Watch: 'I'm not 'extremist' or 'heartless'': Archbishop on euthanasia debate

Archbishop Charles Scicluna hit back at critics who accused him of being "extremist and heartless" when speaking against the introduction of euthanasia.

The Archbishop was giving his homily at the Hospice church in Santa Venera when he made the statement. 

During the Sunday mass, Scicluna said that a public debate, which the government specifically stated should be open and non-judgmental to all views, should not label him as an extremist and heartless just for expressing his beliefs.

Those words hurt him, he said, but they will not shut him up.

"I'm neither an extremist nor heartless. If we really want a discussion with an open mind and heart, I don't think I should be labelled as an extremist and heartless just because I'm spreading the word of Christ," he said.

"Those words won't shut me up, but they do hurt me. And I'm saying it here in the hospice chapel, where there is an extraordinary synergy between the church, hospice and the government. We have a monument here for a beautiful narrative of success, and this must be our choice."

Scicluna did not specify where the accusation came from, but the homily came just a day after ONE News carried a report saying that he described terminally ill patients by using "extremist and insensitive words" during a discussion with priests last week.

The report quoted an anonymous source saying the archbishop was not compassionate when he said people will be helped to "inject themselves with poison to commit suicide".

Earlier this month, the government published a white paper on assisted voluntary euthanasia, proposing that terminally ill patients with less than six months to live could be allowed to voluntarily end their lives.

Currently, a public consultation is ongoing that will end at the beginning of July.

The government has called for a non-judgmental and open discussion from day one of the public consultation, saying it wanted to genuinely listen to all views because they were all valid, no matter where they came from.

'It will ultimately help you kill yourself'

During his homily on Sunday, Scicluna said that no matter how much the government tries to soften how it refers to euthanasia, if a law is approved it will ultimately help people kill themselves.

"No matter what we want to call it, we're ultimately helping you kill yourself. We're not giving you fruit juice here, we'll give you a substance that'll kill you," he said.

"That's one choice that we have, but we have another choice - to offer people the best palliative care, which is already a laudable policy of our government. We can opt to support patients by removing their physical pain till the natural end of their life."

After all, the process of death will forever remain a process of suffering, he said. It will remain a moment of physical, spiritual and psychological anxiety.

"It will never be a pleasant experience, and we would be fooling ourselves if we think we can die with no anxiety at all. Even if you kill yourself, that moment will have its suffering."