Bishop Philip Egan of Portsmouth has urged people on the island of Guernsey to resist an attempt to allow assisted suicide.
Bishop Egan criticised proposals to decriminalise assisted suicide on the island, which is part of his diocese.
In a letter read aloud in Guernsey’s churches on Sunday, Bishop Egan said he wished to appeal to all people of goodwill “to overturn this grim proposal”.
“Let there be no death clinics in Guernsey,” Bishop Egan said. “I appeal to Catholics to mobilise. Speak out against this proposal. It is never permissible to do good by an evil means.”
The bill, which will be considered by legislators in May, is “fundamentally subversive, horrific and dangerous, however well-intentioned,” he said in his letter.
“It would be an intolerable and utterly immoral demand to ask medical staff, doctors and nurses, dedicated to preserving life, to extinguish the life of another human person,” Bishop Egan said.
“Assisting someone to die prematurely or assisting someone to commit suicide, even when they earnestly request it, can never ever be a compassionate action. It is a grave sin.
“We must not yield to the temptation to apply rapid or drastic solutions,” the bishop said. “Instead, we need to show respect, understanding and tenderness to patients who are seriously ill, so that the sacred value of their life can shine forth with splendour in their suffering,” he said.
The bill has the support of Guernsey Chief Minister Gavin St Pier.
If the bill passes, it could make Guernsey a “death tourism” destination for Britons, as Switzerland has become.
Cardinal Nichols to preside at Mass for Cardinal O’Brien
Cardinal Vincent Nichols will celebrate the Requiem Mass for Cardinal Keith O’Brien, former Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, next week.
The Mass will take place at the Church of St Michael, Newcastle, on Thursday. The next day Cardinal O’Brien will be buried with his mother and father at Mount Vernon cemetery in Edinburgh.
Those attending the Requiem Mass have been asked to donate to Sciaf, the aid agency of the Scottish Church, instead of giving flowers. No photography, video footage or audio recording will be allowed.
A media representative will be in the church to report, and the text of Cardinal Nichols’s homily will be released.
Cardinal O’Brien died last week at the age of 80. He had been in hospital after having a fall at home.
He had resigned as Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh in 2013 after apologising for sexual misconduct.
He said at the time: “There have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal. To those I have offended, I apologise and ask forgiveness.”
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