Thousands of patients in wheelchairs and on gurneys gathered today in Lourdes, France, to hear Pope Benedict XVI speak at an open-air mass for the sick. Emphasizing the Vatican's opposition to physician-assisted suicide, Benedict encouraged ailing congregants to pray to find "the grace to accept, without fear or bitterness, to leave this world at the hour chosen by God."
"There are struggles that we cannot sustain alone, without the help of divine grace," he said.
A majority of Americans believe in that divine grace. According to a recent study published in the Archives of Surgery, 57 percent of Americans say God's intervention could save a deathly ill family member even if doctors say treatment would be ineffective.
Dr. Gene Rudd, senior vice president of the Christian Medical Association, said it's important for Christians to seek out a doctor who will honor their faith, even if they don't share it.
"As long as you have a doctor that will honor your practice of faith and will respect your beliefs and the implementation of those beliefs," he told Family News in Focus, "it might be an opportunity for you to show the love of Christ to an unbelieving doctor."
