Pope Leo XIV in Lourdes: anti-euthanasia message to 150,000 faithful, meets seven abuse victims

Pope Leo XIV delivered on Sunday in Lourdes, France, his message of opposition to euthanasia and medically assisted death, as Montenegrin public broadcaster RTCG reports. The Pope met during the day with French bishops and then led Mass in the field in front of the main basilica of Lourdes, where an estimated 150,000 people were present. Hundreds of buses arrived early in the morning in Lourdes, bringing pilgrims in a column several kilometers long. The Pope was greeted by the pilgrims as he arrived in the popemobile for Mass. Lourdes became a major pilgrimage site after the Catholic Church officially recognized the visions of the Virgin Mary that appeared to a 14-year-old girl in 1858. The town, near the border with Spain, attracts millions of pilgrims every year, especially sick believers hoping for healing from the famous water of the Lourdes grotto.

According to RTCG, the Pope arrived in Lourdes on Saturday evening from Paris and prayed before the Grotto of the Apparitions and drank water from its spring. During his four-day visit to France, Pope Leo has repeatedly called for renewed respect for life, in line with the Catholic teaching that every human life must be protected until natural death — a stance understood as strong opposition to abortion and medically assisted death. The French Assembly confirmed abortion as a constitutional right in 2024 and recently finally approved the bill allowing adults with incurable diseases to receive lethal injections. In Lourdes, where the Church has recognized as authentic 72 “miraculous healings”, the issue of respect also for the weakest, the sick and the most vulnerable is emphasized particularly.

Recently, Lourdes has also become a place of healing for people who have experienced abuse by priests. Pope Leo was expected to meet on Sunday with seven of them, including a person who was abused as an adult, in recognition of the new frontier of the abuse crisis facing the Church.