And what are the bishops doing about end-of-life issues?

When a Pope speaks, he addresses the world and not merely those present who, however numerous they may be, always represent only a small part of the immense flock that constitutes the Holy People of God. That is the fact. On Sunday in Lourdes, Leo XIV met with the sick and told them that “for some of you, due to particular illnesses and sometimes terrible suffering, the future may seem bleak, uncertain and without a way out. But no human law must cause you to lose the certainty of your dignity. On the contrary, it is precisely in the name of this inalienable dignity of the human person that the temptation to take life under the pretext of false compassion must be firmly rejected. It is impossible to regard the taking of life as normal. What is legal is not necessarily moral’. The reference was clear, although certain sections of the mainstream press—the sort that finds references to the sorting of recycling even in a speech at UNESCO—have tried to beat about the bush. The Pope was taking issue with the law on euthanasia passed by the National Assembly, a measure strongly supported by Emmanuel Macron but less so by his Prime Minister, Lecornu. Since the Pope addresses the entire world, this raises a notable issue for Italy: what should be done about the bishops—and there are certainly quite a few of them—who, in this part of the world, have made it clear, more or less openly, that they support a national law on end-of-life issues? Laws are legal by definition, but, as Leone said, it is by no means certain that they are moral. Since the Pope spoke of human dignity and emphasised that “it is impossible to consider taking a life as normal”, it is clear that even Italy’s regional regulations are not acceptable. Prevost clarified the contours of the issue. We must, he observed, “relentlessly develop palliative care and research facilities” and “accompany the sick with tenderness, in the service of human dignity, so that the world may have life”. And false compassion, at least for Leone, also applies when discussing “assisted suicide”.