CNA reports that Pope Francis has appointed Fr Maurizio Chiodi to the DDF. Chiodi is known for his view that the use of contraception within marriage is acceptable and that same-sex relationships could be morally permissible in some circumstances.

Chiodi's views raise eyebrows

Chiodi, a professor at the Pontifical John Paul II Theological Institute for Marriage and the Family Sciences, has raised eyebrows within the Church.

In a 2017 lecture in Rome, Chiodi suggested that contraception might be morally permissible within marriage under certain circumstances.

He also stated that homosexual relationships "under certain conditions" could be "the most fruitful way" for those with same-sex attraction to "enjoy good relations".

These views have drawn media scrutiny, with some questioning how they align with traditional Catholic teaching.

Chiodi, a Pontifical Academy for Life member since 2017, has despite the backlash continued to be a significant voice in moral theology.

Cardinal Fernández leadership

The Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith, charged with overseeing doctrinal orthodoxy within the Catholic Church, has been led by Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernández since September 2023.

In the past year, the DDF has been the focus of internal debate following its declaration 'Fiducia Supplicans' which permits non-liturgical blessings for same-sex couples.

As well, it has released a document titled 'Dignitas Infinita' which addresses modern ethical concerns such as gender theory, euthanasia and human dignity.

Cardinal Fernández has praised the new appointments, stating "The consultors bring a broad range of expertise that will enrich the Dicastery's work in addressing contemporary moral and doctrinal challenges".

New appointments include women theologians

The new consultors include experts in theology, canon law and scripture. Their appointments mark a significant step towards gender inclusivity.

Of the 28 appointees, six are women — two religious sisters and four lay theologians.

Two male lay theologians were also named, adding to the diversity of voices expected to guide the DDF.

Source

• CNA

The stance is outlined in a new document published by the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV).

The text, titled "Small Lexicon on End of Life", indicates a slight departure from the Church's previous position.

However, it still reaffirms its opposition to euthanasia and assisted suicide.

This new publication reflects the Vatican's evolving perspective on "aggressive treatment" in end-of-life care, particularly concerning the moral obligation to provide artificial nutrition and hydration.

The text acknowledges the complexity of determining when food and hydration, typically administered through medical technology, may no longer be considered obligatory.

In the 88-page document, the PAV reiterates the need to avoid "disproportionate interventions".

It highlights the importance of considering the overall well-being of the patient rather than focusing solely on sustaining biological functions.

According to an introduction by Italian Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia (pictured), president of the PAV, the volume has the aim of "reducing at least that component of disagreement that depends on an imprecise use of the notions implied in speech".

Moral duty to provide food and water

The document refers to past Vatican teachings including the 2020 letter Samaritanus Bonus and the 2024 declaration Dignitas Infinita. These teachings highlight the importance of avoiding aggressive treatments that may not truly help the patient.

The volume noted that the food and hydration prepared for vegetative patients are prepared in a laboratory and administered through technology, and thus do not amount to "simple care procedures."

The new lexicon also quotes Pope Francis, who in 2017 cautioned against insisting on treatments that merely sustain life without improving the overall health of the patient.

The PAV document clarifies that this nuanced position does not contradict the DDF's 2007 guidelines which emphasised the moral duty to provide food and water, even artificially, to patients in a vegetative state.

By allowing the space to be kept open for research on legislative mediation on the topic, Paglia in his introduction said "in this way, believers assume their responsibility to explain to everyone the universal (ethical) sense disclosed in the Christian faith".

Sources

Crux Now

Vatican News

CathNews New Zealand

"The Pontifical Academy for Life reiterates that precisely in the era of universal human rights, there cannot be a ‘right' to take a human life," the academy wrote in a March 4 statement released by the Bishops' Conference of France following the historic vote.

The Pontifical Academy for Life went on to appeal to "all governments and all religious traditions to do their best so that in this phase of history, the protection of life becomes an absolute priority, with concrete steps in favour of peace and social justice, with effective measures for universal access to resources, education, and health."

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Speaking last week at the Perugia Journalism Festival on "The last journey (towards the end of life)," Paglia stated that the Catholic Church did not provide a fixed moral code, but that its teachings were the result of ongoing dialogue and theological thought.

Archbishop Paglia said the Catholic Church "does not have a package of prêt-à-porter, a pre-packaged truth as if it were a distributor of truth pills."

Instead, its teaching results from the idea that "Theological thought evolves throughout history in dialogue with the Magisterium and with the experience of the people of God in a dynamic of mutual enrichment."

The archbishop also highlighted the Church's current focus on achieving an ethical and legal framework for end-of-life decisions.

