In Lourdes today on the third day of his visit to France, Pope Leo took aim at that nation’s legalization of medically-assisted dying today at a center that cares for elderly and sick pilgrims.

“No human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity,” the pope told his audience of 5,000 patients, volunteers and bishops at this famous Marian shrine. “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.”

“What is legal is not necessarily moral,” the pope said.

The French assisted dying law came into effect on Aug. 19 of this year after being approved by the national assembly in July. The law requires patients seeking to end their lives to be at least 18 years old, to have a “serious and incurable condition” that is life-threatening and either at an advanced or terminal stage and to consider living with that condition to be “unbearable.” The person must “be capable of expressing their wishes freely and on an informed basis,” and the law states specifically that “psychological suffering alone may under no circumstances qualify a person for assistance in dying.”

French residents who receive assistance in dying are required to administer the lethal substance themselves unless they are physically unable to do so.

Much of the rest of Europe has already legalized or decriminalized assisted dying in some way, as have Canada and Australia. Such laws have drawn intense criticism from Catholic leaders.

Pope Leo addressed the French bishops’ resistance to the law in a closed-door meeting with them this morning. “The voice of the church has every right to be present in public debate in France,” the pope said, according to a Vatican text published after the meeting. “Even if it is not always heard, it is expected. Even if it is not followed, particularly on essential questions touching the foundations of civilization, it is necessary; do not doubt this.

“I know your determination and your courage—you demonstrated them clearly during the recent debates on the end of life—and I invite you to persevere, together with all people of good will who defend the same values,” the pope told the bishops.

At the medical care center in Lourdes this afternoon, the pope addressed healthcare workers forcefully, urging them “to remember the profound meaning of your vocation, which is to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person.” He added that no one has the right “to decide the life of a given embryo or elderly person.” (France became the first country to enshrine legal abortion as a guaranteed freedom in its national constitution in March 2024.)

Pope Leo had criticized France’s assisted dying law on Friday at an event where he shared the stage with French President Emmanuel Macron, who was a vocal proponent of legalizing assisted dying over the last several years. On Friday, he said, “I am concerned at times by those trends in society that risk turning science and technology into profit-driven ​ventures promoting ​genetic manipulation, ⁠surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one’s ​own death.” The comments were interpreted by Vatican observers at the time as rather direct for the generally discreet pontiff.

The pope’s message today echoed the motto for his four-day visit to France: “That the world might have life.”

The center where he delivered today’s forceful talk, the Accueil Notre-Dame, has for 150 years provided medical care and a place to stay for Lourdes pilgrims who have intense medical needs, their families and their caregivers. A town of 15,000, Lourdes draws over three million pilgrims a year, including more than 60,000 visitors seeking physical or emotional healing at its famous Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes. The 7,000-square-meter center, built near the Grotto of Lourdes, is staffed by religious community members, a set of permanent employees and a large, continuously rotating group of volunteers (“hospitaliers”) from around the world. The youngest hospitaliers were seated at the front of the crowd for the pope’s visit.

While audiences during the pope’s visit to France have generally not interrupted his speeches with applause, the crowd at Accueil Notre-Dame applauded after nearly every sentence as the pope spoke out against France’s assisted-dying law, particularly when he said, “What is legal is not necessarily moral.” A line of sick and disabled people sat in wheelchairs or on the ground during his speech, with several wiping away tears as the pope spoke. One disabled woman in a wheelchair cried throughout the meeting as a caregiver cooled her with a paper fan; the pope spoke to her at some length at the end of the event when he greeted the entire front row.

The pope, too, appeared to shed a tear as 13-year-old Eva Molinmaker, dressed as St. Bernadette, sang a song from the “Bernadette de Lourdes” musical. Speaking to America afterwards, Molinmaker said that she was “extremely, extremely honored to be able to meet [Pope Leo] and sing for him.”

In his speech, the pope appealed for increased development in palliative care structures and research. His most heartfelt appeal, though, was for the sick who were present, particularly those experiencing the kind of suffering foreseen in the French assisted-dying law.

Addressing them directly, the pope said, “I want to tell you that you are not a burden.”

“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,” he said.

Colleen Dulle is the Vatican Correspondent at America and co-hosts the "Inside the Vatican" podcast. She is the author of Struck Down, Not Destroyed: Keeping the Faith as a Vatican Reporter (Image, 2025).