Saskatchewan's bishops are poised to unveil a new document about euthanasia on March 25.

This release will reaffirm the bishops’ firm stance against assisted suicide, stress compassionate care and meaningful accompaniment, spotlight inadequacies in access to palliative care, reaffirm how hope can be found in Christ amid suffering and render several calls to action.

Specifically, the bishops call on the faithful to complete the Horizons of Hope Catholic palliative care toolkit developed by a Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops' (CCCB) ad hoc committee. The spiritual shepherds will also urge Catholics to complete faith-based advanced care directives to ensure they will receive treatment adherent to their values and morals if they can no longer exercise capacity.

The Catholic Health Association of Saskatchewan (CHAS), guided by executive director Peter Oliver, played an instrumental role in helping to develop this forthcoming file during 2024. He told The Catholic Register that the guidance on faith-centred advanced care directives is particularly important.

“It really can be a key tool toward addressing the issue of euthanasia,” said Oliver. “The reason that it's so important is that it invites conversations not around euthanasia, but around dying. It (encourages) us as people of faith to have those discussions and to give thoughtful attention to what are my plans, what are my expectations.”

Over the past few days, Oliver has disseminated over 700 complimentary faith-centred advanced care directives to the dioceses in the hopes that the files get into the hands of clergy for promotion within each parish.

Oliver, formerly a chaplain with provincial and federal corrections in Saskatoon, said the CHAS wants to spark “a positive vision of what life is about and what a good death looks like” because both are “critically important to the well-being of our society, people and communities.”

While noting that storytelling can be useful in promoting this vision, Oliver emphasized that accounts of suffering must be grounded in reality and not fall into the tempting trap of presenting romanticized portraits.

Tackling the mental health crisis is also a key objective for the CHAS over the next few years. Oliver alluded to how Canada is still progressing towards expanding medical assistance in dying (MAiD) access to individuals solely living with a mental illness on March 17, 2027.