Canada: The Episcopate Fights Against Euthanasia

“Our position remains unequivocal. Euthanasia and assisted suicide constitute the deliberate killing of human life in violation of God’s Commandments; they erode our shared dignity by failing to see, to accept, and accompany those suffering and dying. Furthermore, they undermine the fundamental duty we have to take care of the weakest and most vulnerable members of society.”

It is in these terms that the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) condemned, in a press release published on April 9, 2021, the approval by the Senate of Bill C-7, which broadens the criteria of the euthanasia.

In Canada, since March 17, the candidacy for assisted suicide is no longer reserved only for patients facing an inexorable death, but it is offered to anyone whose psychological suffering has reached a level considered to be “intolerable.”

It is this vagueness deliberately maintained in the new law - the door opens to all imaginable abuses - what Bishop Richard Gagnon, Archbishop of Winnipeg and President of the CCCB is denouncing.

According to him, the new law “new law will result in those with mental illness or disabilities to be pressured into ending their lives.”

But if a battle seems lost, the war is far from over, and the Canadian prelates fully intend to mobilize their troops: “the urgency for the faithful is to be informed, to renew their involvement wherever they are, and to join forces… to continue to put pressure on our elected representatives, on these social issues,” they underline.

As a final exhortation, the CCCB gave a speech to the Catholic faithful: “As bishops, we accompany you with prayer, asking you to remain vigilant against a 'culture of death' which continues to erode the dignity of human life in our country.”

Certainly, the dignity of the human creature, created in the image of God, is disfigured by such a law. But it is above all the rights of God that are under attack. The destiny of each man depends on divine Providence. Suicide and euthanasia refuse, with diabolical brutality, to recognize our dependence on God in all things.

This is the most fundamental reason why Catholics must reject these death laws.