The Vatican is investigating 15 Catholic psychiatric hospitals in Belgium because of a change in their euthanasia policy.
Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican Secretary of State, is personally carrying out the investigation.
The investigation follows an appeal to Rome for help from Brother Rene Stockman, the superior general of the Brothers of Charity order running the hospitals.
A change in policy from the hospitals’ mostly lay-member governing Board now requires the Brothers to “take seriously unbearable and hopeless suffering and patients’ request for euthanasia”. Read more