Catholic News 2

(Vatican Radio) The Cardinal of Toronto has spoken out against last week’s decision by the Canadian government to legalize euthanasia and assisted suicide.

Listen to Ann Schneible’s report:

Cardinal Thomas Collins of Toronto has issued a statement in a video message regarding the government's passage of Bill C-14, which legalized euthanasia and assisted suicide last Friday.

In the message, the Canadian prelate criticized the use of the term “Medical Assistance in Dying,” saying the new law actually refers to killing. 

Cardinal Collins explained that the judges and legislators who made the decision to legalize assisted suicide has sent the country not only toward physical death, but also a spiritual death.

“That death is found in a loss of respect for the dignity of the human person, in a deadening pressure upon the vulnerable to be gone, and in an assault upon the sanctuary of conscience to be suffered by good individuals and institutions who seek only to heal,” the cardinal said. 

“To those who are grievously suffering in body or spirit and who desperately seek relief: we need to be sure that you receive it, through whatever medical means are available, and through the loving care that you deserve.”

“The question is not whether you need relief; it is how to find it. Suicide is not the answer to the very real question you face.” 

Although there are allegedly “safeguards” to protect the vulnerable, as well as conscience protection, Cardinal Collins warned that these safeguards eventually come under attack in regions where assisted suicide is legal.

He said the “deepest roots of this malign development” in Canada are spiritual, and promised to suggest ways of addressing them through prayer and penance. 

“We must not reduce worthiness to live to a matter of the ability to function according to some personally acceptable standard of performance.”

Canada’s senate voted on June 17^th to permit assisted suicide in cases where patients were facing imminent death.

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(Vatican Radio) The European Union is anxiously looking towards the political turmoil in Britain where a countdown has begun towards Thursday's referendum on whether Britain should remain a member of the 28-nation bloc. 

Anxiety over a possible 'Brexit' has become evident especially in Eastern Europe and among the EU's top financial leaders as they closely follow the debate on Britain's future.   

Listen to the report by Stefan Bos: 

Leaders of the Leave and Remain have clashed in a live televised debate at the Wembley Arena in London on the eve of the final day of campaigning ahead of the referendum on Britain's EU membership. "The European Union was a noble dream in the last century. But today it has failed. It has turned into a nightmare, said Labor legislator Gisela Stuart of the Leave campaign.
 
London's mayor Sadiq Khan disagrees. "If we as a country would like to quit, we are out for good. There is no turning back," he said. The debate has been closely followed across the sea in the capitals of continental Europe and beyond.

Especially Eastern European countries fear a Brexit could impact their economies. They are heavily dependent on EU subsidies. And many Eastern Europeans live and work in Britain. 

Ironically, even one of Europe's most euroskeptic leaders, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has urged Britain to remain in the EU. Some 300,000 Hungarians work and live in Britain. 

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In advertisements in British newspapers Orbán says:  "The decision is yours, but I would like you to know that Hungary is proud to stand with you as a member of the European Union”.

He isn't alone. In a rare sign of unity, even Orbán political opponent philanthropist and billionaire George Soros has urged Britain to remain in the European Union. 

Soros who was forced to flee Hungary and the Nazis in the mid-1940s because of his Jewish background, warned that leaving the EU could have "serious consequences" for British jobs and finances if the country leaves the EU. 

Writing in the Guardian newspaper, he said sterling would dramatically decline if the Leave camp won Thursday's vote.

Soros made a fortune betting against the pound on Black Wednesday in 1992, when Britain left the European Rate Exchange Mechanism and said Brexit would cause bigger disruption.

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Though Britain is not a member of the Eurozone, Eurogroup chair and Dutch finance minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem also warned of the economic impact of a Brexit. "The UK is not alone in its skepticism and its criticism of the European Union. This criticism is a common phenomenon in all of our countries," he said.

"Populist parties on the right and the left are gaining ground. But that in itself is not a reason to leave. It's a reason to build a better EU. An EU that brings security and prosperity again," Dijselbloem noted.  

He spoke at Tuesday's "Economy Day" gathering of Germany's ruling CDU party in Berlin where Chancellor Angela Merkel seemed to share his concern. "Of course its up to the British voters to decide," she said, but immediately added: "We should realize that with 500 million people we are stronger together. We still comprise about seven percent of the world's population and 24 percent of its Gross Domestic Product."   

Yet, with opinion polls showing a tight race towards the exit or EU, it remains to be seen whether her words will be heard in Britain.

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Vatican City, Jun 22, 2016 / 05:22 am (CNA/EWTN News).- Joined closely by just over a dozen refugees at his weekly public audience, Pope Francis said that in following Jesus’ example, the Christian excludes no one.

“Jesus teaches us not to be afraid of touching the poor and the excluded, because he is in them,” said the Pope during his Wednesday audience catechesis in St. Peter’s Square.

Just minutes prior to the pontiff’s arrival, after making the rounds in the Popemobile to bless and greet those present, he spontaneously invited 13 young refugees to join him on the stage before the public. They caught his attention with a banner that read “Refugees for a future together.”  

As they sat cross-legged in a row, divided into groups on either side of him for the duration of the hour-long audience, Pope Francis referred to them as family.

“They are our refugees, but so many consider them as excluded. Please, they are our brothers,” Pope Francis said to applause.

“The Christian doesn’t exclude anyone, he gives a place to all, let’s all come,” he continued.

During the address, the pontiff said that in meeting a poor person, the reaction can be one of generosity and compassion, also offering a coin. “But, we avoid touching the hand. We throw it there. And we forget that it is the body of Christ!”

“Touching the poor person can purify us from hypocrisy and make us concerned for their condition,” he added.

Taking up again the theme of mercy during this week’s audience, Francis cited the evangelist St. Luke’s account of Jesus healing a faith-filled leper guided his catechesis.

The Gospel passage tells the story of a man excluded by society and even prohibited from entering the city who enters anyway to seek out Jesus. He reaches out to Christ, saying: “Lord, if you wish, you can make me clean.”

In the Gospel account, the leper is healed when Jesus answers “I do will it. Be made clean,” the Pope said, acclaiming the man’s great faith.

“This faith is the strength that allowed him to break every convention and seek the meeting with Jesus,” Francis said. He explained that the leper’s plea shows that when reaching out to Christ, few words are necessary “when they are accompanied by full confidence in his omnipotence and goodness.”

“Entrusting ourselves to the will of God means in fact putting ourselves back in his infinite mercy,” he said.

The Pope let the audience in on a little secret, saying that he makes the leper’s prayer of “Lord, if you want to, you can make me clean” his own every night. “I pray five ‘Our Fathers’, one for each of the wounds of Christ because Jesus cleansed us with his wounds,” he said, inviting all to do the same before going to bed.  

“Jesus always listens to us,” he added.

Christ’s disposition in healing the leper and asking him to go quietly to a priest and bear witness to the facts shows us three things, said the Pope. First off, he explained, God’s grace doesn’t seek sensationalism but rather discretion, “patiently modeling our heart to the heart of the Lord.”

Secondly, in asking the leper to register his healing with a priest, he is readmitting the leper to society, added Pope Francis. And finally, Jesus asks the man to bear witness to the miracle to the priest and thus the leper becomes a missionary.

Concluding the audience, Pope Francis greeted the refugees who had joined him on the stage one by one, offering them a rosary.

A representative of the group told CNA that the refugees are being assisted currently by the Catholic charity organization Caritas in Florence, Italy.

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