Just days after his election, Pope Francis said to a gathering of representatives from various faiths:
We know how much violence has been provoked in recent history by the attempt to eliminate God and the divine from the horizon of humanity, and we feel the need to witness in our societies the original openness to transcendence that is inherent in the human heart.
Life is precious from the very beginning to the very end. But our culture does not agree. In his Environment Day address to the United Nations, Pope Francis said, “This culture of waste tends to become the common mentality that infects everyone. Human life, the person is no longer perceived as a primary value to be respected and protected, especially if poor or disabled, if not yet useful – such as the unborn child – or no longer needed – such as the elderly.” Assisted suicide only makes it easier to discard the poor, the disabled, and the elderly and has no place in a life-affirming society. TCA challenges nationwide efforts to make it legal.
