The Vatican has launched an investigation into Catholic psychiatric care centers in Belgium run by the Brothers of Charity after they approved euthanasia for patients earlier this year. The Brothers of Charity also operate in Ireland offering extensive care facilities for the mentally disabled. The Vatican’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin is running the investigation after the board of the Brothers’ institutions made a decision to allow doctors to euthanise patients under certain circumstances. The Worldwide head of the Brothers of Charity, Brother Rene Stockman, had campaigned against the legalisation of euthanasia in Belgium and strongly opposed the decision to euthanize patients in the Brothers’ own care-facilities. It was he who brought the matter to the attention of the Vatican as well as to Belgium’s Catholic bishops. The case is reminiscent of the Sisters of Charity in Ireland whose hospitals have agreed to comply with the 2013 law on providing abortion in certain limited circumstances and who are due to own the new maternity hospital where all services “legal in the state” will be available including IVF, sterilisation and abortion.