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News provided by
Fr. Kevin Manion
April 29, 2019
LOS ANGELES, April 29, 2019 /Standard Newswire/ -- Christian Churches celebrate the Sunday after Easter as Mercy Sunday. The Gospel recounts Jesus greeting his apostles in the upper room and saying to them, "Peace be with you... whose sins you shall forgive are forgiven them."
For a retired Catholic priest from San Diego, Fr. Kevin Manion, this year's Mercy Sunday has an added meaning. Fr. Manion spent years caring for his invalid mother. "Today is when mom would have celebrated her 99th birthday." Patricia Ann was hospitalized earlier in the month with pneumonia. To non-medical eyes she began to recover with the medical protocol. On the afternoon of her death, she spoke to family members about returning home. She was supposed to leave the hospital. That afternoon Mrs. Manion told her housekeeper she would pay to take her home. She had been collecting "two dollar" bills in a piggy bank for an emergency.
Earlier the hospital physician sought to end the "medical" and begin the "comfort" protocol. This was the doctor's professional opinion. Fr. Manion sensed the doctor's urgency for the "comfort" protocol - the use of a morphine drip to provide his mother comfort. The priest gave his consent. Medical protocol was removed.
The new protocol took one hour. Family members witnessed special nurses loading Mrs. Manion with three bags of morphine. Pat saw this as well. She knew what was happening. She pleaded with her son to take her out of the hospital bed. He was helpless, knelling on the floor next to her, and he saw Jesus in agony on the cross. The Lord's Prayer ends with the words, "deliver us from evil." Fr. Manion's mom was euthanized. "Pray for us now, and at the hour of our death." The hour of Patricia's death was evil.
Had she lived, Patricia would have been an invaluable witness for a recent "Cause of Sainthood" in the Los Angeles Archdiocese for Fr. Aloysius Ellacuria, CMF. 40 years earlier Mrs. Manion had accompanied Fr. Aloysius on pilgrimage to the Holy Land. Fr. Aloysius was designated "Servant of God" by the Vatican Congregation handling sainthood causes. Pat Manion didn't survive to tell her story. Her 5-day hospitalization ended in terror. This Mercy Sunday Fr. Manion prays the Lord's Mercy be with all placed on comfort protocol, and that his mother, Patricia Ann, born this day 99 years ago, rest in peace.
SOURCE Fr. Kevin Manion
CONTACT: Rev. Kevin Manion, 512-773-5447
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