SW News: Pope Francis laments the legalization of euthanasia in Portugal, on Saturday.

"I am very sad that in the land where Our Lady appeared, law to kill has been passed especially when we celebrate the memory of the apparitions of the Virgin Mary to the little shepherds of Fatima. It is another on the long list of nations that practice euthanasia," Pope Francis said on May 13.

The feast of Our Lady of Fatima, who appeared six times to three shepherd children in a field near Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, is observed by the Catholic Church on May 13. She came bearing requests for rosary recitation, for sinners' sacrifices, and a mystery concerning the future of the world.

Pope Francis made this remark regarding Portuguese legislation during a meeting with attendees of the general assembly of the World Union of Catholic Women's Organizations in the Vatican's Paul VI Hall.

The Portuguese Parliament decided on May 12 to permit medically assisted suicide in select circumstances. A person who requests assisted suicide must, according to the law, be in a situation of great intensity of suffering, with definitive injury of extreme gravity or serious and incurable disease.

When medically assisted suicide is impossible due to a physical disability of the patient, a doctor may also choose to euthanize a patient. In contrast to euthanasia, which involves doctors actually killing their patients, assisted suicide involves giving patients fatal medications so they can end their lives.

The new law in Portugal, which was approved on Friday by a large majority, overrides past vetoes by the country's catholic president Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. The euthanasia bill was approved by parliament four times in the last three years but sent back every time for a constitutional review due to opposition from the president.

Rebelo de Sousa had vetoed earlier bills and said the language used to describe terminal conditions continued to be contradictory and needed to be clarified.