CNA Staff, Mar 21, 2025 / 08:00 am
On World Down Syndrome Day, March 21, people around the world raise awareness and promote the rights and well-being of people with Down syndrome.
The date, “3/21” symbolizes the triplication of the 21st chromosome — the genetic cause of Down syndrome, which was discovered by Dr. Jérôme Lejeune, a Catholic doctor on his way to sainthood.
In 2021, Lejeune, who was born in 1926 and died in 1994, was declared venerable for his heroic virtue, including his advocacy for people with Down syndrome and his defense of unborn children.
Aude Dugast, a philosopher by training who is postulator for the cause for Lejeune’s canonization and author of “Jérôme Lejeune: A Man of Science and Conscience,” described Lejeune as “an apostle of the gospel of life.”
“Jérôme Lejeune was a man of great science and great faith who used his immense intelligence in the service of his patients,” Dugast told CNA. “Not to make money, to get more power, but with humility he used his intelligence to serve the most humble, the children, his patients.”
Dugast told CNA she was “impressed by the sanctity of his intelligence.”
“His intelligence was magnetized by the truth, and this, united to his deep love, unconditional love, for his patients gave him the strength to always testify in their favor,” Dugast said. “He was not afraid — nothing and nobody could make him deviate.”
‘An apostle of the gospel of life’
Lejeune is called the “father of modern genetics” for his discovery of the genetic, chromosomal cause of Down syndrome in 1958. The discovery was a “genetic revolution” in a time where chromosomal diseases were virtually unknown, Dugast explained.
People with Down syndrome can present a variety of different conditions including growth delays, varying levels of intellectual impairment, and a variety of physical abnormalities. Down syndrome, also known as “trisomy 21,” was not understood for centuries, and those with it were often marginalized well into the 19th century and still are today.
Lejeune spent his life researching ways to help people with Down syndrome and advocating for his patients. Life expectancy for people with Down syndrome increased from 10 to 60 years thanks in part to his research and advocacy.
“He demonstrated an unconditional love for his ‘little patients’ with Down syndrome and all the patients with any mental disability,” Dugast said. “He had an unconditional love with no criteria of age or illness. ‘Every patient is my brother,’ he liked to repeat, and seeing in each of them the suffering face of Christ, he gave his life to try to cure them. He was a servant of life.”
Lejeune received many awards throughout his life for his scientific achievements, including the Kennedy award, which he received from President John F. Kennedy, as well as the Allan Memorial Award — the highest award in genetics. He received honorary doctorates from four universities and had an international position with the World Health Organization.
“As a great scientist, he showed the deep harmony between faith and science. This is one aspect of his holiness that inspires many scientists today,” Dugast reflected. “He saw God everywhere, in his research, in his life.”
“He was a witness to the beauty of creation and the existence of the Creator,” she continued. “Jerome Lejeune’s intelligence was magnetized by truth. And he always used his intelligence for the good of man and only for the good of man.”
The physician was a staunch advocate for life, condemning the abortions of individuals identified in the womb as having Down syndrome. He advocated against prenatal testing. Lejeune even testified in a legal case in the U.S. arguing that embryos have a right to life — the first time that argument was made in legal history.
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Ten years after his discovery of the extra chromosome on pair 21, Lejeune discovered that it was being used for prenatal screening of children with Down syndrome.
“It was a terrible shock, a heartbreak for him,” Dugast said. “He then decided to work even harder to find the treatment that would free them from the threat of abortion as soon as possible. And he decided to publicly defend them all over the world in scientific congresses.”
Lejeune testified against abortion in front of many parliaments including in Canada, Australia, and countries in Europe, and in many courts in the U.S. as well as in the media.
But after speaking out about his pro-life views, Lejeune became ostracized in the scientific community in France. He lost his research funding in the country and was even refused academic appointments.
“He served life and truth, in spite of the attacks he was subjected to, in spite of the risks to his career — and he lost a lot: He lost the Nobel Prize, his research credits, his team in his laboratory in Paris,” Dugast said. “But he continued to defend the rights of disabled children by reminding [everyone of] their right to life.”
“Everything was unified, harmonized in him: His intelligence adhered to the truth, his heart loved unconditionally, and this inner unity gave him great strength, great freedom,” Dugast continued. “This is how he was able to become the heroic defender of the unborn without fear of breaking his career.”
Lejeune would gain recognition in the Catholic world after Pope John Paul II appointed him to lead the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. The pope later appointed Lejeune to be the founding president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Lejeune ardently drafted the bylaws and the oath of the Servants of Life, but just 33 days after the appointment, he died of lung cancer on Easter Sunday 1994.
The path to sainthood
“On the very day of his death, a petition of 50 people asked the Vatican to open his canonization process,” Dugast said. “His reputation for sanctity is important in the United States, Latin America, and Europe and continues to grow.”
In 2007, Lejeune’s cause for canonization in the Catholic Church was officially opened. In 2021, Pope Francis advanced the cause for canonization after declaring Lejeune “venerable” within the Catholic Church and approving the decree that Lejeune was “heroically” virtuous.
Lejeune could be beatified if a miracle is found to have been worked through his intercession.
Dugast said she has seen support for Lejeune from all over the world, while the biography she wrote about him has been published in many languages.
“Requests for prayers and relics of Jérôme Lejeune are pouring in from all over the world! From Australia to the United States, via Canada, Brazil, Chile, Argentina, the Philippines, Africa, India, New Zealand and, of course, Europe, families are praying with perseverance. This surge of faith and hope unites us in the communion of saints,” she said.
“He is a fantastic example for our world who pretends to be very intelligent but which is, so often, very far from the truth,” Dugast continued. “He shows us the star that we must follow.”
Lejeune’s legacy continues today through the foundations created in his name by his family and colleagues soon after his death.
The Institut Jérôme Lejeune in Paris “welcomes 12,000 patients for medical follow-up, from the beginning to the end of life, with a very competent team of specialized doctors,” Dugast said, noting that it is “probably the largest consultation center for patients with a mental handicap of genetic origin in the world.”
The Fondation Jérôme Lejeune in Paris, another organization carrying on Lejeune’s work, conducts clinical and fundamental research programs on Down syndrome and other chromosomal diseases. The French foundation has opened other offices in the U.S., Spain, and Argentina.
On the 31st anniversary of Lejeune’s death, April 3, the Association of Friends of Professor Lejeune will hold a Mass for life at Notre-Dame in Paris at 6 p.m., which will be celebrated by Monsignor Denis Dupont-Fauville, canon emeritus of Notre-Dame and canon of Saint-Pierre, according to Dugast.
