The People of God expect to receive light on the truth of the Gospel of Life from their Priests and Bishops. Pastors who express themselves in favour of Euthanasia – a deliberate act to terminate human life before its natural end – fail to honour their duty as Catholic shepherds pic.twitter.com/F10CKJ5m3H

— Bishop CJ Scicluna (@BishopScicluna) May 19, 2025

Church media Newsbook reported that the Archbishop spoke out after Fr Colin Apap spoke positively about the government’s voluntary euthanasia proposal on the F Living Show.

On the show, Fr Apap urged people to empathise with people facing serious agony as a result of terminal illness.

“The government isn’t confessional or Catholic. It is there for all Maltese citizens, including non-Catholics, and it has an electoral mandate to discuss the legalisation of voluntary euthanasia,” he said.

“I would personally rather call it assisted dying, but the people involved in this proposal told me that they didn’t want to water down the idea that they were proposing a free choice of people to end their lives.”

Fr Apap said that pain and death weren’t part of God’s plan, and that He gave people a brain to use as best they can to end their pain.

He said that while moralising is easy, people should understand the realities of people in serious agony and not describe their wishes to end their pain as “suicide”.