results attained receive the consent of the entire scientific community in order to further research for solutions that give certainty to all. In an area such as this, in fact, there cannot be the slightest suspicion of arbitration and where certainty has not been attained the principle of precaution must prevail….the principal criteria of respect for the life of the donator must always prevail so that the extraction of organs be performed only in the case of his/her true death (cf. Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 476)” (Address to Participants at an International Congress Organized by the Pontifical Academy for Life, 11/7/08).

Not so fast!  Some have been misleadingly been acting as though the church uncritically endorses brain death criteria (cf, “Brain Death” Lacks Medical, Moral, and Legal Foundations and is a Concealed Form of Euthanasia, Dr Heidi Klessig, 2/12/25).

Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells

Section 30 of Dignitas Personae seems to preclude the use of induced pluripotent stem cells, though some claim them to be free of ethical concern.

Cooperation in the Evil Acts of Others

Way back in 2005, the Pontifical Academy for Life provided Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared from Cells Derived from Aborted Human Fetuses.  Within these reflections is an explanation of teaching on “cooperation” in the evil acts of others.

Conclusion

The USCCB is not an organization to be rushed, but I believe that it should be far more responsive on critical moral concerns.

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