Deliverance from the Cross — Page 75
with blindness in order to accomplish His plan. ' Here Professor Hirt was asked whether he had meant that all the genuine knowledge that mankind acquires and discovers is the will of God, to which he replied that it was never otherwise. On one occasion in an address to a gathering of doctors Pope Pius XII touched upon the attitude of the Church to the border-line between life and death. He described the revival of patients by the artificial induction of Oxygen, as, for instance, in the case of paralysis or the presence of suffocation symptoms, as morally permissible. After his address the Pope was asked at what precise moment, in the view of the Church, death occurred. Did it occur when breathing came to an end, or when the blood circulation ceased? The Pope's answer was, There are no religious criteria, it is for the doctor to provide the answer. ' Applying this dictum to the execution of Jesus we rely on medical science according to the Pope, the authority in this matter. Medical science says that physical life comes to an end when circulation ceases. Thus, in the case of Jesus life did not come to an end on the cross. In all these centuries, research has produced no precise explanation of the death of Jesus on the cross, at least, none that stands up to critical examination. From a medical aspect three main points require answers, each 75