‘False compassion’: Leo denounces assisted suicide in speech to Lourdes sick

France legalised assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain. In addition, Switzerland and Austria permit assisted suicide.

Killing the sick is neither compassionate nor normal, and being legal does not make it moral, Pope Leo XIV said, in a clear reference to France’s recent legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

“I know that for some of you, because of particular illnesses and, at times, terrible pain, your horizon may appear dark, uncertain and without hope. But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity,” the Pope said during a meeting with about 5,000 sick people and carers in Lourdes on Sunday.

“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 continued, to loud applause. “It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.”

France legalised assisted suicide and euthanasia this summer, becoming the fifth European country to do so after Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Spain. In addition, Switzerland and Austria permit assisted suicide.

After celebrating Mass in the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes on Sunday morning, Leo met staff and guests of the Accueil Notre-Dame, a residential accommodation classified as a healthcare facility, which hosts sick, disabled and frail pilgrims.

“Here in Lourdes, the city of the sick and of hope, I appeal to the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person,” Pope Leo said.

He encouraged healthcare workers to be “passionate servants of life” and cited his speech to the Jérôme Lejeune Foundation in June, in which he said that no one ever has the right “on the basis of laboratory algorithms, to decide the life of a given embryo or elderly person. Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death.”

Earlier in the morning, in an address to the French bishops’ conference, he had praised the bishops’ courage in opposing the legalisation of euthanasia and assisted suicide.

“I encourage you to persevere, together with all people of good will who uphold the same values,” he told the bishops.

In his remarks at the Accueil Notre Dame, Leo called for structures for palliative care and urged all working in healthcare to accompany the sick with the same tenderness they receive in Lourdes.

“Doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers, chaplains, pastoral teams serving the sick, and so many others live out their vocation in the service of the dignity of the human person, so that the world may have life,” he said.

“Dear brothers and sisters who are sick,” he concluded, “I want to tell you that you are not a burden. You are the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure for the Church. I carry in my prayers the trials you are going through.”

Assisted suicide – what does it mean to be compassionate?

Attentiveness to the sick, prayers at the Grotto, the procession, are unchanged

Stay updated — add us as a preferred news source on Google: