Euthanasia False Solution to Pain and Suffering

(01 Feb 09 - RV) “Euthanasia is a false solution to the drama of suffering, a solution that is not worthy of man. The real answer cannot be, in fact, to give death, as 'gentle' as this may be, but to testify to the love that helps us to face pain and agony in a humane way”.

That was Pope Benedict XVI’s message to the faithful gathered in St Peter’s square before today’s Angelus prayer. Recalling that today the Church in Italy marks the Day for Life, the Pope noted that Christ died on the cross for love and in doing so he gave meaning to all human suffering; “a meaning that men and women of every age have understood and made their own, experiencing profound serenity even in the bitterness of harsh physical and moral trials”. The Pope said: “We can be certain of this: no tear, neither of those who suffer, nor of those who are with them in their suffering, is lost before God”.

In his greeting to pilgrims after the Angelus, Benedict XVI, invited the men and women religious to tomorrow’s celebration in St. Peter’s Basilica for World Day for Consecrated Life, held each year on the Feast of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple:

“I invite all," concluded Pope Benedict, "to thank the Lord for the precious gift of these brothers and sisters, and to ask him, through the intercession of the Virgin Mary, for many new vocations, in the variety of charisms in which the Church is rich."