Pope Leo XIV denounces assisted dying as false compassion at Lourdes

Pope Leo XIV denounced the legalisation of medically assisted death as immoral "false compassion" on Sunday at Lourdes, the French Catholic shrine associated with miraculous cures of the sick. Celebrating Mass before some 150,000 people, many in wheelchairs, on the prairie next to the sanctuary's main basilica, the American pope doubled down on Catholic teaching that all human life must be protected from conception until natural death.cbsnews.com+1

The remark matters because it is Leo's firmest public intervention yet in a debate that has erupted across countries and roiled French politics for years. French legislation recently allowed adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, and Leo's visit to officially secular France has paired huge crowds with repeated messaging against abortion and assisted dying. His argument rests on inherent human dignity rather than on the legal status of any particular procedure.pbs.org

What the pope said at Lourdes

Leo told the crowd that human dignity cannot be eliminated by any law or algorithm. "On the contrary, it is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion," he said. He added, to applause: "What is legal is not necessarily moral." The two sentences frame the church's position that legality and morality are separate tests.

In his homily, Leo addressed sick and disabled pilgrims directly. "Your crutches, your wheelchairs and your hidden tears are not obstacles; instead, they are the very place where you are fully respected and welcomed," he said. He called Lourdes "blessed as a place for professing the beauty and sanctity of life, for life is welcomed here as a precious gift from God." He later visited a care centre for sick people on the sanctuary's grounds.

Lourdes gives the argument its setting. The Catholic Church officially recognised visions of the Virgin Mary reported there by a young girl in 1858, and the site near the Spanish border draws millions of pilgrims each year, especially sick and disabled believers hoping for a cure from the spring water in the grotto. The church has recognised 72 "miraculous" cures at Lourdes as authentic, which is why the question of respecting the most frail is especially acute there.

Why Lourdes frames the argument

Leo arrived in Lourdes from Paris on Saturday night and immediately prayed inside the Grotto of Apparitions and drank from the spring. Paris pilgrim Pierre Caziljc said: "He has given a message of hope for France, a message of hope and greatness for France, and renewal for France." The visit is Leo's third day in France, and his crowds have been large throughout: 800,000 people attended his Mass on Paris' Place de la Concorde.

The French law Leo criticised followed years of political conflict. According to the reporting on his remarks, the end-of-life debate roiled French politics before resulting recently in legislation allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication. Catholic teaching, as Leo restated it in France, requires protection of human life from conception until natural death, which translates into firm opposition to abortion, euthanasia and medically assisted dying.theglobeandmail.com

France's law and the crowds

Leo's Lourdes schedule also covered the church's abuse crisis. He was to meet seven survivors later on Sunday, including one who was abused as an adult, recognising what the church calls the new frontier of the abuse crisis. An independent French report in 2021 estimated 330,000 children had been abused over 70 years by some 3,000 priests and church workers, a figure disputed for its methodology and conclusions.

French bishops set up an independent compensation system that has recommended the church pay more than 20 million euros ($22.7 million) to date. Meeting French bishops on Sunday morning, Leo praised their response and urged them to continue, while acknowledging that the collapse in priestly vocations in France is related to the scandal. "For priestly vocations to flourish, the priest must be welcomed, accepted, and loved," he said.

Abuse survivors on the schedule

A group of victims published an open letter in the French newspaper Liberation on the day Leo arrived in Paris, asking him to acknowledge the church's responsibility and arguing bishops should not be both spiritual fathers and judges. "The Church must relinquish its position as both judge and party to the proceedings," the letter said. The victims also objected that only seven of them would meet Leo, chosen by the church.

Monsignor Pierre-Antoine Bozo, spokesperson for the bishops' conference, said Leo wanted a small group for an intimate encounter. "When it comes to listening to them, you can't have 50 people in front of you," he said, adding that the choice lets the church "listen so that we can act and respond more effectively." The meeting with the seven survivors was scheduled for later on Sunday at Lourdes.