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BREAKING: Pontifical Academy of Life president calls medically assisted suicide ‘feasible’

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. | Walter Breitenmoser/CNA

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Apr 23, 2023 / 15:02 pm (CNA).

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, has spoken in support of legalized medically assisted suicide, calling it “feasible” despite the clear teachings of the Catholic Church against it.

“Personally, I would not practice suicide assistance, but I understand that legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions we find ourselves in,” Paglia said in a speech on April 19 during the International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy.

The Italian archbishop’s remarks were part of a presentation that included a documentary about an Italian man who went to Switzerland to die by assisted suicide. A video of the discussion, in Italian, is available here.

The Italian news outlet Il Riformista published the text of Paglia’s speech on Saturday.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church, “intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder” and “gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and the respect due to the living God, his Creator” (CCC 2324).

More recently, in 2020, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirmed that teaching in its letter Samaritanus bonus, “on the care of persons in the critical and terminal phases of life,” which was approved by Pope Francis.

“The uninfringeable value of life is a fundamental principle of the natural moral law and an essential foundation of the legal order,” the letter states. “We cannot directly choose to take the life of another, even if they request it.”

Earlier this year, during his general audience on Feb. 9, Pope Francis said the dying need palliative care, not euthanasia or assisted suicide, saying, “We must accompany people towards death, but not provoke death or facilitate assisted suicide.”

In his remarks on April 19, Archbishop Paglia emphasized that the Church is not a “dispenser of truth pills” when it comes to engaging with a pluralistic society on the most challenging moral issues of the day.

“Theological thought evolves in history, in dialogue with the Magisterium and the experience of the people of God (sensus fidei fidelium), in a dynamic of mutual enrichment,” Paglia said.

Paglia pointed to Pope Francis’ decision in 2018 to revise the Catechism of the Catholic Church to state that the death penalty is “inadmissible.”

“The contribution of Christians is made within the different cultures, neither above — as if they possessed an a priori given truth — nor below — as if believers were the bearers of a respectable opinion, but disengaged from history,” Paglia continued.

“Between believers and non-believers there is a relationship of mutual learning,” Paglia said.

“As believers, therefore, we ask the same questions that concern everyone, in the knowledge that we are in a pluralistic democratic society. In this case, about the end of (earthly) life, we find ourselves all facing a common question: How can we reach (together) the best way to articulate the good (ethical plane) and the just (legal plane), for each person and for society?”

Paglia criticized the expansion of laws in some countries to permit involuntary euthanasia. At the same time, he said it was “not to be ruled out” that legalized assisted suicide “is feasible in our society,” provided certain conditions spelled out by a 2019 Italian constitutional court ruling are met.

Specifically, he said, quoting from the court’s direction, “the person must be ‘kept alive by life-support treatment and suffering from an irreversible pathology, a source of physical or psychological suffering that he or she considers intolerable, but fully capable of making free and conscious decisions.’” The Italian House of Representatives has already approved such legislation, but not the Senate, he noted.

This is not the first time Paglia’s remarks on assisted suicide have stirred controversy. In 2019, answering a question about assisted suicide and whether a Catholic or a Catholic priest can be present at someone’s death by assisted suicide, Paglia told a small group of journalists that he would be willing to do so, because “the Lord never abandons anyone.”

“In this sense, to accompany, to hold the hand of someone who is dying, is, I think a great duty every believer should promote,” he said at the time, adding that believers should also provide a contrast to the culture of assisted suicide.

More recently, in August 2022, Paglia was sharply criticized by abortion opponents for referring in an Italian television interview to Law 194 — the 1978 law legalizing abortion in Italy — as a “pillar of society.” In a subsequent statement, the Pontifical Academy of Life said the comment was taken out of context.


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34 Comments

  1. The Catechism clearly states that “intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives is ‘murder'”.

    The President of the Pontifical Academy for Life calls it ‘feasible’.

    Got it – glad we cleared that one up.

    • Ah, Terence, how quaint to expect clarity in this complexity-intoxicated and nuance-sophisticated world where dispute is settled not by truth, but power. We must ‘get with the program’: the paradigm shift that renders obsolete injunction that we must become as little children to inherit the kingdom of heaven.

