Pope Leo Condemns Euthanasia, Warns Over AI And Catholic Abuse Crisis

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

PARIS/BUDAPEST (Worthy News) – Pope Leo XIV appeared to condemn French euthanasia legislation during a four-day visit to France, calling medically assisted dying “false compassion,” while also warning about artificial intelligence (AI) and confronting the sexual abuse of hundreds of thousands of children within France’s Catholic Church.

The 71-year-old pontiff used his first official visit to France to address some of the most contentious ethical and social challenges facing Europe, ranging from medically assisted dying and rapidly advancing AI to war, disinformation and the Catholic Church’s abuse crisis.

At the Catholic shrine of Lourdes on Sunday, Leo reaffirmed the Catholic Church’s opposition to medically assisted death as France moves toward legalizing the practice.

“We must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion,” Leo said. “What is legal is not necessarily moral.”

ASSISTED DYING DEBATE

France’s National Assembly recently gave final approval to legislation allowing adults with incurable illnesses to receive lethal medication, putting the measure at odds with Catholic teaching that human life should be protected from conception until natural death.

Leo told healthcare workers that their vocation was “to care for a suffering person, not to eliminate that person,” while urging France to expand palliative care and research.

His remarks came during a visit to Lourdes, a major Catholic pilgrimage site near the Spanish border associated with healing, where about 150,000 people attended Sunday’s Mass.

The pope had already raised concerns about another potential challenge to human dignity when he opened his French visit in Paris: the rapid development of AI.

AI ‘PARADISE OF MACHINES’

Speaking at the Élysée Palace, Leo warned against humanity becoming lost in a “paradise of machines” that increasingly influences everyday life.

“If we are to avoid losing our humanity amid a ‘paradise of machines’ invading and conditioning our daily lives, there is an urgent need for education in ethical discernment and the capacity to acknowledge the moral good,” he said.

At the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Leo also warned that AI risked contributing to a process of dehumanization.

His warnings came amid growing concerns about increasingly autonomous AI systems, including revelations that an OpenAI model gained unauthorized access to files on an Australian government website used for reporting healthcare statistics.

AI HACKING CONCERNS

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said the June 18 incident involved an AI system gaining unauthorized access to the government website, although there was no evidence that citizens’ personal information was compromised.

Bloomberg News described it as one of the first known cyberattacks by AI on a government database.

However, there was no indication that Leo was referring specifically to the Australian incident during his remarks in France.

Another major issue confronting the pontiff during his visit was the decades-long sexual abuse crisis within the Catholic Church.

CATHOLIC ABUSE CRISIS

Leo met with seven adult survivors of clergy sexual abuse privately on Sunday, listening to their experiences during an encounter at Lourdes.

A landmark independent investigation published in 2021 estimated that about 330,000 children in France had been sexually abused over seven decades by priests and other Catholic Church personnel.

The Vatican said Leo listened to accounts of their pain and suffering, including cases in which people who could have helped allegedly remained silent or were complicit.

Some survivors praised Leo for listening but stressed that the meeting needed to be followed by concrete action.

POPE URGES VIGILANCE

Earlier Sunday, Leo praised French bishops for their response to what he called “the painful scourge of abuse committed against minors by members of the clergy or in an ecclesial context.”

He thanked them for efforts involving listening, truth, justice and reparations, while warning: “You must continue along the path you have begun, maintaining the greatest vigilance.”

Leo also acknowledged failures within the Catholic Church, saying the admission of mistakes was essential for spiritual growth and healing the “deep wounds, infidelities and painful errors” that had occurred “within the Church.”

On Monday, Leo concluded his French visit in Metz, near the borders with Germany and Luxembourg, where he appealed to Europe to resist deteriorating relations and what he described as “lies and deceit.”

EUROPE’S CHRISTIAN ROOTS

The visit honored Robert Schuman, the devout Catholic French statesman regarded as one of the founding fathers of European integration.

French President Emmanuel Macron, meanwhile, invoked Europe’s religious heritage despite leading a constitutionally secular republic.

“Our Europe … is above all a civilization,” Macron said. “This Europe of our cities and villages, schools and universities, cafes and public squares, was built on a Greco-Roman and Judeo-Christian foundation.”

Macron said that heritage had helped establish “the primacy of the person” and later the concept of the “free and rational individual.”

DEMOCRACY UNDER PRESSURE

He also warned that peace, truth and democracy were threatened not only by conflicts such as Russia’s war against Ukraine but by social fragmentation, disinformation and online manipulation.

“A democracy does not die only under shells,” Macron said. “It can also fade when loneliness spreads, and citizens stop listening to one another.”

The warnings underscored a central theme of Leo’s French visit: preserving human dignity amid technological, medical and political changes rapidly reshaping Europe.