Vatican City, 23 October, 2025 / 12:26 pm (ACI Africa).
Pope Leo XIV on Thursday decried the devastating impact of opioid addiction in the U.S., criticizing the pharmaceutical industry for its lack of “a global ethic” for the sake of profits.
In an Oct. 23 meeting with participants of the fifth World Meeting of Popular Movements held inside the Vatican’s Paul VI Audience Hall, the pope directly spoke out against “unbridled consumerism” and its negative impacts on people living in both poor and wealthy nations.
“In the current culture, with the help of advertising and publicity, a cult of physical well-being is being promoted, almost an idolatry of the body and, in this vision, the mystery of pain is reduced to something totally inhuman,” he said.
“This can lead also to dependence on pain medications, the sale of which obviously goes to increasing the earnings of the same pharmaceutical companies,” he continued. “This also leads to dependence on opioids, as has been devastating particularly in the United States.”
Describing fentanyl as the “drug of death” and the “second most common cause of death among the poor” in the U.S., the pope said the harm of such synthetic drugs extends beyond the country’s borders.
