In 1996, the Catholic Common Ground Initiative was founded in an effort to lessen polarities and divisions that weaken the communion of the church. At the origin of the Initiative, the National Pastoral Life Center released a charter statement, “Called to Be Catholic: Church in a Time of Peril,” proposing guidelines for dialogue within the church. The Initiative begun more than twenty years ago by Cardinal Joseph Bernardin continues today.

In the United States, high technology rescue medicine has often been used to extend the...