    • I think your first proposition is what Francis has in mind when he talks about an “ideological museum piece” and that morality must never be applied “mechanically.”
      I’m glad I like museums, and I’m glad I have enough respect for God to know He isn’t an idiot who would have abandoned us to a capricious understanding to how we should order our lives together.

  2. Physician Assisted Suicide (PAS) is written into United States Law only as an “exemption”! from anti-homicide laws.

    Likewise, as too many tribal purple and red hats intend homosexual actions to be exemptions from moral theology (which remains on the books but pastorally irrelevant).

    About PAS–here we thought that capital punishment was “inadmissible.”

    And as an example of Paglia’s “mutual learning,” we’re inspired by the mural still dangling in Paglia’s former cathedral church of the Diocese of Terni-Narni-Amelia? https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/leading-vatican-archbishop-featured-in-homoerotic-painting-he-commissioned

    Said Paglia’s mural artist Cinalli: “The one thing that they didn’t permit me to insert [in the catch-all mural] was the copulation of two people within this net where everything [else !!!] is permitted.” (And yet, said Dostoevsky: “If there is no God, everything is permitted.”)

    All of this soon to be harmonized in the oracles of synodality.

  3. Comment out of context? The PCL has been out of context since Francis butchered it’s original members and left Paglia in charge whose pronouncements have always been anything but orthodox! I suppose the next thing will be that his choice of subject material for cathedral Baptistry can also be used out of context!!! What corruption and disservice to the unborn and vulnerable!!!

  4. If this Cardinal who is heading up a Pontifical Academy believes that medically assisted suicide is feasible and in accord with God’s will, then he needs to be removed from that position and publicly corrected by Pontiff Francis.

  5. Considering that this is the bishop who was reported to have commissioned an openly homosexual artist to paint a blasphemous homoerotic mural in his cathedral Church in 2007, in Terni-Narni-Amelia, Italy, I suspect that we’re fortunate this is all he wants to change.

    Bergoglio, Bergoglio,
    Chaos is your portfolio.
    Speak and up springs imbroglio,
    While truth is mutilated, bent and foldio’d.

    • I remember when he had that painting done and wondered how Pope Francis could tolerate his sinful, disgusting action putting that painting in a Catholic Church, of all places. I am still wondering what is going on in our church!

  6. Of course they did. Have they called contraception a marital good yet?
    .
    I really don’t want to hear or read anyone dunking on Kavanaugh, Barrett, or Trump anymore. Well, got ahead and dunk–there are plenty of reasons to do so I would imagine, just not on the abortion issue. They aren’t perfect, but look who is in charge of the PAL? And who put him in that position.
    .

  7. To any bishops reading:

    The man who said this, Excellency Paglia, is marketing evil, and it is a fairly clear at this point that the man who appointed him, the Pontiff Francis, has appointed him, and many other bishops like him, for the purpose of marketing evil.

    Marketing Evil.

    • I don’t like our Pope. I pray for him. I have a close friend, a missionary priest in India whom I always employ with my special prayer petitions. He prays for Francis. I’ve tracked many outrageous things he has said in ten years, but I do not know his level of culpability in wanting to remake the Church. His Marxist leaning affects his epistemological view that truth is always a continuous dialectical process, which he believes should be applied to the Church. Francis has even repeated verbatim Walter Kasper’s famous process theological essay of 1967 promoting process theology that holds to the notion of a God Who is capable of changing His mind and is learning from history like his creation. I do not know what level of malice, if any, exists in his “make a mess” approach to all matters of truth. I pray specifically he comes to his senses and the damage he does is contained as only Our Lord has the power to contain it.

