STAND AGAINST THE EMPEROR AND THE MURDERING OF OUR WEAKEST
By Mario Attard
Europe edges further into dangerous territory. Assisted dying laws expand. What began as a limited option now reaches wider groups. Belgium legalised euthanasia in 2002. It now covers psychological distress. Minors gained access in 2014. France moves in the same direction.
The case rests on dignity. Yet this dignity shrinks as illness advances. People must prove their worth at every stage. Life turns into a slow decline. Value falls like a depreciating asset. Human beings become defined by what they can still do or say. Inner life counts for little.
This logic leads to a stark conclusion. It grows easier to die. It does not grow easier to live. Progress on these questions works like a ratchet. Once passed, the change cannot be reversed. Society slides forward. No retreat seems possible.
Even Malta now debates the issue. The government published a White Paper. It proposes voluntary assisted euthanasia for adults over 18 with a terminal diagnosis. Medical help would allow patients to end their lives at home or in hospital. A public consultation followed.
The Catholic Church rejects the plan outright. Bishops issued a pastoral letter in May 2025. They titled it “Compassion and care until the end.” It was read from pulpits across the islands. The letter states clearly that the proposal is assisted suicide. It supplies the means to end life.
The Bishop of Gozo, Anton Teuma, signed the letter alongside Archbishop Charles Scicluna and Auxiliary Bishop Joseph Galea-Curmi. They insist every human life remains precious. True compassion demands continued care. It does not demand the provision of lethal drugs.
In the letter, the bishops warn powerfully: “Someone considering ending his or her life should not receive from the State the assistance to commit suicide, but rather, they should receive the support to live with dignity, surrounded by love and care.” They add that experience from other countries shows safeguards erode over time. More and more people end their lives for expanding reasons. “Life will become a burden instead of a gift,” they declare, “and the medical duty which cares for life may become a duty to kill.” The right to die, they fear, risks turning into a duty to die. They echo Pope Francis in calling euthanasia “a failure of love” and “a mirror of the culture of waste.”
Bishop Teuma has spoken with even sharper urgency outside the joint letter. In a July 2025 homily at St George’s Basilica in Victoria, he urged the faithful to resist. “Be like St George and stand up to the ‘emperor’,” he said. “Have courage and follow what you believe in and not what you are told.” He referred directly to debates on abortion and euthanasia. He criticised a “prevailing culture of selfishness” in Maltese society that idolises money and convenience over the vulnerable.
As the feast of St George is celebrated again later this month, Gozo will once more fill its basilica with colour, music and prayer. Bishop Teuma’s call to courage will resonate afresh. The dragon-slaying saint stands as a vivid reminder. Malta faces its own test. It can embrace the path of conviction and care for the weakest. Or it can yield to the tide now sweeping much of the West.
The West risks euthanising itself. By making death easier, it sidesteps the hard work of supporting life in all its frailty. Dignity lies not in ending suffering through death. It lies in accompanying those who suffer. As bells ring out for St George, the islands must decide whether they still possess the courage to defend life to the very end.