The Archbishop of Montevideo, Daniel Sturlacelebrated this Saturday the “victory of Christ over sin and death” in his easter message in which he warned about a bill, under study by Parliament, which proposes legalize and regulate euthanasia.
Sturla addressed a brief message, broadcast by the capital’s Catholic Church, while preparing to preside over the Easter Vigil at the Metropolitan Cathedral, in what constitutes the most solemn celebration of the Holy Week.
“On Easter night we unite in the victory of Christ, who has risencelebrated the cardinal, to later notice that Uruguay lives difficult times. “We just came out of a pandemic, and we see the horrors of a war” he said, referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Also, he pointed out, “for a proposal for a law that threatens human life”. This in reference to the initiative of the Colorado deputy Ope Pasquet and that will be one of the central axes of the parliamentary discussion this year. According to a survey carried out by The Observer the project has votes to pass in the Chamber of Deputieswhile has a good chance of doing it in the Senate. While, Colorados and Frente Amplios are willing to work on a unified text.
In the midst of that situation, Sturla said, Easter now comes with a message: Christ has defeated evil. “That challenges us”, as witnesses, to announce the joy of Easter in defense of human life, and of try to see the other as a brother, not as an adversary”.
In an interview he gave last week to meeting point (Universal radio) the cardinal was consulted by the project of legalization of euthanasia. “We are not aware of how far a door opens that creates a distorted mentality with respect to something fundamental, which is respect for human life,” he considered. “You have to be very careful.”
“I think it is totally inappropriate that at this time in Uruguay an issue is being discussed or sought that divides the waters in something as fundamental as human life,” he said. Sturla said he agreed with Pasquet’s proposal of a “dignified death”but explained that from the point of view of faith, life is a gift from God “of which one is the administrator, not the absolute owner.”
This Thursday at a press conference after the Chrism Mass, the Archbishop of Montevideo called for the “reconciliation of the Uruguayans” after the division that, he considered, had generated the referendum for the Law of Urgent Consideration (LUC) Y a campaign that “ended with some injuries”.
There the cardinal had expressed that in the Church they were called to a “campaign of love, summoning many to return to God, to know Jesus Christ” with a request: “That we let’s forgivethat we look at each other as brothers, even thinking differently and feeling differently”.
