Meloni said he has personally committed to praying for the family, and especially for Estrada’s soul, appealing “to the infinite mercy of God.”
“I pray that in those last mysterious seconds of slipping away and the passage from the present life to a new life” that this person could be saved “so that she could truly find life.”
“We are also going to pray that the Lord increase the faith, if they have it, of those people who in some way have been involved in this very painful outcome, as well as of all the people who may mistakenly think that some progress is being made here, some progress in freedom, for the good, and we know from experience that these issues can often be manipulated and [people] not even being treated with respect. And that is why we are going to pray,” he added.
In early April, the Vatican published the declaration Dignitatis Infinita, which warns of 13 grave violations of human dignity, one of which is euthanasia.
The document, which encourages palliative care for patients, emphasizes that “suffering does not cause the sick to lose their dignity, which is intrinsically and inalienably their own” and points out that “helping the suicidal person to take his or her own life is an objective offense against the dignity of the person asking for it, even if one would be thereby fulfilling the person’s wish.”
Meloni noted that when we lose “sight of the dignity of the human person, [who is made in] the image of God and loved by Jesus Christ, we tend to treat people as things.”