Pope says euthanasia is a false solution to the drama of suffering

(February 2, 2009) "Euthanasia is a false solution to the drama of suffering, a solution that is not worthy of man.” said Pope Benedict XVI on Sunday, the Italian Catholic Church’s annual Day for Life. “The real answer cannot be, in fact, to give death, however ‘sweet’ it may be, but to testify to the love that helps us to face pain and agony in a humane way,” the Pope told a large number of faithful and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square for the weekly midday ‘Angelus’ prayer. Among them were members of the Movement for Life, with messages on placards and banners such as,"Abortion is murder" and "Movement for Life". “We can be certain of this: no tear, neither of those who suffer, nor of those close to them, will be lost before God,” the Pope said. The theme of this year’s Day for Life was, “the power of life in suffering," which the Holy Father said comes from the fact that "Jesus suffered and died on the cross out of love.” “In this way, viewed properly, he gave meaning to our 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."
After praying the ‘Angelus’ Pope Benedict recalled the Catholic Church’s World Day of Consecrated Life on Monday urging all to thank the Lord for men and women religious and to pray for many new vocations. The day, initiated by Pope John Paul II in 1997, is marked each year on Feb. 2^nd, the liturgical feast of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple. On this day many religious men and women make or renew their vows. Explaining the presentation of Jesus, the Pope said, “In this event is manifested the consecration of Jesus to God the Father and, linked with it, that of the Virgin Mary.” Cardinal Franc Rode, the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, was to mark the World Day of Consecrated Life with Mass in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome on Monday evening for the religious. Pope Benedict was to address them at the end of the Mass.