I am writing in response to Mario Garrett’s article entitled ‘When the Lord wants to take me’, (The Sunday Times of Malta, August 14).

Nine years ago my dear father passed away after a long battle with cancer. I was with him on his last admittance to hospital where he remained for the next six weeks until he passed away.  A few days after being admitted to hospital, a chance meeting between a Salesian priest and my brother led to an unplanned and unforgettable experience. This priest immediately came to visit my father and did not leave him or us alone from that day onwards. We welcomed and needed this support.

I write to share the holy experience we (my mother, brothers and sisters and myself) went through during those six weeks as we witnessed our father deteriorate until he finally succumbed to death. I say ‘holy’ because through the compassion, support, comfort and presence, this priest helped him and us all, not only to celebrate our family life but to understand that life is sacred.

He regularly brought us together to pray and have Mass with my father. We participated more than once as a family in the anointing of the sick and he was there to talk with us about what was happening to my father and to us all. He supported us in the best way he could. For all this I am forever grateful.

I feel it is unfair to generalise and say that priests’ lack of education and training about end-of-life issues is an obstacle that prevents them from giving more effective support to the dying and the bereaved in Malta”, as Prof. Garrett claims. We certainly do not expect all our priests to be psychologists, however we do expect them to “bind up hearts that are broken” (Isaiah 61:1).

Mother Teresa said that in spite of shortcomings and frailties, priests serve, comfort, accompany, feed with the Bread of Life and prepare us for eternal life. Never in my wildest thoughts had I ever considered euthanasia even though my father was on pain medication most of the time. This was not out of disrespect or egoism, but more because through the support of the priest, accompanying my father in his last days made me aware of the sanctity of life.

I am not the Lord of life and have no control over my life or the life of others. What I do believe is that ‘the Lord, the giver of life, was with my father as he took his last breath and accompanied him to eternal life’.

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