Pope Leo XIV opened the most politically charged stretch of his historic French state visit by criticizing assisted dying directly in front of President Emmanuel Macron, speaking at the Élysée Palace just weeks after France enacted a law permitting euthanasia.
According to The Times and Sunday Times, the pontiff named the new law among a cluster of concerns, saying he is “concerned at times by those trends in society that risk turning science and technology into profit-driven ventures promoting genetic manipulation, surrogacy, the trade in human organs or the possibility of arranging one’s own death.” Macron stood beside him as he spoke.
The moment landed on a visit that had already turned into something closer to a national religious revival than a diplomatic formality. Church bells rang across France for seven minutes to mark Leo’s arrival, and roughly 300,000 people lined the streets of Paris to watch the Popemobile pass, per Gateway Pundit’s account of the day.
A first since the fire
The centerpiece came at Notre-Dame Cathedral, where Leo presided over Vespers — the first papal visit to the rebuilt cathedral since the 2019 fire and its 2024 reopening. Some 8,000 people inside joined him in chanting the Salve Regina in Latin, a scene that left the pope visibly in tears on the cathedral steps, as captured in footage shared by Catholic Sat.
Earlier that evening, an estimated 80,000 young people between 17 and 35 packed the Stade de France in Saint-Denis for a prayer vigil. Leo, described as visibly moved, called them “the saints of France.” The vigil featured hundreds of actors portraying France’s more than 1,700 saints and blesseds — an “army of holiness” in the words of EWTN News, which covered the event — and included a woman on horseback honoring Saint Joan of Arc.
At UNESCO in Paris, the pope returned to the theme he had raised with Macron. “The human being is certainly one who is born, but also one who dies,” he said, according to a clip shared by journalist Michael Haynes. “Our dignity is not destroyed by illness or suffering, nor is it dependent upon our abilities. Rather, it calls for loving care at every stage.”
A ‘secular Republic’ seeing a surge in adult baptisms
The crowds reflect a trend the source article frames as a quiet reversal for a country long defined by laïcité. Adult baptisms in France have climbed sharply: 21,386 adolescents and adults were baptized at Easter 2026, up 28 percent from 2025 and more than triple the 4,124 recorded in 2016.
Organizers expect as many as a million people in Paris alone to catch a glimpse of the pope during the visit — the first papal state visit to France in 18 years. Leo’s grandmother was French, a biographical detail that has been widely noted in French coverage of the trip.
The source account frames the visit’s tone as a deliberate return to religious substance. It notes that the schedule avoided what it characterized as quasi-pagan ceremonial gestures and political messaging on Ukraine and Gaza, focusing instead on liturgy, the sacraments, and Catholic practice. That characterization is the outlet’s own framing rather than a neutral description of the visit’s program.
Whether the Elysée remarks will carry political consequences in France remains unclear. The assisted dying law passed only weeks before Leo’s arrival, and Macron’s government has not publicly responded to the pope’s criticism. What is clear is that Leo chose the presidential residence — with its red carpet and cameras — as the venue for his most pointed public statement of the trip so far.
According to The Times, the setting did nothing to soften the message, and the pontiff’s words were delivered with Macron at his side.
Source: www.thegatewaypundit.com — https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/09/during-historic-visit-france-pope-leo-xiv-condemns/