Pope Leo XIV revealed he personally appealed to Illinois Governor JB Pritzker to veto a bill legalizing assisted suicide during a meeting last month. The Pope stated he emphasized the importance of defending the sacred value of life from beginning to end during his conversation with Pritzker. Governor Pritzker signed the controversial assisted suicide measure into law on December 12, despite opposition from Catholic leaders. Pope Leo XIV expressed disappointment with Pritzker's decision to sign the bill into law. The Pope urged people, especially during Christmastime, to reflect on the goodness and value of human life from conception to natural death.
2 months ago
Pope Leo XIV met with Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker in November 2025 at the Vatican.1 3
He explicitly urged the governor to veto a bill legalizing assisted suicide, emphasizing the sacredness of life from conception to natural death.1 2 3
Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich also voiced opposition during the meeting.1 2 3
Pritzker signed the bill into law on December 12, 2025, despite the appeals.1 2 3
Known as "Deb’s Law," it honors Deb Robertson, who advocated for terminally ill patients' right to choose their end.2
The pope expressed being "very disappointed" upon learning of the decision.1 2
Illinois Catholic bishops called the law "heartbreaking," arguing it ignores care access failures and risks coercion of vulnerable people.1 3
The state's six dioceses described it as a "dangerous path."2
This aligns with Church teaching defending life throughout existence.2
Eleven U.S. states plus D.C. now permit assisted suicide, including recent additions like Delaware (effective Jan. 1, 2026).1 2 3
Similar expansions occurred in England/Wales (June 2025) and Uruguay (August 2025).1 3
A Canadian report highlighted high premature deaths among vulnerable groups under its law.1 3
Speaking to reporters on December 23, 2025, outside Castel Gandolfo, Leo XIV invited reflection on human life's goodness during Christmas.1 2 3
He linked it to the Incarnation, praying for renewed respect from conception to natural death.1 2 3
As a Chicago native, the pope noted personal ties to his home state.2
How does Catholic doctrine define the sanctity of life?
Catholic doctrine unequivocally teaches that human life is sacred and inviolable because it originates from God's creative act, bears His image, and remains under His sovereign lordship from conception until natural death. This foundational truth, rooted in Scripture and consistently affirmed by the Magisterium, demands absolute respect for every human person as a gift of divine love, prohibiting direct attacks on innocent life such as abortion and euthanasia.
The Bible presents human life as a divine gift, reflecting God's own inviolability. In Genesis, after the Flood, God declares: "From man in regard to his fellow man I will demand an accounting for human life" (Gen 9:5), establishing life's sacred character as tied to humanity's creation in God's image and likeness (Gen 1:26-28; 9:6). This commandment "You shall not kill" (Ex 20:13; Dt 5:17) forms the heart of the Covenant, underscoring God's absolute dominion: "It is I who bring both death and life" (Dt 32:39).
The Psalms and Prophets reinforce this: "Your eyes beheld my unformed substance" (Ps 139:16), and "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you" (Jer 1:5), affirming God's intimate knowledge and love for each person from the womb. Wisdom literature echoes that God "did not make death" and does not delight in it (Wis 1:13-14), contrasting His loving providence with Satan's envy that introduced death (Wis 2:24). Job proclaims: "In his hand is the life of every living thing" (Job 12:10). Thus, life is not subject to human arbitrary will but to God's caring hands, like a mother's (Ps 131:2; Is 49:15).
The Church's teaching, synthesized in Evangelium Vitae, states: "Human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves 'the creative action of God', and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of life from its beginning until its end: no one can, in any circumstance, claim for himself the right to destroy directly an innocent human being." This inviolability is inscribed in conscience, as God asked Cain: "What have you done?" (Gen 4:10), reminding humanity of life's divine ownership.
The Catechism of the Catholic Church echoes this: "Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception," and "Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator." From fertilization, a new human being exists with a unique genetic program, warranting unconditional respect as a person—body and spirit. Even scientific probability of personhood suffices for moral prohibition of harm.
Popes have consistently upheld this. Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae recalls: "Human life is sacred—all men must recognize that fact... From its very inception it reveals the creating hand of God." Humanity has no unlimited dominion over the body, especially sexual faculties tied to life's generation. Pope John Paul II condemned euthanasia as a "perversion" of mercy, a rejection of God's sovereignty, morally equivalent to suicide or murder. Pope Francis links life's dignity to ecology: each person is "willed, loved, necessary" by God, transcending development stages. Justifying abortion undermines care for all vulnerable life.
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith affirms: "Life once conceived, must be protected with the utmost care; abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes," with direct abortion gravely immoral and excommunicable.
This doctrine proclaims the Gospel of life: human life as relational gift, affirming bodiliness, sexuality, suffering, and death in love's light. Society must protect life at every stage, with science serving integral human development. Euthanasia attacks the innocent's indispensable good, especially the elderly or weak. True compassion shares pain, not kills.
In summary, Catholic doctrine defines the sanctity of life as its divine origin, imaging God, and inviolability under His lordship—demanding protection from conception to death. This calls for a "new culture of human life," rejecting death's culture through reverence, love, and proclamation of Christ's face in every person.