Scottish Catholic Observer

Pope Francis has denounced euthanasia, describing it as ‘a sin against God,’ as the bishops of Scotland attempt to rally the Faithful against the latest effort to legalise assisted suicide here.

Speaking to the Association of Italian Catholic Doctors on Saturday, the Pope said that it was a ‘false sense of compassion’ to think of euthanasia as an act of dignity.

Meanwhile, the Scottish Parliament’s Health Committee is poised to consider the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill while parishioners are being urged by their bishops to sign a new petition against the bill.

The petition should be available in all parishes shortly or online and says ‘as signatories to this petition we wish to express our opposition to assisted suicide and call on MSPs to resist the proposals of the Assisted Suicide (Scotland) Bill presently before the Scottish Parliament. The right to life should be fully supported for all people. Assisted suicide will put vulnerable people at great risk and will undermine the care and social solidarity that are due to those who are ill.’

John Deighan of the Catholic parliamentary office said his office learned a great deal when helping to defeat the last assisted suicide bill in 2010, and he believes ‘we can defeat this pressure by mobilising people at a grassroots level.’

On Saturday the Holy Father stressed the Church’s opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide saying they must be rejected.

“We are living in a time of experimentation with life,” the Pope said. “But a bad experiment. Making children rather than accepting them as a gift, as I said. Playing with life. Be careful, because this is a sin against the Creator: against God the creator, who created things this way.”

Catholic teaching forbids abortion, euthanasia, the use of artificial reproduction technologies such as in-vitro fertilisation and research that involves the destruction of human embryos.

— Sign the petition at http://www.rcpolitics.org/  or http://www.carenotkilling .org.uk/scotland/petition

—[email protected]

—Read the full version of this story in Nov 21 edition of the SCO in parishes from Friday.