Pope Leo Addresses Spanish Parliament on the Right to Life

On Monday June 8, 2026, Pope Leo XIV became the first Pope in history to address the Spanish Legislature known as the Las Cortes Generales. Many of the news stories have focused on People Leo’s points about immigration and war. Few of the mainstream media outlets have focused on Pope Leo’s comments on the right to life. While brief and to the point, Leo made a bold statement to a legislature with a history of aversion to religion. Since its turn to democracy in the 1970’s, Spain has become extremely secular. Religious observance and participation in the Church has steadily declined in Spain. Approximately 42% of Spanish citizens identify as atheists, agnostics, or non-believers. While up to 54% identify culturally as Catholic, only 17% of the total population participate in regular religious observance.

These facts of the decline of Christianity in Spain make it all the more impressive that Pope Leo was invited to speak to Parliament. While he definitely highlighted more popular points of care for immigrants and a call for peace, Leo did not shy away from Catholic teaching on the sanctity of life. Leo forcefully stated, “if life ceases to be recognized as a fundamental value, what future can our societies have? Can a community that casts into the shadows the unborn child, the elderly, the sick, those who suffer in silence, or those who depend entirely on the care of others be called fully just?”

In secular Europe where abortion, euthanasia, and assisted suicide are widely accepted and legal, Pope Leo made a strong defense for the protection of all life. He continued saying, “The defense of human life is neither a partisan issue nor a confessional interest: it is a goal of civilization. Every human life must be recognized and safeguarded from conception to its natural end, in every circumstance of its existence.”

Pope Leo did not simply propose the sanctity of life as a personal view that we are free to adopt or discard. The Pope insisted that it is the responsibility of the law in a civilized society to protect all human life. He added, “when this certainty is obscured, the most vulnerable are the first victims, and the law loses its deepest meaning: to serve and protect every person. For this reason, the moral greatness of a nation is manifested, above all, in its capacity to accompany, protect and love those lives that are most fragile.”

Indeed, Pope Leo went beyond making a religious justification for the protection of all human life. He explained that the protection of human life is not only a Christian value, but a human right supported by natural law. Pope Leo explained that “every truly just society is built upon the recognition of the inviolable dignity of the human person. Such dignity precedes any concession by the State and cannot be subordinated to shifting social consensus or the whims of the majority at any given moment. It belongs to every human being by the very fact of their existence, and for this reason, it must guide every positive legal system. The Christian faith proclaims it on the basis of Revelation; human reason can recognize it as a requirement inscribed in the truth of man.”

While the Spanish Parliament likely agreed with much more of the pope’s speech that followed this topic, it’s worth noting that he received a standing ovation for several minutes from an extremely secular legislature and atheist Prime Minister. The crowds of tens and hundreds of thousand flocking to see Pope Leo as he travels through Spain is a hopeful sign that Christianity may start to flourish in the country once again. Pope Leo has certainly shown that he wants to engage the world while also forcefully defending Catholic teaching.