Pope Leo blasts assisted dying as ‘false compassion’ at French shrine known for miraculous cures

Pope Leo XIV on Sunday blasted the legalization of medically assisted death as immoral “false compassion,” as he doubled down on Catholic teaching about life during a visit Sunday to Lourdes, the French Catholic shrine associated with miraculous cures of the sick.

On his third day in France, Leo again waded into the end-of-life debate that has erupted in countries around the world. It roiled French politics for years before resulting recently in legislation allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication.

Leo’s visit to the once staunchly Catholic and officially secular France has been marked by huge crowds — 800,000 at Leo’s Mass on Paris’ iconic Place de la Concorde — and his messaging against abortion and assisted dying.

On Sunday, the American pope celebrated Mass before some 150,000 people — many in wheelchairs — on the prairie next to Lourdes’ main basilica. He then visited a care center for sick people on the sanctuary’s grounds. He sought to encourage especially those who live in “terrible pain” that they have inherent dignity that no law or algorithm can “eliminate.”

“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,” he said. “What is legal is not necessarily moral,” Leo said to applause from the crowd.

Lourdes became a major pilgrimage destination after the Catholic Church officially recognized visions of the Virgin Mary reported here by a young girl in 1858. The site near the Spanish border draws millions of pilgrims each year, especially sick and disabled believers hoping for a cure from the famed spring water in the Lourdes grotto where the visions purportedly occurred.

It seems interesting to me that even though God has given its children free will, the church seems to think man shouldn’t have it. As free will is a moral responsibility it displays that people own their good or bad deeds and deserve praise or blame because they could have acted differently in the eyes of God. Faith is primarily based on trust, personal conviction, and spiritual or scriptural evidence that provides that trust in God. So the church is demanding it be taken away? A little over their job description.

wy69

I don’t think that as a “concept” that there is anything wrong with euthanasia. But, it should only be utilized when a person is in #8, or higher, and chronic pain on a #10 scale. People should not be able to be euthanized because they don’t feel good, have a toothache or are depressed.

Conversely, Grandpa and Grandma shouldn’t have to blow their brains out if they are really, really experiencing full time #8, 9, or 10 pain.

I think 3 doctors, specializing in pain treatment, should be a jury of 3. 2 votes!? You win or lose depending on who you are.

I post this whenever a story like this pops up, because I feel a moral obligation to do so.

While this article is about France, don’t kid yourself: Euthanasia is “legal” in America if you’re not careful, and with the tacit approval (if not support) of the medical-industrial complex.

A good friend's father was hospitalized a few years ago with a heart attack and hooked up to machines. The attending doctor didn't think the old man would make it.

My friend, respecting Dad's wishes to not be on machines, signed a paper approving the de-machining and putting the Dad on "comfort care" which (IN GENERAL) is basically no curative care.

That was ok - that was the Dad's wishes.

The old man pulled through, but the hospital refused to put Dad back on fluids or nutrition because - you guessed it - "comfort care" IN THAT HOSPITAL and for THAT DOCTOR is effectively Terri Schaivo-style starvation and dehydration.

They said - and if you follow the link you’ll see concurrence from other ghouls - food and water was a medical treatment and thus "curative" and AGAINST the rules of "comfort care."

My friend was stunned. And the attending and her team wouldn't budge - ”you signed the document giving consent.”

For the next few days, my friend and siblings heard from scores of nurses etc that withholding fluids was effectively "the right thing to do"....very Terri Schaivo-like. They also threw in “Dad live a good long life” and “he will never come back the way he was.”

It took a virtual miracle whereby a different doctor intervened, said the father clearly wasn't terminal, and put the old man back on nutrition and fluids.

While my friend's Dad passed away peacefully in his sleep a few weeks later, it was on the Dad’s terms.

It’s also worth noting that the siblings were split on “comfort care.” There WAS a view that it was ok for Dad to dehydrate to death. Someone even said that dehydration is painless; I heard the total opposite during the Schaivo murder.

Euthanasia is, technically, illegal. And I know many people would be OK if fluids were withheld when it is THEIR time to go. Fair enough.

But euthanasia can be made legal - in America - if you're not careful with the Fine Print or vetting the "mercy killing" mindset of the attending.

Thank you for posting articles like this. My mother was —-murdered —-(my opinion) by so-called hospice care under the permission/direction of my siblings and over my objections which I took to the Supreme Court of her state where my case lost by one vote. All she had was dementia but was otherwise healthy. But they considered her a burden even though she had enough financial resources to live an assisted life to the end of life. Now that hospice has been given federal funds, it is hardly the service it once was. Looking to change my will accordingly!

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