CASTEL GANDOLFO, Italy (LifeSiteNews) — Pope Leo XIV, while speaking to reporters Tuesday night, expressed his disappointment that leftist Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker, with whom he held a private audience last month, recently signed a bill that legalized assisted suicide.
Responding to a reporter’s question about the passage of SB 1950, which allows patients diagnosed with an allegedly terminal illness who have less than six months to live to commit assisted suicide, Leo said he had urged the governor of his native state not to sign the bill during their November private audience. The pontiff further expressed his disappointment that the governor had signed the legislation, emphasized the importance of respecting life from conception to natural death, and called on Catholics to reflect on the goodness of human life during the Christmas season.
“I spoke very explicitly with Gov. Pritzker about that (bill),” Pope Leo said. “We were very clear about the necessity to respect the sacredness of life from the very beginning to the very end. And unfortunately, for different reasons, he decided to sign that bill. I’m very disappointed about that.”
“I would invite all people, especially in (these) Christmas feast days, to reflect upon the nature of human life, the goodness of human life,” he added. “God became human like us to show us what it (really means) to live human life. And I hope and pray that the respect for life will once again grow in all moments of human existence, from conception to natural death.”
The so-called “End-of-Life Options for Terminally Ill Patients Act” was passed by a slim 30-27 vote in the Senate on October 31 and the Illinois State House by a larger 63-42 margin in May. Pritzker signed the bill on December 12, disturbingly, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
The bill requires the patient to make the request to end their life both verbally and in writing and to repeat their request verbally at least five days after their first request.
READ: Illinois Gov. Pritzker signs assisted suicide into law on feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe
In October, after the Senate passed the bill, the Catholic Conference of Illinois released a statement condemning the bill, saying “the Illinois General Assembly has put our state on a slippery path that jeopardizes the well-being of the poor and marginalized” and asked Pritzker to “not only to veto this bill in totality, but also to address humanely the reasons why some view assisted suicide as their only option” and “expand and improve on palliative care programs that offer expert assessment and management of pain and other symptoms.”
The Catholic Church teaches that suicide or the intentional ending of one’s own life is gravely evil, as man is not the author of his own life. “Intentional euthanasia, whatever its forms or motives, is murder. It is gravely contrary to the dignity of the human person, and to the respect due to the living God, his Creator,” the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC 2324) affirms.
Leo was heavily criticized by Catholics last month for meeting with Pritzker, who, in addition to being pro-euthanasia, is radically pro-abortion and pro-LGBT. It had been reported at the time that the pair had focused their conversation on the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, an issue for which the American pontiff has repeatedly criticized the president.
READ: Pope Leo just met with Illinois’ radically pro-abortion, pro-LGBT Gov. J.B. Pritzker