  8. Lots of non-sequiturs in the Archbishop’s words:
    “Archbishop Paglia emphasized that the Church is not a “dispenser of truth pills” when it comes to engaging with a pluralistic society on the most challenging moral issues of the day.”
    Okay, the Church is not a dispenser of “truth pills”.
    “Theological thought evolves in history, in dialogue with the Magisterium and the experience of the people of God (sensus fidei fidelium), in a dynamic of mutual enrichment,” Paglia said.
    Yes, that is true. There is a dynamic of mutual enrichment. Who can doubt it.
    “The contribution of Christians is made within the different cultures, neither above — as if they possessed an a priori given truth — nor below — as if believers were the bearers of a respectable opinion, but disengaged from history,” Paglia continued.
    Well, Christ is above, and the Church brings Christ, who is the “Truth” (he said it himself). So what he says is not entirely true. But let’s continue on…
    “Between believers and non-believers there is a relationship of mutual learning,” Paglia said.
    Yes, indeed.
    “As believers, therefore, we ask the same questions that concern everyone, in the knowledge that we are in a pluralistic democratic society. In this case, about the end of (earthly) life, we find ourselves all facing a common question: How can we reach (together) the best way to articulate the good (ethical plane) and the just (legal plane), for each person and for society?”
    Ok. That’s fine. None of this, so far, brings us anywhere near the conclusion that medically assisted suicide is feasible, but let’s go on…
    “Paglia criticized the expansion of laws in some countries to permit involuntary euthanasia.
    Why? Do you have a “truth pill” that needs to be dispensed at this point?
    “At the same time, he said it was “not to be ruled out” that legalized assisted suicide “is feasible in our society,” provided certain conditions spelled out by a 2019 Italian constitutional court ruling are met.”
    But where did this come from??? In terms of all that went before (above), we have a complete non-sequitur.
    What is terribly sad about this is that all those “theses” above about mutual learning and dialogue, development, etc., are now associated with this ridiculous moral position that maintains that murder is feasible. And so, whenever anyone employs these principles regarding mutual enrichment, the difficulty of achieving truth, etc., they will be immediately suspected of adopting such absurd moral positions.

  9. Clearly the Pontifical Academy for Life has abandoned the vision of Pope John Paul II and found its new inspiration in the berserk zeitgeist. What else could have been expected with the installation of Paglia at the helm? The man has all the sound judgement of an adolescent. The infamous “patron of the arts” from Terni has as little expertise in moral theology as he does in aesthetics.
    On the plus side at least he doesn’t hide behind a masque as exhibited in one of higher office. He just spills the bold disorientation of his notions out for all to absorb shamelessly.
    We are sheep without a temporal shepherd. How many times need we hear the cock crow?
    Personnel is policy.

    • Agree, James, personnel is policy. With this Pope, you have to watch what he does, not what he says. Particularly what he does and has done with those he has appointed or empowered, McCarrick, Cupich, McElroy and perhaps worst of all, Paglia to desecrate The Pontifical Academy of Life established by St JP II. Would any faithful Catholic welcome accompaniment by Paglia? St Peter Damien, pray for us.

  10. Pictures may say it all. Although many of us knew this was only a matter of time. Precisely the mentality of apostate Catholic politicians here at home. “We don’t dispense truth pills in a pluralistic democratic society” – Paglia suggests we dispense poison pills.
    Withholding life saving treatment for the suffering terminally ill, coupled with comfort care, including sedation is morally permissible. As such, we’re not interfering in the death process. We’re allowing it to take its natural course.
    Whereas in medically assisted suicide the delivery of a lethal substance is killing, that falls under the moral purview of murder [suicide is a form of murdering oneself].
    Furthermore, we’re permitted to apply any amount of pain meds, say morphine, short of intent to kill. Milan’s renowned ca treatment medical center has applied that policy for decades. There’s no compelling reason to intend death by invasive means. It may quicken death, likewise, med assisted suicide wide opens the door to policies of selective killing absent of the patent’s or proxy’s permission. There are many physicians who are intellectualists and anti religious who will accelerate the downslide to destroy our humanness in tandem with abortion. With appointments like Archbishop Paglia and a smiling Francis our Church seemingly experiences parallel corruption with the secular world. How Francis responds, in lieu of what he said [in that his previous prohibition requires strong affirmation] will tell the tale of this story.

    • “How Francis responds, in lieu of what he said [in that his previous prohibition requires strong affirmation] will tell the tale of this story”
      Do you know Father, I do not think it will. I remember years ago reading an interview with a famous singer. She said that with every interview she assessed the readership and adapted her opinions to suit. I think it is the same with the Pope. Every now and then he throws a crumb to tradition and when the storm calms he is right back to his old tricks.

