Marcelo before Cavaco e Passos talks about “thorny magistrates” about euthanasia

The President of the Republic said this Thursday that Catholics are less involved in collective decisions in Portugal, and some of them are indifferent to debates on topics such as euthanasia, “the realities that make magistracies called for arbitration more poignant.”

Faced with his predecessor Anibal Cavaco Silva and former prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho, who had consistently made public statements against euthanasia, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa emphasized that there are “certainly exceptions, and very important ones” to this indifference that pointed out.

The head of state spoke at the Catholic University of Portugal in Lisbon at the presentation of the book “Professor Mario Pinto” by journalist Joana Reis, published by Bertrand, in which he analyzed the evolution of the various Catholic sectors in Portugal. .

“The first referendum on voluntary termination of pregnancy (IVG) showed how a cultural shift is approaching in a society in which the Catholic Church has reduced its influence, especially in the areas of cultural expression, in the media, among young people and in national politics. solutions, regional and local. And the second referendum on the IVG confirmed the lived process,” he said.

However, according to the President of the Republic, “profound changes in the life of the country” manifested themselves in “public powers, in laws, their creation and application.”

“The so-called medically assisted death is the latest example of this civic culture process. And it is not even the current absence of moderates at the political decision-making stage – in fact widespread in the democracies around us – that is the great reason that has been lived. The decisive factor was different: in all quadrants, the lesser presence or importance of Catholics in collective decisions became a common feature,” argued Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, himself a practicing Catholic.

In addition, the President of the Republic revealed “the indifference of many of them to the most topical debates such as those mentioned above”, whether it be “refusal to touch the substance, preferring form, or civil resignation, or anti-systemic resignation”. “.

“The realities that force magistrates to tackle hot topics, the absence of which means civil irrelevance, are more poignant. With exceptions, of course, and very important ones, but increasingly limited to classical areas of Catholic positioning, not necessarily the most representative in collective decisions or communities,” he concluded.

In attendance were, in addition to Cavaco Silva and Passos Coelho, the political commentator and former SDP president Luis Marquez Méndez, as well as Christian Democrats such as José Ribeiro and Castro, who led the CDS-PP, and Diogo Feio, among others.

In the rest of his speech, the head of state no longer touched upon the issue of decriminalization of euthanasia, approved last week by Parliament, a law that is awaiting final wording and on which he will have to decide.

Previously, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa sent the first decree of the Assembly of the Republic on this matter to the Constitutional Court, which declared it unconstitutional for “insufficient normative density”, and later applied a political veto against the second version, for containing contradictory language.