Elizabeth Prout (Mother Mary Joseph of Jesus) / Wikimedia Commons
Venerable Elizabeth Prout, who served England’s poorest in the aftermath of the Industrial Revolution, models how Christians should uphold the dignity of the sick and elderly whose lives are threatened by the rise of euthanasia, Bishop Mark Davies of Shrewsbury stated in a recent homily.
In a Sept. 13 Mass at the tomb of Ven. Elizabeth, Bishop Davies told the story of her conversion in the mid-19th century, she heard the preaching of the Passionist missionaries. She then felt called to serve the poorest of the poor in the slums of Manchester and founded the Sisters of the Cross and Passion, taking the name Mother Mary Joseph.
“Elizabeth Prout did not join Marx and Engels in their social analysis in the nearby Chetham’s Library demanding revolutionary violence which would eventually condemn millions to still greater misery and despair,” Bishop Davies noted. “Elizabeth was able to dig deeper into the resources of faith, prayer and lived virtue, to offer hope to the people among whom she was ready to live and die as a sister.”
The bishop continued and explained that the same faith that motivated Mother Mary Joseph should motivate today’s Christians to defend the dignity of human life.
“We cannot fail to think of the lives of the most vulnerable being threatened by medical killing in a seismic change to the way British society views the sick and elderly,” he said. In the alien landscape into which euthanasia threatens to lead us, Elizabeth Prout stands in witness to the values we may be in danger of losing: reverence for human life and the care we owe to each other even to the point of sacrifice.”
He reminded the faithful of England’s Christian foundation, which Christians can still draw upon.
“Today we have come to Sutton Monastery where her body was finally laid to its rest. Yet, it is perhaps in those darkest places where hope and human dignity are now threatened, that her witness will call us to share her pilgrimage,” he concluded. “Today, we ask her prayers and pray the holiness of her life will be recognised and raised up in the sight of the Church, that in all we seek to build, we may dig as deep and find the same foundation, Christ Himself.”
