Pope Leo XIV on Monday warned that modern conflicts and widening social disparities are eroding respect for human life and equal access to health care, telling members of the Pontifical Academy for Life that “all lives are not equally respected and health is neither protected nor promoted in the same way for everyone.”
Addressing participants in the academy’s plenary assembly in the Apostolic Palace, the pope praised the meeting’s theme — “Health Care for All: Sustainability and Equity” — and lamented that “in a world scarred by conflicts, which consume enormous economic, technological, and organizational resources in the production of arms and other types of military equipment, it has never been more important to dedicate time, people, and expertise to safeguarding life and health.”
He cited Pope Francis’ insistence that health care cannot be treated as a luxury, noting that it “is not a consumer good but a universal right, which means that access to health care services cannot be a privilege.”
Reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic, Leo said it “has become clear how much reciprocity and interdependence underpin our health and our very lives,” adding that this reality demands collaboration across disciplines, including “medicine, politics, ethics, management, and others.”
Turning to global disparities, the pope said that when we examine “life expectancy and the quality of health in different countries and social groups, we discover enormous inequalities” tied to factors such as income, education, and the neighborhoods where people live. He also deplored wars that strike civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, calling them “the most grave attacks that human hands can make against life and public health.”
“It is often said that life and health are equally fundamental values for all,” he said, “but this statement is hypocritical if, at the same time, we ignore the structural causes and policies that determine inequalities.”
Leo also highlighted the “One health” approach, encouraging an integrated vision that recognizes the links between human health, environmental conditions, and other forms of life — an outlook he said aligns with the academy’s work in global bioethics.
The pope urged renewed commitment to the common good, warning it can become “an abstract and irrelevant notion” unless it is rooted in strong social bonds. “We need to rediscover the fundamental attitude of care as support and closeness to others,” he said, arguing that this is key to building sustainable health systems and restoring trust in medicine amid “misinformation or skepticism regarding science.”
Concluding, Leo renewed his call for stronger international and multilateral cooperation, saying such relationships are essential for preventing conflicts and resisting “the mindset of force, whether verbal, physical or military.”
This story was first published by ACI Stampa, the Italian-language sister service of EWTN News, and has been translated and adapted by EWTN News English.
