Pope Leo receives Paris Course on Revascularisation experts, urging them to root cardiac care in service of life and ensure treatments reach the poor.
Newsroom (05/12/2025 Gaudium Press ) Pope Leo on Friday received in audience participants of the Paris Course on Revascularisation, a leading international forum for interventional cardiologists, praising their work as standing “at the crossroads of science, compassion and ethical responsibility.”
In a brief but warmly received address delivered in the Apostolic Palace, the Pontiff told the physicians that every medical act finds its deepest meaning when placed in the “service of life.” Drawing from his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae, he recalled Christ’s tenderness toward the suffering as the enduring model for all who care for the vulnerable.
“You seek to heal the heart,” Pope Leo observed, deliberately invoking both the organ at the centre of the specialists’ daily practice and its richer biblical and human symbolism. Each heartbeat placed in their hands, he continued, serves as a living reminder that human life remains “a gift, always a mystery to be reverenced.”
The Holy Father devoted particular attention to the social dimension of cardiovascular medicine. He urged the assembled experts to intensify global collaboration and to share knowledge generously, warning that cutting-edge treatments must never become “a privilege for the few.” Advances in revascularisation techniques, he insisted, carry a moral obligation to reach “especially the poor and marginalised.”
Concluding the audience, Pope Leo entrusted the cardiologists’ professional and personal endeavours to the Sacred Heart of Jesus, whom he described as the true “physician of souls and bodies.” He expressed hope that their scientific organisation would continue to wed excellence in research and practice with an authentic commitment to the service of humanity.
Before imparting his apostolic blessing, the Pope prayed that the physicians be granted “courage, perseverance and joy” in their demanding vocation.
The Paris Course on Revascularisation, now in its second decade, brings together hundreds of interventional cardiologists annually to exchange the latest evidence on coronary and structural heart interventions. This year’s Vatican audience marked a rare papal recognition of the field’s rapid evolution and its profound human implications.
- Raju Hasmukh with files from Vatican News
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