There is no obligation in conscience to obey such laws instead there is a grave and clear obligation to oppose them by conscientious objection” ( Evangelium Vitae, 73). It is true that the Church must work for the common good in a pluralistic society, but what John Paul II taught in 1995 must be emphasized: “Abortion and euthanasia are thus crimes which no human law can claim to legitimize. If the Church can accept a law that, in effect, decriminalizes physician-assisted suicide, how is she witnessing to the truth that euthanasia is “a grave violation of the law of God” (John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 65)? On April 19, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL), gave a presentation on Italian television in which argued that an Italian law allowing for the decriminalization of physician-assisted suicide was “feasible.”.īecause of the outcry from various Catholic sources, the PAL issued a statement that said that Archbishop Paglia, “in full conformity with the Church’s Magisterium, reaffirms his ‘No’ to euthanasia and assisted suicide.” Some, though, have questioned whether this clarification was adequate.
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