Abstract
This chapter omits to repeat what the Catholic Church expresses on and of life issue as this has been amply explored. Rather it explores the underlying Catholic theology in its current understanding of ‘relations’ and’ fraternity’. To do so it goes through the principles affecting bioethical thought and the new concepts of Trinitarian theology and how this is understood to contribute to communitarianism and in turn how this affects end of life care. The importance of virtues is re-visited as a ‘venue’ to the relationship, where this in turn determines the ambience around the patient. In this regard a more recent interpretation of the image of God (imago die) is presented as the possibility of relation with the other. Imago Dei is thus a potential to be reached and a possibility present in all persons.
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Notes
- 1.
Catholic theologian, President of the Italian Association of Theologians, and Rector of Sofia University in Florence, Coda is also a writer of papal speeches.
- 2.
- 3.
Notwithstanding the fact that, at the time, Leon was not thinking of a Trinitarian ontology he does speak of a mixture of soul and body and therefore distinguishes ‘image’ from a mere ‘similarity’.
- 4.
On whose life and movement founded on ‘Jesus in the midst’, the cited works and school of thought, recognised by the Vatican, are founded.
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Mallia, P. (2020). The Catholic Position on End of Life: Theological Foundations and Philosophical Reasoning. In: Emmerich, N., Mallia, P., Gordijn, B., Pistoia, F. (eds) Contemporary European Perspectives on the Ethics of End of Life Care. Philosophy and Medicine, vol 136. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-40033-0_8
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