JOHN SMEATON, DIRECTOR OF SPUC: St Thérèse and the victory over assisted suicide

Thursday, 3 October 2013

St Thérèse and the victory over assisted suicide

St Thérèse on her sick-bed

This week Catholics have been celebrating the feast of St Thérèse of Lisieux (1st October in the 1970 liturgical calendar, today in the 1962 calendar). One of the lesser-known aspects of her celebrated life is her temptations towards suicide during her fatal battle with tuberculosis - I recommend reading the short essay "Suicide: Insights from St. Thérèse of Lisieux" by Fr. J. Linus Ryan, O. Carm. Fr Ryan writes:

"The thought of suicide comes to most people at some time in their lives. For the majority it may be only a fleeting thought that is fairly quickly dismissed. But for others it can be a real temptation that must be strenuously fought. St. Thérèse of Lisieux, the Little Flower (d.1897), would seem to belong to the second category. Even though she was an enclosed Carmelite nun in a French provincial town, who died at the age of twenty-four, she has something important to say to people seeking to tackle the problem of suicide."

So I recommend that my Catholic readers pray to St Thérèse for the defeat of legislation for assisted suicide in the UK (such as the bills proposed by Lord Falconer and Margo Macdonald), in St Thérèse's native France, in Europe and worldwide.

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About Me

I became involved in SPUC after graduating, when I established a branch in south London in 1974. I have worked full-time for SPUC for 42 years. I became chief executive of SPUC in the UK in 1996, having been general secretary since 1978. I was elected vice-president of International Right to Life Federation in 2005. At UN conferences in Cairo, Copenhagen, Beijing, Istanbul and Rome, I helped coordinate more than 150 pro-life/pro-family groups resulting in pro-life victories in Cairo, Istanbul and Rome. I was educated at Salesian College, London, before going to Oxford where I graduated in English Language and Literature. I qualified as a teacher, becoming head of English at a secondary school. I am married to Josephine. We have a grown-up family and we live in north London.