Pope Leo XIV condemns assisted death at Lourdes Mass

Pope Leo XIV used a Mass in Lourdes on Sunday to condemn medically assisted death, saying that respect for human dignity required rejecting death offered under the guise of compassion. He spoke before about 150,000 people, many of them in wheelchairs, as France’s National Assembly has recently given final approval to a bill allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication. In his homily, Leo said that human dignity could not be removed by law or technology and that legality did not necessarily make an act moral. He framed the issue as part of the Catholic Church’s teaching that human life should be protected from conception until natural death, a position that also informs its opposition to abortion and euthanasia. Leo’s visit to Lourdes, a major Catholic pilgrimage site associated with reported miraculous cures, included a visit to a care center for sick people on the sanctuary grounds. He told the congregation that illness, disability and suffering did not diminish a person’s dignity, and described the shrine as a place where life is welcomed as a gift. The church recognizes 72 cures associated with Lourdes as miraculous.