Pope Leo to sick and disabled in France: ‘No human law should make you lose certainty of your dignity’

During his Sept. 27 visit to Lourdes, France, Pope Leo XIV met with sick and disabled pilgrims, affirmed the dignity of their lives, and urged those who care for them to remain close in times of suffering.

Pope Leo pointed to Lourdes as a place of hope for those who suffer, where pilgrims have sought healing for more than 150 years.

“Here, no one is turned away due to their frailty,” the Holy Father said in his homily. “Your crutches, your wheelchairs and your hidden tears are not obstacles; instead, they are the very place where you are fully respected and welcomed, and where you can experience a transforming encounter with the infinite love of God.” 

Drawing on the Sunday readings, Pope Leo connected Jesus’ call to repentance with Mary’s message to St. Bernadette and the promise of eternal life.

“God wants us to live, to open our eyes and return to him,” he said. “To repent is to leave the paths on which we lost our way, and to follow the way of life, opening our hearts to the sole joy that never passes away.” 

The Holy Father recalled the Virgin Mary’s threefold appeal to Bernadette — “Penance! Penance! Penance!” — before speaking about the place of penance in the life of the faithful.

“Penance is an act of love, carried out in solidarity with the human family,” Pope Leo said. “It is an act of love for God, because we want to make amends for the wounds our sins have dealt to his heart.”

>> Pope Leo urges Europe to draw on Christian roots to pursue peace and unity <<

Later that day, Pope Leo visited sick pilgrims and their caregivers at the shrine’s Accueil Notre-Dame. There, he addressed those living with serious illness and pain. Pope Leo continued, saying each person’s dignity is inherent and urging healthcare workers to care for the sick with tenderness, as Zeale News previously reported.

“Dear brothers and sisters who are sick, I want to tell you that you are not a burden,” he said. “You are the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure for the Church.”

The visit came after France enacted a law on Aug. 18 that allows assisted suicide for eligible adults and, in certain cases, permitting a doctor or nurse to administer a lethal substance.

“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,” Pope Leo said. “But no human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity. On the contrary, 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. It is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.” 

The Holy Father also called on healthcare workers to expand palliative care and stay close to patients through suffering.

The following day at Mass in Metz, Pope Leo entrusted the local Church and the whole of Europe to the Lord and recalled that the continent’s spiritual and moral heritage grew from generations of Christians who lived and shared the teachings of the Gospel.

“The moral principles that govern the world in which we live were handed down to us from there: principles such as the primacy of the person and the sacred and inviolable nature of human life at all stages and under all circumstances; the protection of individual freedom; the primary importance of the family as the foundation of society; caring for the poor and the most disadvantaged; welcoming the stranger; and respecting the elderly,” he said.

Asked on the flight back to Rome whether his remarks on end-of-life issues amounted to involvement in French politics, Pope Leo said he had come to proclaim the word of the Lord, including the Church’s teaching on the dignity of life.

“I’d invite you to read or reread Magnifica Humanitas where I speak about the social doctrine of the Church in the first section that for a couple of chapters, and say that when the Church speaks about the defending life, when it speaks about questions of social doctrine, we're not entering into politics, we're applying the Gospel to people's lives.”

Pope Leo then turned to the place of faith in public life.

“And there can be politicians, if you will, on the left or on the right, situations where they say, ‘No, religion should only be in the private sphere,’” he told reporters. “‘Let people do what they want on their own, but that as a state we have to be separate.’ By the very fact that when I went to France, I went primarily to preach the Gospel, to preach the good news, to reaffirm what Jesus Christ Himself says when he says I’m the Way and the Truth and the Life.”