Volunteer, spend time with the elderly: Religious sister urges Catholics to fight back against assisted suicide

As more states allow assisted suicide, a Little Sister of the Poor who has spent nearly 40 years caring for elderly people is urging Catholics to defend the sanctity of life through compassionate service.

Sister Constance Veit, an occupational therapist, wrote in an Oct. 19 op-ed published by the Diocese of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, that helping elderly people rediscover the joy of living has been among the greatest blessings of her vocation.

“I love to listen to their stories, to create art, play games and just laugh with them,” she wrote. “But lately I feel that it’s time to get serious.”

Sister Veit highlighted that physician-assisted suicide is now legal in 13 states, as well as in Washington, D.C., and many foreign countries, including, most recently, France.

“As a result, the lives of the elderly, especially those who are most frail and alone, are increasingly under threat,” she wrote. “So, in addition to making the elderly happy, and perhaps of greater urgency, I realize that my first duty is to protect them and defend their dignity.”

Sister Veit argued that this dark societal moment invites an opportunity for clear action. 

“In response to the ever-darkening culture of death, we are called to witness in ever-more convincing ways to our conviction that human life has inviolable dignity and worth at every stage, regardless of outward appearances,” she wrote. 

She emphasized that Pope Leo XIV has called attention to human dignity through his first encyclical, Magnifica Humanitas, and in his witness of respect for all persons, including infants, those with disabilities, and the elderly. The Pontiff has highlighted in his encyclical that the experience of limitations, such as failure and vulnerability, enables people to recognize the inviolable dignity of each person. 

“In this same experience, we remain capable of intuiting a fraternity greater than ourselves,” Pope Leo wrote. 

Sister Veit reiterated this point, writing: “A fraternity greater than ourselves – this is what we are called to create and to which we must witness in the midst of the darkness overshadowing our contemporary culture.”

Offering some ways to practically respond, Sister Veit pointed to advice from Catholic bioethicist and anti-assisted suicide advocate Charles Camosy, who encouraged volunteering regularly at a nursing home. In particular, he encouraged spending time with those who suffer from dementia, as they are at the greatest risk of assisted suicide. In Quebec, for example, the assisted suicide program was expanded to allow eligible persons to make “advance requests” for assisted suicide, so that their consent is not required immediately before being killed. 

Citing Camosy’s book Living and Dying Well, a Catholic Plan for Resisting Physician-Assisted Killing, Sister Veit wrote that the bioethicist “asserts that we need to make as many people as possible aware of these vulnerable populations and their need of protection.”

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“Declaring to the world that it is a privilege and a joy,” Camosy wrote, “to encounter and care for these populations is an essential part of what it means to resist our throwaway culture and proclaim the Gospel in our time.”

Concluding, Sister Veit shared how devoting her life to Christ through service of the elderly has been deeply fulfilling, writing that she sees her nearly 40 years with the Little Sisters of the Poor as a testament “to the undeniable dignity of the elderly.”

“My teenage encounters with them were, for me, thoroughly transformative,” she wrote, “planting seeds in my heart which grew into a religious vocation and a life of the greatest joy and fulfillment.”