Religion · Statewide · IL · September 28, 2026
Pope Leo XIV Calls Assisted Dying 'False Compassion' at Lourdes, Cites Illinois Law
Pope Leo XIV condemned the legalization of medically assisted death as immoral "false compassion" during a Sunday Mass at the Lourdes shrine in France, according to the Associated Press via ABC News. Speaking before roughly 150,000 people, many in wheelchairs, on the third day of his French visit, Leo reaffirmed Catholic teaching that human dignity cannot be "eliminated" by law or algorithm, stating, "What is legal is not necessarily moral." He specifically criticized a medical-aid-in-dying law that took effect September 12 in his home state of Illinois, the 13th U.S. state to adopt such a statute. France's National Assembly recently gave final approval to its own end-of-life bill after years of debate. Lourdes, where the Catholic Church has recognized 72 claimed "miraculous" cures tied to reported 1858 visions of the Virgin Mary, draws millions of sick and disabled pilgrims annually. Leo also met privately with clergy sex-abuse survivors during the visit, a now-regular stop on papal foreign trips.
Source: ABC News - Breaking News, Latest News and Videos
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Why Bible-Believing Christians Should Care
Bible-believing Christians share the conviction that human life belongs to God alone and that no state or institution has authority to end it prematurely under the banner of mercy. On that narrow point, the Pope's statement echoes a biblical concern. But readers should not mistake this for doctrinal alignment: the setting itself — a shrine built on claimed Marian apparitions and church-certified "miracle" cures — reflects the Roman Catholic sacramental and Marian framework this publication rejects as extra-biblical. Christians should affirm the sanctity-of-life conviction on its own biblical grounds (Scripture, not apparition or institutional authority) and watch how the assisted-dying debate now touching Illinois and a dozen other states develops in their own state legislatures.
There is no man that hath power over the spirit to retain the spirit; neither hath he power in the day of death — Ecclesiastes 8:8
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