Pope Francis Shares His Concerns Regarding Euthanasia
Let us join with Pope Francis in raising concern about Euthanasia. It has affected my life and in particular my brother Scott. In fact, this was how our Apostolate came about in 1996. Have you read our story lately? Go to the About Us page on our website for a re-cap.
Timothy Duff
Please join us on Sunday's to pray the chaplet of the Merciful Mother of the mentally ill to assist us in our advocacy against Euthanasia for her most suffering children. (Scroll down on our home page for more information)
Below is the article from Aleteia:
Among the Pope’s biggest worries: Euthanasia’s march
A tireless defender of the right to life, the Pope recently voiced his alarm at the legalization of euthanasia in Portugal.
Cyprien Viet - published on 06/02/23
“Today I am very sad, because in the country where the Virgin appeared, a law is being passed to kill, a further addition to the long list of countries with euthanasia,”declared Pope Francis on May 13, the day of the liturgical commemoration of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the shepherds of Fatima. The day before, Portuguese parliamentarians had approved Decree 43/XV on medically-assisted death. This forced Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa to promulgate it despite his personal opposition as a fervent Catholic. He had long held back the measure by every possible constitutional means.
Portugal — just a few weeks before World Youth Day in Lisbon and a second visit by Pope Francis, after his visit to Fatima in 2017 — has thus joined Spain, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Canada, and New Zealand among the states that have legalized active euthanasia. In France, a law is in preparation and is due to be debated in Parliament starting this summer. The subject was raised during President Emmanuel Macron’s last visit to the Vatican, in October 2022. Pope Francis has repeatedly expressed his outspoken opposition to this legislative development, which he sees as a sign of a “culture of waste” and an exclusion of the sick and elderly from life in society.
“A failure for all”
In line with his predecessors, the Pope has never ceased to advocate the defense of life. “Euthanasia and assisted suicide are a defeat for all,” wrote the head of the Catholic Church on Twitter on June 5, 2019, following the suicide of a 17-year-old Dutch teenager.
“We are called never to abandon those who are suffering, never giving up but caring and loving to restore hope,” wrote the Argentine Pontiff.
Indeed, the Catholic Church is resolutely opposed to both euthanasia (the act of knowingly causing the death of a sick person) and assisted suicide (the legal provision of the means to end one’s life).
Euthanasia, explains the New Charter for Healthcare Workers, published in 2017 by the Holy See, is an “absurd and inhumane” act, one of the “most alarming symptoms of the culture of death.” It is a “homicidal act, which no end can justify,” says the document.
Strong words in Canada
During his July 2022 visit to Canada, Pope Francis made clear his stance before Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who was present at his address to civil authorities at the Citadelle de Quebec. In a country that has legalized the use of assisted suicide and euthanasia, the Argentine Pontiff lamented “cancel culture.” He denounced it as “a cultural fashion” that frequently neglects individuals’ duties “with regard to the most weak and vulnerable of our brothers and sisters: the poor, migrants, the elderly, the sick, the unborn… They are the forgotten ones in ‘affluent societies’; they are the ones who, amid general indifference, are cast aside like dry leaves to be burnt,” Pope Francis said.
The Argentine Pontiff urged that “concern for the family and its rights” not “be neglected for the sake of greater productivity and individual interests.” These words have a particular meaning in Canada, where death by prescription is becoming commonplace in the context of the market economy. A funeral home in Quebec even offers medical aid in dying as a simple paid service in a specially equipped room.
He emphasized that the Catholic Church intended to promote “its rightful service to human life at every moment of its existence, from conception to natural death.” The Pope’s firmness was overshadowed, however, by the overall reason the Pope made the trip: the Church’s request for forgiveness from aboriginal populations abused in residential schools, sometimes entrusted to the Church.
Source: https://aleteia.org/2023/06/02/among-the-popes-biggest-worries-euthanasias-advances/