By Pope Leo XIV issued a forceful appeal Thursday, urging Catholic politicians worldwide to align their public service with the Church’s pro-life teachings and reject any division between personal belief and political duty. The pontiff’s remarks, delivered in a sweeping address from the Vatican, underscored the obligation of Catholic leaders to oppose abortion and euthanasia as part of a unified Christian witness.
“There is no division within the personality of a public figure: there is not on one side the politician, and on the other the Christian,” the Pope announced. “Rather, there is the politician who, under the gaze of God and of his conscience, lives out his commitments and his responsibilities in a Christian manner.” His words were a direct challenge to Catholic officeholders who claim private opposition to abortion while supporting permissive laws.
The Pope urged Catholic lawmakers to study more deeply the Church’s social doctrine, describing it as “in harmony with human nature” and universally relevant. “You must not therefore fear to propose it and to defend it with conviction,” he said, calling it a doctrine that “seeks the good of every human being.”
In a spiritual exhortation woven through his policy appeal, Leo XIV emphasized the need for faith as the wellspring of public courage. “The first—and the only—advice that I shall give you is this: unite yourselves ever more closely to Jesus, live from Him, and bear witness to Him,” he said. He acknowledged the growing hostility to Christianity in the West, warning that Catholic politicians must endure ridicule and marginalization with strength drawn from Christ.
Pope Leo has long cared about protecting the unborn. At Villanova University, he helped establish a group called Villanovans for Life, which remains active today, nearly five decades after he graduated.
The pontiff’s address builds on his record as Cardinal Robert Francis Prevost, when he consistently spoke against abortion and championed the vulnerable. Earlier this year, in a homily delivered in the Suburbicarian Diocese of Albano, he proclaimed: “God’s mercy calls us to protect every life, especially those society overlooks—the child yet to be born and the elderly nearing their journey’s end—because each bears Christ’s face.”
His latest remarks arrive amid intensifying global debates over abortion and end-of-life laws. Pro-life advocates have welcomed the address as a bold rejection of what the Pope has described as the “voices of death,” and as a rallying cry for Catholic leaders to ensure their political decisions reflect the Church’s vision of human dignity.
In 2022, an archbishop denied Nancy Pelosi communion because of her obsession with protecting abortion. That same year, Pope Francis, Leo’s predecessor, said that President Joe Biden’s profession of being Catholic while staunchly protecting abortion was “an incoherence.”
By challenging Catholic politicians to embody their faith in the public square, Pope Leo XIV has signaled the Church’s unwavering commitment to the sanctity of life—placing the unborn, the elderly, and the vulnerable at the center of its moral appeal.
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