Paglia argued that a legal mediation for assisted suicide in specific circumstances, as mandated by the Italian Constitutional Court in 2019, was feasible and could be the "greatest common good concretely possible in the conditions in which we find ourselves," while insisting that he would not practise assisted suicide personally.

Paglia's comments generated significant criticism from some who believed that he appeared to support end-of-life legislation and that he was advocating for legal protection for euthanasia. Some also raised concerns about his comparison of the death penalty and euthanasia.

Paglia opposed to euthanasia

In response, the Pontifical Academy for Life released a statement on Monday, affirming that Paglia remained opposed to euthanasia and assisted suicide and was in line with the Church's teachings.

The statement argued that Paglia's presentation had touched only briefly on the Constitutional Court's ruling and that the context of his remarks had not been fully developed.

Italy's current law dictates that anyone who assists another person in committing suicide may be jailed for between five and twelve years.

A 2019 ruling by Italy's Constitutional Court partially decriminalised assisted suicide under certain conditions, including that the person be "kept alive by life support treatments and affected by an irreversible pathology, which is a source of physical or psychological suffering they consider intolerable, but fully capable of making free and informed decisions."

The ruling also mandated that parliament pass legislation regulating assisted suicide. However, Italian lawmakers have yet to pass the required legislation, and the issue has become a source of ongoing debate and division.

Sources

CruxNow

CathNews New Zealand

The pope asked the academy on Feb. 20 to "ensure that scientific and technological growth is reconciled more and more with a parallel development … in responsibility, values, and conscience."

The rapid acceleration of new technologies can produce significant consequences for human life and the environment "that are not always clear and predictable," Francis said.

"It is paradoxical, for example, referring to technologies for enhancing the biological functions of a subject, to speak of an ‘augmented' man if one forgets that the human body refers back to the integral good of the person and therefore cannot be identified with the biological organism alone. A wrong approach in this field actually ends up not ‘augmenting' but ‘compressing' man," he said.

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Father Maurizio Chiodi (pictured) made the comments in an interview conducted by Fabrizio Mastrofini, the communications and social media manager of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

Chiodi, who has been a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life since 2017, has publicly argued that some circumstances in marriage could "require contraception" as a matter of responsibility.

The interview with Chiodi was presented as a clarification of the work of a 2021 seminar on ethics in which theologians debated a "basic text".

A Vatican-published book synthesising the three-day conference recently came under fire for suggesting that the Catholic Church's constant opposition to the use of contraception in marriage — clarified in the encyclical Humanae vitae — could change.

In the interview published on 19 August Chiodi said "Humanae vitae, like any encyclical, including Veritatis splendor, is an authoritative document, but with no claim to infallibility".

"When it comes to Humanae vitae and the earlier stance contained in Casti connubii — which was even stronger — we are in the realm of doctrina reformabilis (‘reformable doctrine')," he said.

In the interview, Father Chiodi affirms that "contraception is considered an intrinsically evil act."

He goes on to say: "I believe that we should not deny the existence of intrinsically evil acts, but that we need to think together about what an act is at its source, overcoming an objectified interpretation of it, that is, one that is independent of any circumstance, effect and intention in the actions of those involved."

Father Thomas Petri OP, president of the Dominican House of Studies in Washington DC and a moral theologian, told CNA this month that "even if it's the case that any particular encyclical" such as Humanae vitae "is not infallible, the teaching that it presents is in fact irreformable, because it's part of the ordinary and universal magisterium of the Church".

"In Veritatis splendor John Paul II does say that contraception is an intrinsically evil act, so there can be no reason or purpose for contraception. Benedict XVI gave several speeches in which he spoke about contraception, and it can't be changed. What was true yesterday is true today," Petri noted.

The full interview with Father Chiodi was published in Italian and English and shared on the pontifical academy's Twitter page.

Sources

Catholic News Agency

CathNews NZ

Over the weekend, a tweet sent from the Pontifical Academy for Life's official Twitter account suggested that St Pope Paul VI's 1968 encyclical Humanae Vitae was not covered by the doctrine of papal infallibility.

This means it can be subject to change.

"History records by Archbishop Lambruschini confirmed that Paul VI said to him directly that Humanae Vitae was not under infallibility," the Pontifical Academy's official Twitter account said on 6 August.

The academy's now-deleted tweet generated considerable backlash and speculation online.

Many commentators interpreted the statement as suggesting that the landmark encyclical could become the subject of papal review or reform.

The debate began last month with the publication by the Pontifical Academy for Life of a new volume titled Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, Practical Challenges. It includes papers delivered during a conference sponsored by the academy last year.

