Pope Francis laments new
euthanasia law in Portugal on feast of Our Lady of Fatima
Vatican City, May 13, 2023 / 07:40 am
Pope Francis on Saturday expressed his sorrow over
the legalization of euthanasia in Portugal.
“Today when we celebrate the memory of the
apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the little shepherds of Fatima, I am very
sad, because in the country where Our Lady appeared, a law to kill has been
enacted,” the pope said May 13 at the Vatican.
“It is one more step in the long list of countries
with euthanasia,” he added.
Portugal’s Parliament voted May 12 to allow
medically-assisted suicide in limited cases. The legislation states that a
person requesting assisted death should be “in a situation of great intensity
of suffering, with definitive injury of extreme gravity or serious and
incurable disease.”
A doctor can also euthanize a patient when
“medically assisted suicide is impossible due to a physical disability of the
patient.” Assisted suicide is the providing of lethal drugs so patients can
take their own lives, while euthanasia is the direct killing of patients by
doctors.
Portugal’s new law, which was passed by a strong
majority on Friday, overturns earlier vetoes from Catholic President Marcelo
Rebelo de Sousa.
Pope Francis made an impromptu comment on
Portuguese legislation during a meeting in the Vatican’s Paul VI Hall with
participants in the general assembly of the World Union of Catholic Women’s
Organizations.
On May 13, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast
of Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared six times to three shepherd children in a
field in Fatima, Portugal, in 1917. She brought with her requests for the
recitation of the rosary, for sacrifices on behalf of sinners, and a secret
regarding the fate of the world.
Pope Francis canonized two of the Fatima
visionaries, Jacinta and Francisco Marto, in 2017. Sister Lucia dos Santos, the
eldest child to witness the Fatima apparitions, is on the path to
beatification. She died in 2005 at the age of 97.
The apparitions of the Virgin Mary at Fatima are
some of the most well-known Marian apparitions in the world.
Pope Francis visited the shrine at the site of the apparitions
in 2017. He is expected to visit again during a trip to Lisbon, Portugal, at
the beginning of August for World Youth Day 2023.
It is good to see realistic legislation being enacted in southern European Catholic countries, loosening the grip of anti-democratic religious bigotry.
ReplyDeleteIt is also good to see Gene being continually gainsaid by progress, as his bigoted espousal of lost causes continues to be a laughing stock. No cause is thoroughly lost until Gene supports it - his approval is obviously toxic.
cGene - why are you bothering? No-one but me is reading this shite, and I only read to find new and different ways of ridiculing your pretentiousness, your bigotry and your total lack of actual Christian piety. By my reckoning I have routed you in ignominy a dozen times in as many weeks, and still you keep on, thinking that your blog is a significant contribution to online debate, posturing as a "full time professional writer" [sic] who has written and published fuck-all in SEVEN YEARS, and still frantically scrabbling round to find a convincing reason why the terrible and unpublishable "Granny Barkes followed through a fart and stank out Harris and Hooles" has been delayed in publication for the fourth year running.
ReplyDeleteGive it up Gene - you are talking only to yourself, and even you aren't listening....