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PARISs \u2014 Pope Leo XIV\u2019s forceful defense of human life during his Sept. 25-27 visit to France has reignited debate over the country\u2019s newly approved assisted-dying law, which lawmakers had largely considered settled after its passage in July.<\/p>\n
The pope\u2019s words are now interpreted by pro-life movements as a call to protect life despite the new law, which took effect in August.<\/p>\n
For Lucie Pacherie, a lawyer and spokesperson for the J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lejeune Foundation, the pope\u2019s words are a \u201cgreat encouragement to continue raising awareness among the French people that this law is not good, even though it has been passed.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/a><\/div>\n<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\u201cThe pope spoke in extremely firm terms,\u201d she told OSV News. \u201cHe really made it clear that what is legal is not necessarily moral.\u201d<\/p>\n
Jerome Trillard, one of the six altar servers with Down syndrome who served papal Mass at Place de la Concorde Sept. 26, told French channel C News that people like him should not be \u201cexcluded\u201d from society. \u201cInstead, we need inclusion for people with disabilities,\u201d he urged.<\/p>\n
The presence of these altar servers at the papal Mass in mainstream television channels and viral papal blessings of the sick and disabled from Paris, through Lourdes to Metz, sent a signal that life is sacred, pro-life advocates and bishops underlined following the trip.<\/p>\n
\u2014 Pope Leo in France: \u2018What is legal is not necessarily moral\u2019 \u2014<\/p>\n
Pope Leo used his first visit to France to deliver a forceful defense of human life at every stage, condemning abortion, surrogacy and assisted dying while urging lawmakers and caregivers to protect the vulnerable.<\/p>\n
At the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace in Paris Sept. 25, the pope told French civil authorities that \u201cthe protection of the right to life constitutes the indispensable foundation of every other human right,\u201d warning against \u201ctrends 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\u2019s own death.\u201d<\/p>\n
The pope called for a conversion of minds and hearts \u201cto welcome life unconditionally, to support frailty with loving care, to accompany every stage of life with respect and mutual trust, and to defend with courage and compassion those unable to make their voices heard and those who feel ignored or overlooked.\u201d<\/p>\n
Two days later in Lourdes, speaking to patients and caregivers at the Accueil Notre Dame, Pope Leo applied that appeal particularly to those who are sick, elderly or disabled.<\/p>\n
\u201cDear brothers and sisters who are sick, I want to tell you that you are not a burden,\u201d he said. \u201cYou are the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure for the Church.\u201d<\/p>\n
He rejected the idea that human worth can be determined by utility, technology, or under legal decisions. \u201cNo one ever has the right, on the basis of laboratory algorithms, to decide the life of a given embryo or elderly person!\u201d he said. \u201cMedicine must never become the servant of programmed death.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo human law should ever make you lose the certainty of your dignity,\u201d the pope told the sick and disabled. \u201cIt is impossible to regard causing death as something normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Pope to critics in France: \u2018We\u2019re applying the Gospel to people\u2019s lives\u2019 \u2014<\/p>\n
The papal words caused an avalanche of reactions in France. While his address at the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace was considered to be delivered \u201cpeacefully,\u201d France\u2019s top-rated television channel TF1 noted the pope took a \u201ctougher stance\u201d in Lourdes.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe pope must still respect the laws of our country,\u201d Jean-Luc Romero, a former deputy mayor of Paris known for actively campaigning in favor of the assisted-dying law, commented on France Info TV.<\/p>\n
Olivier Falorni, who served as the principal architect of the bill on assisted dying while he was a member of parliament opposed any \u201cinterference by the Church\u201d in French law, speaking on France Info, a public news radio station.<\/p>\n
The pope, asked about the hot button issue on a plane from Metz to Rome, said he \u201cdidn\u2019t cross\u201d the line of separation between the state and the Church, and encouraged to \u201cread or re-read\u201d his first encyclical \u201cMagnifica Humanitas.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen it speaks about questions of social doctrine, we\u2019re not entering into politics,\u201d the pope told journalists. \u201cWe\u2019re applying the Gospel to people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n
While noting there \u201ccan be politicians\u201d who say \u201cno, religion should only be in the private sphere. Let people do what they want on their own,\u201d the pope underlined, \u201cThat is a state.\u201d<\/p>\n
