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Pope Leo XIV calls medically assisted dying immoral during a visit to Lourdes
September 28, 2026
Pope Leo XIV calls medically assisted dying immoral during a Sunday visit to Lourdes and meets seven survivors of clergy sexual abuse.
Lourdes, a Catholic shrine in France near the Spanish border, receives millions of pilgrims every year, many of them sick believers seeking a cure from its spring water.
CBS News reports that Pope Leo XIV used a Sunday visit to Lourdes, the Catholic shrine in France tied to miraculous cures, to condemn medically assisted dying as immoral and a form of false compassion. Leo said, “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.” The crowd applauded, according to CBS News, and Leo said, “What is legal is not necessarily moral.” Many at the Mass used wheelchairs, and CBS News reports that Leo afterward stopped at a care center for sick people on the shrine grounds. Leo said, “Your crutches, your wheelchairs and your hidden tears are not obstacles; instead, they are the very place where you are fully respected and welcomed.”
Fox News reports that Leo came to Lourdes from Paris on Saturday evening, his first visit there, and prayed at the Grotto that night, then led a Mass outdoors on the Prairie on Sunday. Fox News spoke with Alessandro de Franciscis, the retired president of the Lourdes Office of Medical Observation, who said the pope would meet people whose healings the church had investigated and recognized. They include Sister Bernadette Moriau, who walked again after a spinal condition, and Antonietta Raco, cured in 2009 of primary lateral sclerosis.
CBS News also reports that Leo met seven survivors of abuse on Sunday, one of them abused as an adult. After two hours together, the survivors called him sincere despite some disagreements, while faulting how the Vatican handled their case. Speaking for the French bishops, Monsignor Pierre-Antoine Bozo said the pope chose a small group on purpose. Monsignor Pierre-Antoine Bozo said, “When it comes to listening to them, you can't have 50 people in front of you.” Reuters ties the visit to remarks by Macron on the Judeo-Christian foundation of Europe, and The New York Times says Leo praised democracy in Europe. The remarks on assisted dying and the survivors meeting are carried in detail by CBS News; Fox News describes the meeting with people whose healings the church recognized in advance, and no account of it had appeared at the time of this draft.
Still developing
The pope's meeting with people whose miracle healings the church recognized was still forming as of the time of this draft.
How settled the reporting is
Sources
- CBS News — Pope Leo criticizes legalization of assisted dying as immoral "false compassion"
- Fox News — Pope Leo visits site of miracle cures, meets people whose unexplained healings stunned doctors
Toggle read the full reports of 3 of the 5 outlets counted on this event. The other 2 are counted from their headlines and opening sentences.