Pope Francis has condemned euthanasia and abortion as actions that “play with life” and said there is such a thing as “bad compassion”. Source: CNA.
“You don’t play with life, neither at the beginning nor at the end. It is not played with!” he told journalists on the papal plane from Marseille to Rome on Saturday.
“Whether it is the law not to let the child grow in the mother’s womb or the law of euthanasia in disease and old age,” he said, “I am not saying it is a faith thing, but it is a human thing: There is bad compassion.”
Aboard the plane, Pope Francis was asked by a French journalist whether he had spoken about euthanasia in his private conversation with France’s President Emmanuel Macron earlier in the day.
The French Government is preparing to pass a controversial bill on end-of-life issues that could legalise assisted suicide and euthanasia in the country. The vote, which was postponed because of the Pope’s visit, will be held this week.
Pope Francis said he did not address the topic of euthanasia with Mr Macron but that he had expressed himself “clearly” on the issue when the French President visited him at the Vatican last year.
Mr Macron, who made changing the end-of-life framework one of his campaign promises, declared his “penchant” for the Belgian model in April 2022.
Pope Francis said it is not just an opinion that life should be safeguarded and warned that it is easy to fall into an idea that pain should always be prevented, even through what some might consider a “humanistic euthanasia”.
Instead, science has made great strides in helping people to control pain with medication, he noted, repeating that “you don’t play with life”.
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‘You don’t play with life’: Pope Francis condemns euthanasia, abortion on papal plane (CNA)
