Pope Leo XIV told sick pilgrims and health care workers in Lourdes, France, on Sunday (Sept. 27) that they "must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion." Vatican News reported.
The remarks, delivered at a care center for sick and disabled pilgrims, came less than two months after France's Constitutional Council cleared the way for a national law permitting assisted dying. Lawmakers in other European countries, Canada and parts of Latin America are debating or widening similar measures. In the address as reported by Vatican News, the pope did not name a specific country or bill.
Speaking directly to the sick, Leo acknowledged that illness can leave people uncertain and without hope. "But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity," he said, adding that "what is legal is not necessarily moral."
He rooted the appeal in human dignity, which he said every person possesses simply by existing. "Our dignity cannot be measured or debated," he said.
The pope then addressed medical staff. He called on "the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not eliminate that person."
Leo urged doctors and nurses to be "passionate defenders of life" and said no one has the right to decide whether an embryo or an elderly person should live. He encouraged them to support genuine palliative care and research.
"You are not a burden," he told the sick. "You are the beating heart of our humanity."
Evangelical opposition
French evangelicals have raised a similar concern about pressure on vulnerable patients. After the National Assembly passed the assisted dying bill 291-241 on July 15, the National Council of Evangelicals of France (CNEF) told Christian Daily International it feared the law would push people who see themselves as a burden on relatives or society toward ending their lives.
CNEF called instead for fair and rapid expansion of palliative care, which it said is still out of reach in many parts of the country. On Aug. 14, the Constitutional Council upheld the law while allowing faith-based institutions and pharmacists to opt out of participating.
Across the English Channel, lawmakers took a different course. Members of the U.K. Parliament voted 286-270 on Sept. 11 to reject a bill that would have allowed mentally competent, terminally ill adults in England and Wales with six months or less to live to end their lives. It was the second such attempt; an identical earlier bill passed the House of Commons but stalled in the House of Lords.
The Evangelical Alliance of the U.K., which campaigned against the legislation, welcomed the result. "Parliament has voted to reject dangerous and unworkable plans that would have put the most vulnerable at risk," said Danny Webster, the alliance's director of advocacy. He called on the government to focus on strengthening palliative care.
In Canada, the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada has long opposed the country's Medical Assistance in Dying program, saying it "fundamentally devalues human life and normalizes suicide." Eligibility is scheduled to extend on March 17, 2027, to people whose only condition is mental illness unless Parliament acts to delay or repeal the change.
Italian evangelicals have taken the same position as national polling shows growing public support for euthanasia. "Preserving life and preventing death must be the moral threshold," Lucia Stelluti, vice president of the Italian Evangelical Alliance, told Christian Daily International in May.
The Lourdes stop was part of a four-day papal visit to France. Before leaving the care center, Leo met privately with residents too ill to join the larger gathering, Vatican News reported. "Life is beautiful and precious," he told them. "Do not be discouraged."