But in the Church, \u201cwe have to be separate,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cI went to France \u2026 primarily to preach the Gospel, to preach the good news, to reaffirm what Jesus Christ himself says when he says: \u2018I am the way and the truth and the life.’\u201d<\/p>\n
The defense of life, the pope said, \u201cis something that, as you all know, the Church teaches and believes very deeply.\u201d<\/p>\n
While acknowledging laws similar to the French assisted-dying bill are spreading in Europe, Pope Leo said his encounter with the sick in the sanctuary of Lourdes carried a different kind of message.<\/p>\n
In Lourdes, he said, people who are sick are \u201csearching for something much deeper,\u201d for \u201cunderstanding that their lives, even in the midst of sickness or disability or pain of different kinds \u2026 has meaning.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Church, the pope said, \u201cbecause of Jesus himself, wants to be close to those people and to affirm the values that that life itself \u2026 holds for all of us. So \u2026 I would say if that\u2019s politics, I did that, but it was not to get involved in French politics. It was to teach what the Church really believes.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2014 Lejeune Foundation: Pope\u2019s affirmation of life not \u2018too late\u2019 even if law passed \u2014<\/p>\n
Many French journalists and politicians, from all corners of politics, reacted positively to the papal appeals for the protection of life.<\/p>\n
French weekly Journal du Dimanche hailed a \u201cvibrant speech against euthanasia.\u201d \u201cIt is true that the pope sounded the charge against this law,\u201d Rokhaya Diallo, a left-wing activist, commented on France Info.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut this is not just a right-wing opinion.\u201d \u201cThis issue transcends the left-right divide,\u201d she emphasized, referring to the Franco-Chilean lawyer \u00c9lisa Rojas, an left-wing activist opposed to euthanasia, who published a book in April titled \u201cTo Die, Press One\u201d to oppose this law.<\/p>\n
For Pacherie, spokeswoman at the Lejeune Foundation, the remarks of the pope were shaped by the June 22 audience with members of the Lejeune Foundation to mark the centennial of J\u00e9r\u00f4me Lejeune\u2019s birth.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was on that very same day that young boys and men with Down syndrome asked the pope if they could serve at his Mass during his visit to France,\u201d Pacherie said. When the pope agreed, \u201cit was a beautiful symbol to honor them and bless them in this way on that occasion,\u201d Pacherie told OSV News.<\/p>\n
The Lejeune Foundation carries on the work of the French scientist, professor of genetics who discovered that an extra chromosome in human DNA causes Down syndrome. What he hoped would be a breakthrough in protecting people with Down syndrome became a reason to eliminate them by abortion. In France, the abortion rate in cases of a prenatal diagnosis of Down syndrome is 68%.<\/p>\n
\u201cProfessor Lejeune understood that while technology can assist medicine, it can never replace it. He also knew that technology can be used against medicine \u2014 which by its very nature is at the service of life \u2014 whenever it escapes essential ethical oversight and is governed instead by calculations of efficiency, profitability, or utility,\u201d Pope Leo told Lejeune Foundation representatives on June 22.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the value of the human person does not depend on what he or she accomplishes or produces. For this reason, a physician should never be allowed to decide on the life of a particular embryo or a particular elderly person, on the basis of laboratory algorithms! Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!\u201d Pope Leo added in what was a preludium to the papal address in Acceuil Notre Dame in Lourdes.<\/p>\n
Pacherie believes that \u201cthe pope\u2019s statement has not come too late,\u201d even though the law has already been passed.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOn June 22, the pope had already told us that neither he nor the Church as such was in a position to halt the ongoing process that would lead to the passage of this law,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n
\u201cEven if he had come to France earlier, he would not have been able to stop this measure, which was orchestrated by activists deeply involved in French politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
But for Pacherie, \u201cthe pope\u2019s remarks in Lourdes come at just the right time to ensure we do not give up the fight against these deadly laws.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the pope shed a light on people who are fragile and vulnerable in face of legislation and \u201cour task is to continue caring for them, so that they do not have the weight of this law on their shoulders, and to raise awareness among the French public that just because something is legal does not mean it is a good thing.\u201d<\/p>\n