In the book, some theologians appeared to suggest that in certain limited circumstances couples might be justified in choosing artificial contraception or methods of artificial reproduction.

The academy defended the volume, saying its role as a pontifical academy is to facilitate dialogue among the top theological thinkers of the day about contemporary issues of key interest.

However, critics argued that it was inappropriate for an official Vatican entity to include voices questioning some of the church's core moral teachings.

Ever since Humanae Vitae first appeared in 1968, there's been an active debate over exactly what level of authority it possesses and, by implication, whether one can dissent from it and still be a good Catholic.

The context of Humane Vitae is about using contraception inside marriage.

And, despite what some think, everything the pope says is not infallible.

For a statement to be infallible, the Pope needs to make it clear that he is speaking infallibly and so far no pope has spoken infallibly on moral matters.

Catholic theologians agree that both Pope Pius IX's 1854 definition of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary and Pope Pius XII's 1950 definition of the dogma of the Assumption of Mary are the only instances of papal infallibility.

Both followed wide consultation with the bishops as to whether these doctrines were already believed worldwide.

Sources

• CruxNow
• Gaudium Press
• The Pilar

The speculation comes from a late-2021 three-day seminar convened at the Vatican by the Pontifical Academy for Life.

An essay titled "Rileggere l'etica teologica della vita" ("Re-reading the theological ethics of life") was published on June 30 in La Civilta' Cattolica. The essay provides an overview of a 528 page book published after the seminar.

"It is legitimate to ask if Pope Francis will give us a new encyclical or apostolic exhortation on bioethics that might be called ‘Gaudium Vitae.' [‘The Joy of Life']," said Jorge José Ferrer SJ, the essay's author. He is a priest and professor of moral theology at the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico.

If a papal document were published, it would ignite a wide-ranging reflection on the ethics of human life. This could lead to a new and definitive papal teaching document on issues as polarising as contraception, assisted procreation and palliative care.

Twenty theologians from Europe, Latin America, Africa and the United States attended the seminar, including lay women and men. They gathered to listen, study and reflect on theological ethics, and bioethics in particular, from the teachings of Pope Francis.

"We followed a path of study and reflection that led us to see the issues of bioethics in a new light, starting with the role of discernment and the formed conscience of the moral agent," said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, in an interview about the book with Vatican Media.

"We did this not only in an atmosphere of parrhesia [a bold and courageous freedom of speech] that stimulates and empowers theologians, academics and scholars. But also with a procedure similar to the quaestiones disputatae: to pose a thesis and open it up to debate."

Pope Francis has revitalised the Catholic Church's understanding and approach to theological ethics and moral theology by empowering dialogue without repercussions.

It is Francis's influence on how theology is taught in Catholic universities and seminaries worldwide. Allowing scholars the freedom to explore Catholic theology affecting the real-life issues of the faithful.

In four of his landmark papal documents - "Evangelii Gaudium" (2013), "Laudato Si'" (2015), "Amoris Laetitia" (2016) and "Veritatis Gaudium" (2018) - Francis encouraged the dialogue of an individual's informed conscience and the role of discernment in moral decision-making.

It remains to be seen whether Pope Francis will publish an exhortation or encyclical on theological ethics that addresses these and other urgent topics in our human history.

Sources

America Magazine

Instead, it would like to see an approach where conscience and discernment go hand-in-hand with the moral norms laid down by the Church.

The Academy's reflections are influenced by infinitesimal changes to moral theology.

As an example, the Academy added its views to Italy's debate over ending life. Resorting to assisted suicide could be a lesser evil than actual euthanasia, the Academy said.

On Friday it released a 500-page volume called Theological Ethics of Life. It appears to continue along a less "black and white" morality in favour of moral reasoning.

In the new text, the Academy (which is responsible for bioethical issues) outlines significant formerly unimaginable changes.

Incorporating the proceedings of a seminar held last autumn, theologians and experts discuss updating "Evangelium vitae", John Paul II's 1995 encyclical and major text on family and life.

The role of individual conscience

Theological Ethics of Life looks at bioethics, from procreation to artificial intelligence. Some believe it puts the traditional moral theology of the Church in second place behind other considerations.

The Academy says conscience is the "place of moral responsibility". It is not simply something whose task is to apply the rules as best as possible.

It is an important paradigm shift that follows directly from the pope's conception of morality.

"The law needs the conscience of Christians.

"Norms for action in a particular area of existence do not fall from the sky, but originate in reflection upon the experience of those who have gone before us," Theological says.

Norms as a point of reference

Moral reflection is like a constant choice between two goods. It is a result of a conflict of values, rather than the application of moral norms enacted by a higher authority.

