It is said that Madame Roland, a supporter of the Girondist faction during the French Revolution, uttered the following words while waiting on the scaffold to be executed: “Ah, liberty! What crimes are committed in thy name!” Today, given the current state of affairs on many fronts, these words could be rephrased to read as follows: “Ah compassion! What crimes are committed in thy name!”

Mercy is cited to withdraw nutrition, hydration and ventilation from the terminally ill, the elderly and those with debilitating diseases. Hypocrisy knows no limit when all this is done because ‘it is in the best interest of the patient’. This really means that death is the only ultimate benefit left to the patient.

It should be remembered that nutrition and hydration especially can never be termed as overzealous treatment but simply normal care given to those unable to do so themselves.

The unborn are killed in their mothers’ womb because mercy needs to be exercised towards women who, for various reasons, feel unable to carry out a pregnancy to full term. This concept of compassion is akin to that of a doctor who, having diagnosed a fatal disease in a patient, refuses to disclose the truth even to relatives.

Naturally, for Christians mercy is pure sentimentality unless it is clearly united to truth on all levels, both physical and spiritual. A priest who, distancing himself from the gospel and the official teachings of the Church, out of compassion refuses to reveal to a penitent the true state of his soul is failing badly in his duty as a minister of Christ.

Let Christians never forget that the Lord referred to Himself as being ‘the Way, the Truth and the Life’. All other virtues devoid of truth cease to have any meaning.