Pope Leo’s address to staff and sick community of NotreDame Home
Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes – Sunday, 27 September 2026
“We must foster a contemplative outlook in ourselves and others”
Dear brothers and sisters,
Dear friends who are sick,
I am delighted to be with you here in Lourdes, a place where pilgrims from around the world have come for over a hundred and fifty years to entrust their physical, psychological, and spiritual suffering to Jesus through Mary.
Here, fragility is not hidden; it becomes the setting for a sacred encounter.
The pastoral theme of the sanctuary this year is the Archangel Gabriel’s greeting of Mary, “Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28).
This highlights the significant interaction between the Lord’s messenger’s gaze and Mary’s.
Through her humility and generosity, Mary allowed God to accomplish his work of salvation.
Mary did not keep the Lord for herself, but offered him to the world, saying to each of us, “The Lord is with you.”
This truth is the foundation of our dignity as individuals.
Here, Mary looks upon each of us as unique individuals, as Saint Bernadette witnessed during the apparitions at the grotto.
Her maternal gaze reminds us that no one is invisible to God.
In a time when some societies are inclined to overlook or ignore the dignity of human life, we must first foster a contemplative outlook in ourselves and others.
It is an outlook that sees life’s deeper meaning, grasping its utter gratuity, beauty, and invitation to freedom and responsibility.
It is the outlook of those who do not presume to possess reality but instead accept it as a gift.
They discover the reflection of the Creator in all things and see his living image in every person.
This outlook is open to seeing a call to encounter, dialogue, and solidarity in every person, so that the world may have life.
(Genesis 1:27 – God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them;
Psalm 8:5 – You have made mankind little less than God, and crown him with glory and honor).
During the Annunciation, Mary discovers that she is God’s chosen one when the Lord gazes upon her.
Yet at the heart of this encounter, we discover that we too are personally called and destined for God’s love, the source of life.
Every human being is “worthy” simply by virtue of existing and being destined for eternity. Our dignity cannot be measured or debated.
I know that for some of you, due to particular illnesses and sometimes terrible pain, your outlook may seem bleak and hopeless.
However, no human law should ever make you doubt your dignity.
In fact, it is precisely because of the inalienable dignity of the human person that we must reject the temptation to cause death under the guise of false compassion.
Causing death can never be considered normal.
Just because something is legal does not mean it is moral.
Here in Lourdes, the city of the sick and of hope, I call on the entire healthcare community to remember the profound meaning of your vocation: to care for the suffering, not eliminate them.
Be passionate servants of life, dear friends!
No one has the right, based on laboratory algorithms, to decide the life of an embryo or elderly person!
Medicine must never become the servant of programmed death!
In this regard, I resolutely urge you to develop palliative care structures and research.
At the same time, I urge you to care for the sick with the same tenderness we see here in Lourdes.
Here, doctors, nurses, stretcher-bearers, chaplains, and pastoral care teams serve the sick with dignity, so that the world may have life.
By caring for bodies, you also heal wounded souls.
Dear members of the hospitality groups and healthcare workers devoted to serving your brothers and sisters, I express my deepest gratitude.
Dear brothers and sisters who are sick, I want to you to know that you are not a burden.
You are the beating heart of our humanity and a precious treasure to the Church.
I pray for the trials you are going through.
My thoughts are also with those who cannot be here, whether from their homes or hospital rooms, and who are united with us in this gathering.
I entrust all of you to the maternal love of the Mother of the Lord and ask her to grant you the consolations of her Son, Jesus.
May God bless and protect you.