Home · Faith · Nov 7 archive
Pope Leo XIV Urges Uruguay to Protect Unborn and Dying
· Confirmed
In Short: Pope Leo XIV urged Uruguay to protect the unborn and those at the end of life during a speech in Montevideo’s Plaza Independencia, where he framed his remarks around bronze reliefs depicting the 1811 exodus led by national hero José Gervasio Artigas.
Pope Leo XIV urged Uruguay to protect the unborn and those at the end of life during a speech in Montevideo’s Plaza Independencia, where he framed his remarks around bronze reliefs depicting the 1811 exodus led by national hero José Gervasio Artigas.
Reflecting on a figure of a mother holding a baby, Pope Leo said, “the unborn already belong to the human family,” adding that protecting unborn children must be accompanied by support for mothers, fathers, and families.
Pope Leo XIV also addressed Uruguay’s high abortion rate, noting that more than 129,000 abortions were recorded from 2013 through 2025, and that the country legalized abortion in 2012.
The pope’s remarks carried particular weight in Uruguay, the region’s only country without a Christian majority, where Pew Research Center estimated that 52 percent of the population was religiously unaffiliated in 2020.
Pope Leo XIV also addressed euthanasia, which was approved in Uruguay in 2025, and noted that preliminary figures indicate that about 12 people died by euthanasia during that period.
Pope Leo XIV stressed the importance of peace and dialogue in resolving differences and praised the role of Mercosur, the bloc Uruguay forms with Argentina, Brazil, and Paraguay.
Pope Leo XIV also referred to his recent surgery for lung cancer, less than a month before his trip to South America, in his call for universal healthcare.
Pope Leo XIV also addressed suicide, saying, “Loneliness, anxiety, and the loss of hope can become so profound that a person no longer sees a reason to continue living.”
What this adds
The visit marks the first time a pope has returned to Uruguay since John Paul II’s visits in 1987 and 1988, when Catholics were still a majority in the country.
Background
Pope Leo XIV urged Uruguay to protect the unborn and those at the end of life during a speech in Montevideo’s Plaza Independencia, where he framed his remarks around bronze reliefs depicting the 1811 exodus led by national hero José Gervasio Artigas.
Pope Leo XIV will travel to Uruguay, Argentina, and Peru from November 6 to 17, 2026, despite undergoing lung surgery earlier this month.
What's confirmed
- Reflecting on a figure of a mother holding a baby, the pope said “the unborn already belong to the human family,” adding that protecting unborn children must be accompanied by support for mothers, fathers and families.
- Speaking to President Yamandú Orsi, public officials and diplomats in Montevideo’s Plaza Independencia, Pope Leo framed his remarks around the bronze reliefs depicting the 1811 exodus led by national hero José Gervasio Artigas.
- The absolute dependence of the unborn on their mother “does not diminish the dignity to which they are entitled or the protection they deserve.” Uruguay legalized abortion in 2012.
- More than 129,000 were recorded from 2013 through 2025.
- The stop opened the pope’s 12-day journey through Uruguay, Argentina and Peru.
- “The Church wishes to continue offering the Uruguayan people what she herself has received,” the pope said, while cooperating with all who promote the common good and human dignity. – – – Inés San Martín writes for OSV News from Rosario, Argentina.
- Pope Leo later turned to illness, disability, physical pain and the loss of autonomy, insisting that such circumstances do not reduce a person’s value.
What's still developing
- Orsi welcomed him to a region “where there are no wars between countries”, called him “dear friend” and noted that in Uruguay former presidents sit together “in peace and joy”.
- Uruguay separated Church and State in its 1919 Constitution.
- In his speech, the Pope took up Francis’s ideas on the common good and care for natural resources, and praised the transformation of Uruguay’s energy mix.
- The pope addressed Uruguay’s President Yamandú Orsi and other dignitaries in the country’s capital on the first day of an 11-day tour of the continent that will also take him to Argentina and Peru.
- In 1997, Dylan was invited to perform alongside other artists at the 23rd National Eucharistic Congress in Bologna, before the Pope—then John Paul II—and a crowd of approximately 300,000 young people.
- The verses cited by the Pope in the book published by LEV, edited by journalist Alessandro Banfi, come from “Go Away You Bomb,” a protest song written by the artist in 1963, at the height of Cold War tensions.
- The meeting between Pope Leo and Dylan—who wore a black hooded sweatshirt—was brief, consisting of greetings and a few lighthearted exchanges.
- The collective memory retains the image of the singer who, after performing three of his great classics—including “Knockin’ on Heaven’s Door”—removed his cowboy hat, climbed the steps to the papal stage, and exchanged a handshake and a few brief words with Pope John Paul.
- “The secular character of the state involves an obligation to ensure that there is room for believers and nonbelievers to live together in freedom and respect. This neutrality does not require that the religious dimension be confined to the private sphere,” the pope said.
- “One of the secrets of evangelization is to resemble the One whom we proclaim. In this land, where many of our contemporaries barely know Jesus Christ and so many young people have grown up far from the life of the Church, that witness has a special power. May the way we look at others, the way we listen, or the way we reach out to those who suffer prompt them to ask about the origins of that love. When we speak to them of Jesus, may they discover the very Lord whose goodness they have begun to experience, despite our own poverty,” the pope said.
- “Individuals and religious communities can contribute to the common good while respecting the autonomy of civil institutions.” Pope Leo XIV participates in vespers at the Cathedral Basilica of the Immaculate Conception and Sts.
- Echoing remarks he made in September in France, whose model of secularism has historically influenced Uruguay, Leo called for religious believers and institutions to take part in public life.