Mount Saint Mary College will present “Ethical and Spiritual Considerations in Caring for the Dying,” a talk by guest speaker Fr. Basil Cole, OP, on Wednesday, April 6 at 7 p.m.
The talk is free and open to the public and will take place in the Dominican Center on campus. The Mount is located at 330 Powell Avenue in Newburgh, N.Y. The event is being cohosted by the Mount’s Catholic and Dominican Institute and the School of Nursing.
As a person reaches the end of their life, their families, their healthcare workers, and the patient themselves face challenges in the process. In this talk, Fr. Basil Cole, OP, professor of Moral and Spiritual Theology at the Dominican House of Studies, will explore the ethical and spiritual dimensions of the situation and offer ideas to help advance quality patient care. Special attention will be given to the Christian medieval text, Ars moriendi (The Art of Dying), which describes the values that can help individuals die a happy death.
Fr. Cole is a Dominican friar of the Western Province and was ordained to the priesthood in 1966. He finished his theological studies at Le Saulchoir in Etiolles, France earning lectorate and licentiate degrees in 1968. He later earned a doctorate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas in Rome (the Angelicum). Fr. Cole was an invited professor at the Angelicum from 1985-1997. Since 1998, he has taught Moral, Spiritual, and Dogmatic Theology at the Dominican House of Studies in Washington D.C.
A prolific author, Fr. Cole has written several books, including Music and Morals, co-authored with Paul Connor, OP, and Christian Totality: Theology of Consecrated Life, which was also published in French, Polish, and Hungarian. He has written for publications like The Priest, Homiletic and Pastoral Review, Faith and Reason, Catholic Bioethics Quarterly, Angelicum, and Nova et Vetera. He has also been a longtime collaborator for Germain Grisez’s four volume series of moral theology, The Way of the Lord Jesus.