Pope Leo XIV Heads to France as Abortion and Assisted Dying Laws Clash with Church Teaching

Pope Leo XIV travels to France this weekend for a four-day visit that will take him to the pilgrimage shrine of Lourdes and place the defence of human life at the centre of his message, even as French law moves in a different direction.

When Pope John Paul II made his final foreign trip to Lourdes in 2004, he used the occasion to condemn abortion and euthanasia. Leo is expected to strike a similar note, but the ground has shifted beneath him. In 2024, France's National Assembly enshrined abortion as a constitutional right, and lawmakers have now given final approval to legislation permitting adults with incurable illnesses to obtain lethal medication.

The end-of-life bill followed years of debate in France and arrives amid a broader trend of legalisation across Europe and the Americas, though British lawmakers recently rejected a comparable measure.

Catholic teaching holds that life must be protected from conception to natural death, and that patients in chronic or vegetative states should receive ordinary care such as hydration and nutrition. Disproportionate treatment that merely prolongs a precarious and painful existence may be withdrawn.

With the pope's consent, the French bishops chose "That the world may have life" as the official motto of the visit, signalling that human dignity will run through the trip. Cardinal Jean-Marc Aveline, who heads the bishops' conference, said the question of respect for life sits at the heart of Leo's message and aligns closely with the Gospel.

France observes a strict form of secularism rooted in a 1905 law separating church and state, and like much of the traditionally Christian West it has seen Catholic influence decline amid secularisation and the fallout from clergy sexual abuse. Yet the bishops say interest in the visit has exceeded expectations, with organisers predicting around one million people will see the pope. The perimeter for his main Mass at Place de la Concorde has been extended beyond the 1.9-kilometre stretch of the Champs-Elysees where he will travel in the popemobile.

Leo drew comparable attention in secular Spain in June, receiving a seven-minute standing ovation after addressing parliament. Sister Nathalie Becquart, a senior Vatican official from France, said the scale of interest would have been hard to imagine months earlier, pointing to the Spanish reception.

France has also recorded a rise in adult baptisms, particularly among conservative young adults drawn to traditional worship. More than 13,000 adults were baptised at Easter this year, more than triple the figure in 2016, and the pope will meet some of the new converts. Analysts caution that the trend does not offset a longer generational decline: baptisms fell from 513,000 in 1980 to 186,000 in 2024.

The trip opens with a visit to UNESCO, where Leo will speak on artificial intelligence, education and art. His encyclical on AI, "Magnificent Humanity," called for robust regulation and urged developers to slow down, a position that has put him at odds with the Trump administration's push for rapid innovation. The UNESCO stop carries added weight given the US decision to withdraw once more from the UN cultural agency.

On his final day, Leo will travel to Metz, the birthplace of Robert Schuman, a founding figure of European integration. He will meet other faith leaders and address a European peace conference at a time of war in Ukraine and beyond.

The Vatican has said in advance that the pope will meet victims of clergy sexual abuse, an unusual step. Seven survivors will take part, including one who was abused as an adult. The French church is still reckoning with an independent 2021 report that estimated 330,000 children were abused over 70 years by some 3,000 priests and church workers. Despite criticism of its methodology, the bishops established an independent compensation system that has so far recommended payouts exceeding 20 million euros.

In Lourdes, the pope will confront a difficult legacy inherited from Pope Francis. The facade of one basilica was designed by the Rev. Marko Rupnik, a prominent mosaic artist now on trial in a Vatican court over accusations by more than two dozen women of psychological, spiritual and sexual abuse dating to the 1990s, including during work on his artworks. The case was concealed for three decades by his Jesuit superiors, and Francis himself faced suspicion of protecting a fellow Jesuit before ordering a canonical trial in 2024.

In 2024, Lourdes Bishop Jean-Marc Micas decided to stop illuminating the facade of the Notre Dame du Rosaire Basilica at night, later ordering its decorated doors covered and then the mosaics themselves concealed, reasoning that abuse victims seeking healing should not have to see them. Laura Sgro, a lawyer for five accusers, said the abuse allegedly occurred during the creation of the mosaics, making it impossible to separate the art from the wrongdoing.