Fr. John Crasta of Kayyar Conferred Doctorate in Belgium
By – Mangalore School, Belgium
Leuven, Belgium, Jun 30: Rev. Fr. John Crasta of Jamshedpur Diocese, a native of Kayyar Parish in Kasaragod district, successfully defended his doctoral thesis entitled, “The Care of the Elderly in India: A Bioethical Discussion on the Principles and Hermeneutics of Health Care with Special Emphasis on India’s Financially and Socially Dependent Elderly” on 25th June at 11.00 a.m. at Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Catholic University, Leuven), Belgium.
The principal objective of the research is to explore the possibilities of an adequate health care to India’s financially and socially dependent elderly from the standpoint of fundamental bioethical principles – namely, human dignity, distributive justice and vulnerability. The work was appreciated for its relevance to an 8.1 percent of India’s 1.1 billion population aged at present and to a one in every fifth Indian elderly person by 2050.
The examiner’s panel consisted of Prof. dr. Paul Schotsmans (Promoter), Prof. dr. Scaria Kanniyakonil, Prof. dr. Chris Gastmans, and Prof. dr. Joseph Selling.
The defense was followed by a Mangalorean meal.
Rev. Dr. John Crasta will be a teaching staff in the department. of Moral theology at St. Alberts’, Ranchi from July, 2008.