Welcome back to the Word on Fire Show. I'm Matthew Petrucick, senior director of the Word on Fire

Institute and the new host of the Word on Fire Show. Thank you for joining us.

Euthanasia and the culture of Death. St Pope John Paul II used the term

culture of death in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vite

to capture the secular world's dark confluence of poisonous ideas and practices

that lead directly and indirectly to spiritual and physical ruin.

Sadly, the encyclical's warnings have only become more prophetic and more

prescient over time.

We've seen that the culture of death has advanced on many fronts, but today we'll be focusing on the increasing

legalization of suicide in the United States and abroad.

To date, 10 U.S. states and Washington DC permit assisted suicide.

Many more states including our home state of Minnesota are likely to legalize it in the near future.

Here to discuss the issue and how Catholics can and should respond is Bishop Robert Barron. Well Bishop welcome back to the studio. Today we're talking about euthanasia and the culture of death, a rather dark topic, but before we

get into it, what have you been up to recently?

I heard that you recently did the right of election.

The right of election.

Right of election, which is a great thing I've done now for the past eight years as a

Bishop, is when candidates and catachumans preparing for either baptism or full initiation

of the church,

gather usually on the first Sunday of Lent.

And it's a lovely ceremony really,

and they come up and they sign their names in the book,

...