Embracing Our Dying is an important part of the California Catholic bishops' proactive effort to build the "culture of life" in California as well as the very direct response to the political and social efforts to promote the acceptance and eventual legalization of "assisted suicide" in our state.

Early this decade, with polls showing Catholic support for "assistance in dying" at 60 percent-the same plurality as the general public-the bishops charged the California Catholic Conference with developing a program for clergy and parish leadership that offered theological, medical, legal, bioethical, political and pastoral perspectives on death and dying, end-of-life issues, and parish ministry.

They chose the name "Embracing Our Dying" for their endeavor. The bishops hold that a dying person's request for "assisted suicide" is most often a cry for help coming from a fear of helplessness and of abandonment. And the bishops believe that if the dying are embraced by their family and their community, they will not seek death, but will live their last days well, and then accept death when it comes.