Pope Leo XIV on Sunday criticized the legalization of medically assisted dying as immoral “false compassion,” while doubling down on Catholic teaching on 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 once again entered the end-of-life debate that has erupted in countries around the world. It roiled French politics for years before recently resulting in legislation allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal drugs. Leo’s visit to once staunchly Catholic and officially secular France has been marked by large crowds (800,000 people at Leo’s mass in Paris’ iconic Place de la Concorde) and his messages against abortion and assisted dying. On Sunday, the American pope celebrated Mass before about 150,000 people, many of them in wheelchairs, on the prairie. next to the main basilica of Lourdes. He then visited a care center for the sick on the shrine grounds. He especially tried to encourage those living with “terrible pain” that they have an inherent dignity that no law or algorithm can “take away.” “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 recounted here by a young woman in 1858. The site near the Spanish border attracts millions of pilgrims each year, especially sick and disabled believers who hope for a cure from the famous spring water in the Lourdes grotto where the visions supposedly occurred. Leo arrived in Lourdes from Paris on Saturday night and immediately prayed. inside the Grotto of Apparitions and drank from the spring. “He has given a message of hope for France, a message of hope and greatness for France, and of renewal for France,” said Paris pilgrim Pierre Caziljc. 2:30 Health issues: Support for MAID law remains high in Canada, Angus Reid poll says Pope delivers message about life while in France Get weekly health news Receive the latest medical news and health information every Sunday. In France, León has repeatedly called for renewed respect for life in accordance with Catholic teaching that all human life must be protected and defended from conception to natural death. The teaching translates into firm opposition to abortion, euthanasia and medically assisted death. In Lourdes, where the church has recognized 72 “miraculous” cures as authentic, the issue of respecting even the most fragile, sick and vulnerable is particularly acute. “Their crutches, their wheelchairs and their hidden tears are not obstacles; on the contrary, they are the exact place where they are fully respected and welcomed,” Leo said in his homily. “Lourdes is blessed as a place to profess the beauty and sanctity of life, because here life is welcomed as a precious gift from God.” Survivors visit Lourdes as part of their healing process. More recently, Lourdes has also become a place of healing for survivors of clergy sexual abuse. Leo would meet with seven survivors later Sunday, including one who was abused as an adult, in recognition of the new frontier of the abuse crisis facing the church. The French church has endured a brutal reckoning with its legacy of abuse. A 2021 independent report estimated that 330,000 children had been abused over 70 years by some 3,000 priests and church workers. Despite criticism of the report’s methodology and conclusions, French bishops implemented an independent compensation system for victims that to date has recommended that the church pay more than 20 million euros ($22.7 million). During a meeting with French bishops on Sunday morning, Leo praised their response to the victims and urged them to continue. But he also acknowledged that the crater of priestly vocations in the French Church is linked to the scandal, given that the priesthood is now sometimes viewed with suspicion. Story continues below ad 2:37 Health issues: Alberta takes new steps to restrict access to MAIDs More on health More videos “For priestly vocations to flourish, the priest must be welcomed, accepted and loved,” Leo said. The day Leo arrived in Paris, a group of victims wrote an open letter asking him to recognize the Church’s responsibility in the scandal, highlighting what critics see as the conflict of interest of bishops being asked to be both spiritual parents of their priests and judges when they abuse. “The Church must renounce its position as judge and party in the process,” the victims wrote in the letter published by the French newspaper Libération. The victims also complained that only seven of them would meet with Leo, chosen by the church. Monsignor Pierre-Antoine Bozo, spokesman for the bishops’ conference, said Leo intentionally wanted to keep the group small to facilitate an intimate gathering. Story continues below ad “When it comes to listening to them, you can’t have 50 people in front of you,” he said. “So I think that’s really what the Pope chose: to listen so that we can act and respond more effectively.” Mosaics are a painful reminder of alleged abuse At Lourdes, Leo also recalled a thorny case of abuse inherited from Pope Francis. The façade of one of the Lourdes basilicas was designed by the Reverend Marko Rupnik, one of the most famous mosaic artists of the Catholic Church. Rupnik is currently on trial in a Vatican court, accused by more than two dozen women of having psychologically, spiritually and sexually abused them since the 1990s, including during the creation of his works of art. His case was covered up for three decades by his Jesuit superiors, and Francis was even suspected of protecting his fellow Jesuits. In response to a media outcry, Francis ordered a canonical trial in 2024, which is ongoing. The Rupnik case raised the question of what to do with his mosaics, which adorn basilicas around the world. The bishop of Lourdes, Jean-Marc Micas, decided in 2025 to cover the façade of the Notre Dame du Rosaire basilica, reasoning that abuse victims who come to Lourdes for healing should not be forced to see them. On Sunday, Leo drove around in front of the basilica in his popemobile, passing the mosaic panels now covered by mustard-colored curtains held together with plastic ribbons. In a letter to Leo before his trip, five women who say they were abused by Rupnik praised Micas’ decision to cover the mosaics, but criticized the Vatican’s treatment of their case and the three decades it took for them to be heard. “This prolonged and noisy silence has been experienced by us, the victims, as additional and continuing violence,” they wrote. Associated Press writer Samuel Petrequin in Paris contributed to this report.