From Lourdes, Pope Leo issues stark rejection of France's assisted dying law
Preaching to the infirmed, disabled and those who care for them at one of Catholicism's most iconic shrines, Pope Leo XIV said that "no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity."
4 days ago
Pope Leo XIV used a Sept. 27 visit to Lourdes to reject France’s newly legalized assisted suicide and euthanasia, calling the deliberate causing of death “false compassion” and saying legality does not make a practice moral. He urged healthcare workers to care for people who are suffering, expand palliative care, and affirm the dignity of sick and disabled people. 2 5
Speaking to sick people and caregivers at the Accueil Notre Dame, a Lourdes residence for ill, disabled and frail pilgrims, Leo said that no law should undermine a person’s certainty of their dignity. He told those present they were “not a burden,” but “the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure for the Church.” 2 5
Leo said that causing death should not be treated as normal and argued that medicine’s role is to care for a suffering person, “not to eliminate that person.” His remarks were met with applause and shouts of “Bravo,” according to EWTN News. 1 2
The pope urged healthcare workers to be “passionate servants of life” and called for the development of palliative-care structures and research. He also encouraged them to accompany patients with the tenderness shown to sick pilgrims at Lourdes. 2 5
Earlier remarks he cited opposed allowing laboratory algorithms to determine the lives of embryos or elderly people, warning that medicine must not become an instrument of “programmed death.” His broader visit statements emphasized the defense of life from conception to natural death. 1 2
French lawmakers voted in July to legalize assisted dying, including euthanasia and assisted suicide in certain cases. EWTN News reported that France became the fifth European country to legalize both practices; the article distinguishes euthanasia, in which another person ends a life, from assisted suicide, in which the patient takes life-ending medication with a physician’s guidance. 1 2
Earlier on Sept. 27, Leo praised the French bishops for opposing the law and encouraged them to continue working with others who share their values. 2
Leo delivered the remarks during his four-day visit to France, at a shrine known for welcoming sick and disabled pilgrims. At Mass there, he described Lourdes as a place where frailty is welcomed and life is received as a gift, and told sick pilgrims that their role in the Church was “irreplaceable.” 1
The moral foundations of human dignity and end-of-life care
Human dignity does not depend on health, independence, usefulness, or freedom from suffering. In Catholic teaching, it rests on the fact that every person is created in God’s image and called to communion with God. Because that dignity is inherent, it cannot be earned, diminished by illness, or taken away at the end of life.
Human beings are embodied persons, not merely minds or bodies to be assessed by their abilities. Their dignity belongs to the whole person and remains equal at every stage of life, including when illness or disability makes someone dependent on others.
This has practical moral force. It rules out treating a dying person as less valuable because care is difficult, recovery is unlikely, or the person cannot communicate or contribute in familiar ways. The Church describes every dying person as deserving unconditional respect.
Respect for dignity calls for attentive care: pain relief, appropriate medical treatment, emotional and spiritual support, and the presence of others. The Church’s image is not of a caregiver who withdraws when a cure is impossible, but of someone who stays with the suffering person, consoles them, and helps them face death without abandonment.
This does not mean that every possible treatment must be used. Dignitas Infinita affirms both the need to alleviate suffering and the importance of avoiding aggressive or disproportionate procedures. Thus, declining a treatment that is excessively burdensome or offers little reasonable benefit is morally distinct from intending to cause death.
Palliative care and hospice care express this positive duty to care. They seek to relieve suffering and support the person rather than hasten death. The end of life is to be approached with reverence and accompaniment, as a sacred moment in the person’s journey toward God.
The Catholic moral distinction is between relieving suffering while respecting life, and making death the means or goal of relief. The Church rejects euthanasia and assisted suicide because intentionally ending a person’s life is contrary to the dignity that remains theirs even in severe suffering. Respect for a person’s wishes does not make the deliberate ending of that person’s life an act of care.
This rejection is not a demand that people suffer without help. Rather, it places a strong obligation on families, healthcare professionals, and society to provide suitable care, pain relief, and emotional and spiritual support—especially for people who might otherwise feel abandoned or burdensome.
End-of-life care should be judged by whether it honours the person’s life and serves their real needs—not simply by whether it prolongs biological life at any cost or brings suffering to an end by causing death. Catholic teaching therefore holds together two responsibilities: protect life, and care compassionately for the person who is suffering.
The central moral conviction is that a person remains worthy of love and care even when cure is no longer possible. To accompany someone toward death is not to provoke or hasten it; it is to remain present, relieve what suffering can be relieved, and uphold the person’s dignity to the end.