  11. We must remind ourselves that “accompanying” modern man should resemble to some degree in substance the original “accompaniment” that God Himself visited upon His people at the foot of Mt. Sinai long ago through His prophet Moses. Recall that after a 40-day encounter with God on Mt. Sinai, Moses did not descend to pat the people on the back and affirm or approve them. No, he confronted them with the Truth about themselves: paraphrasing, he called them “liars, adulterers, idolaters, envious, murderers, thieves, lustful, greedy, and generally grotesque.” His laws and His message are clear. We’re in exile because we are broken, in sin were we conceived and its mark on us indisputable. Therefore, there can never be “accompaniment” without profound contrition, sack-cloth and ashes, a change of heart, a humility and meekness, a real desire for radical reform of oneself before God. I dare say, any message that seeks to mingle the mindset of the “Sensus Fidei” with that of God is already suspect and partially inadmissible, especially now, having enlarged the SF to include the atheist, the rebellious (protestant) the disgruntled, the irreligious, the sexually perverted, etc. Woe to those that call evil, good and good, evil. Paglia states that “the Lord never abandons anyone.” which is True; but, how often do WE abandon HIM? That’s the problem. Seeking something that HE cannot bless, that HE does not approve, that HE outright condemns entails that WE have separated ourselves from HIM. Man is the same from age to age. Being “modern” means nothing. It’s merely a ruse to suggest, among other fallacies, that our “sexual teachings are still in diapers” which is an outright LIE. Our hierarchy is risking being cut from the root of the vine, or “losing the Faith” as Our Blessed Mother of LaSalette indicated many years ago. PRAY. PRAY. PRAY! If we cannot look to these men to give us the direction we need, then we need to go around them, refute them, ignore them.

  12. When I see for “the common good”, all my alarm bells go off. How much evil has been done in the name of “the common good”? Common good being defined, of course, by those who have the power to define it.

  13. After accepting Satan’s deceit, Eve considered betraying God “feasible” and Adam went along, and doing so both opened the gates of Hell and suffering over all the Earth. Judas Iscariot, filled with sodopride, considered betraying Jesus-God “feasible” and doing so opened the Gates of Hell and suffering wider than Adam and Eve.

    It is infinitely more feasible to pray and act on this prayer, come persecution, torture and death: “Thank you, Heavenly Father, because you allow Jesus Wounds to transform my wounds and to raise me to the exalted dignity of being your son/daughter. Help me to walk in that highest dignity in the infinite beauty of your purity and your holiness, and to glorify you always in life, in death and for all eternity. Thank you, Lord. Amen!”

  14. Why is this guy the president of the Academy of Life?
    Yes, the pro-euthanasia talking points are directly in line with the pro-abortion talking points of the last fifty years. Have we learned nothing?

  15. A morally and spiritually reprehensible position. Those in leadership who hold such views should be laicized immediately.

  16. Given the absence of a papal rebuke one is left to speculate if Paglia’s job, at this sensitive moment in Italy, was not to let the horse out of the paddock. Provide the Italians an excuse to “vote their conscience.” Now the issue is up for endless examination not unlike their obsession with sodomy. And we have “the sin-nod” coming up. This atrocity serves also to soften the line on abortion. It is all of design.

  17. One way to help keep things straight when it comes to suicide is to remember that sui (oneself) and cide (killer or act of killing), and the way cide is used legally and morally in words such as ‘homicide’ makes it clear that the word ‘suicide’ simply means Self Murder…..no matter how it is dressed up. This is similar to the use of “pro-choice” to try to diminish the fact that one of the choices is another form of murder known as direct abortion.

    So whenever the word ‘suicide’ is used, be sure to keep in mind that it is unequivocally Self Murder, and as another form of murder, it is forbidden by both the 5th Commandment (Thou shalt not murder is a better understanding than Thou shalt not kill.) as well as consistent Church moral teaching that cannot ever be changed, nor should it be.

    Also, as is true regarding word manipulations used by those who wish to promote evil in many things, frequently referring to suicide as Self Murder to help bring home the morality of what’s actually involved is also a wise approach to take in various circumstances.

3 Trackbacks / Pingbacks

  1. BREAKING: Pontifical Academy of Life president calls medically assisted suicide ‘feasible’ – Via Nova
  2. Mgr Paglia : le suicide médicalement assisté est "faisable"
  3. PopeWatch: Paglia – The American Catholic

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