Pope Leo stated Dec. 23 that he had joined Chicago Archbishop Cardinal Cupich in pleading with Illinois Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker not to sign a controversial assisted suicide bill into law and was “very disappointed” when Pritzker ignored their intervention and signed the bill.
“I spoke very explicitly with Governor Pritzker about that,” the Holy Father said outside Castel Gandolfo in response to EWTN Vatican correspondent Rudolf Gehrig’s question about the bill. Pritzker visited the Vatican and had an audience with the Pope in November.
“At that time, the bill was already on his desk,” the Holy Father said Tuesday. “I’m sure also with Cardinal Cupich [spoke to Pritzker]. We were very clear about the necessity to respect the sacredness of life from the very beginning to the very end.”
Nonetheless, Pritzker went ahead with the bill. “I’m very disappointed about that,” the Holy Father said….
As CatholicVote previously reported, Pritzker signed the law Dec. 12, “allowing terminally ill patients to take life-ending medication prescribed by a doctor, making Illinois the first state in the Midwest to legalize medical aid in dying.”
From Catholic Vote
The Vatican should be very strong– as in preConciliar days– about prohibiting Catholics from committing serious mortal sins like abortion, or assisting someone to commit suicide. There should be very strong penalties– swiftly applied– from the Church, on such serious mortal sins— no fooling around with dumb secular nonsense, like “hippie love” or “compassionate choices” psycho-babble– masquerading as “God’s Love,” to “please yourself.” Save a precious life, instead– for love of God. People should be really terribly scared– as in preConciliar days– to do something horrible– like the murder of an unborn child, or assisting a loved one to kill themselves.
Of course, Gov. Pritzker is Jewish, his family fled to America at the end of the 19th century, to escape anti-Semitic persecution Iin Ukraine. He has championed anti-Semitism. But given that stance– why on earth would he also support a horrible cause such as assisted suicide? Would he want a beloved, suffering, terminally-ill Jew in his family to receive a horrible, hopeless “death sentence” of assisted suicide? No hope of a loving God to help, and to even perhaps heal a suffering Jewish family member? Could assisted suicide ever truly be God’s Will, for soneone– according to Pritzker? A horror for the poor Jews!
For the Church to stand strong in the manner you describe, she must first be strong within and police herself with the same vigor with which she seeks to hold the laity accountable.
And there will be no consequences. The Church has no moral credibility anymore. The Church has no influence anymore. What people do is look for things they already agree with in Church statements and quote them self-servingly. Nobody who disagrees with the bishops about illegal immigration is going to change his mind because the bishops said something about it, nor should they because the bishops are wrong on that issue. The Church has squandered its moral influence and credibility.
While the Church occupies itself with weak statements and warnings, a real leader — Donald Trump — is solving problems and making America and the world better. And he’s doing it through military force, such as he just did with his masterful seizing of Maduro in Venezuela. The Church is going to have to come to grips with the reality that calls for peace do no good. Statements do no good. Trump is doing more good than all the bishops and the pope combined. Why listen to the bishops and the pope on anything pertaining to managing world affairs? Listen to Trump. I voted for him, and he’s delivering exactly what I wanted. I didn’t vote for Pope Leo, and so far I’m ambivalent about him.