Consequently, the moral norm appears only as one of the elements guiding the individual in exercising a choice. The person's experience and cultural context are also part of it.

"The norm is a point of reference, but it is not enough to make a moral judgment," says Jesuit Dr Carlo Casalone M.D. from the Pontifical Academy.

He denies this in any way weakens the Church's moral edifice.

"It may seem reassuring to think that everything is written and that it is enough to apply ready-made norms, but this is a false security. Reality is never like this," he says.

This is a "change of perspective" in our way of thinking about morality, he notes.

Rejecting rigorism

Theological opens a methodological revolution in the Vatican. Discussions, especially on moral theology, usually take place behind closed doors.

The author, Father Jorge José Ferrer, promotes the paradigm shift developed in Theology.

"These principles are not new, but the pre-eminence given to them by the magisterium of Pope Francis contributes to a decidedly renewed configuration of the theological ethics of life, far from the rigorism that still fuels some ecclesial discourse and contributes to a caricatured vision of Catholic morality that is frequently found in the media, social networks and popular perception," he writes.

The Academy says "the pope is perfectly aware" of the changes underway.

Source

• La Croix

The Pontifical Academy for Life, assisted by the Dicastery for Promoting Integral Human Development, issued "Old Age: Our Future. The elderly after the pandemic" on February 9.

It was signed by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia and Father Renzo Pegoraro, respectively the president and chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life.

The text is not only concerned about the fate of the elderly after the pandemic. It also warns that older folks are often being left to fend for themselves as the health emergency rages.

"We are all in the same storm, but it is increasingly evident that we are on different boats, and that the least seaworthy boats are sinking every day," the note adds by way of analogy.

"Discarding the old - even with expressions - is a serious problem for everyone," the Vatican document warns.

The Vatican text reflects on the importance of the elderly's place in society. It insists that older people cannot be reduced to how productive or useful they are.

"The elderly remind us of the radical weakness of every human being, even when they are healthy, they remind us of the need to be loved and supported. In old age, losing all self-sufficiency, we beg for help," the note says.

Pope Francis has repeatedly urged young people to stay close to their grandparents, the document notes.

It added that "the aging man is not approaching the end, but the mystery of eternity; to understand it he needs to get close to God and to live in relationship with Him. Taking care of the spirituality of the elderly, of their need for intimacy with Christ and sharing of faith is a task of charity in the Church."

Pope Francis' recently designated the fourth Sunday of July as World Day of Prayer for Grandparents and the Elderly.

Sources

La Croix International

Vatican News

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia says he would offer this comfort because "no one is abandoned" by the Church.

Paglia, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, explained his views during the presentation of an upcoming symposium on end-of-life issues the Academy is co-sponsoring.

The symposium on "Religion and Medical Ethics: Palliative care and the mental health of the elderly", is being co-organized by the British Journal of Medicine and Qatar's WISH foundation.

He was responding to a question about one bishops' conference's directive that a priest should not be in the room if euthanasia or assisted suicide is performed.

"I believe that from our perspective, no one is abandoned, even if we are against assisted suicide, because we don't want to do death's dirty job," he said.

"To accompany, to hold the hand of someone who is dying, is something that every faithful must promote as they must promote a culture that opposes assisted suicide."

Regardless of a willingness to accompany a person through such a decision, Catholics should continue to fight against a "selfish" society that labels the elderly, the terminally ill and others as "not good enough" and a surplus to the world, he said.

Pointing out that suicide - in whatever form - is a "defeat" for the rest of society, Paglia said: "We can never transform it into a wise decision".

He also said he always celebrates the funerals for those who take their own lives.

In his opinion, suicide is "a great request for love that was not satisfied. This is why the Lord never abandons anyone."

Paglia told reporters that even though they were looking "for a rule," the principle of never abandoning anyone is not a matter of law for him.

"In this selfish society, we don't need new laws. We need a love supplement, a co-responsibility supplement".

"We are all necessary, with no one to spare. A society that runs towards a perspective of justifying suicide or leaving behind those who are not ‘good enough' is a cruel one".

"For me, a person who takes their own life shows a failure of society as a whole".

"But it is not a failure from God. We are each children of God. Can a mother abandon her son?"

There's no certainty that even the apostle Judas, who betrayed Jesus before killing himself, is in Hell, he said.

"For a Catholic to say so, it's heresy."

Source

• Crux
• Image: Crux Now

He was speaking to the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life and European World Medical Association representatives who met last week to discuss "end of life" issues.

"Greater wisdom is called for today, because of the temptation to insist on treatments that have powerful effects on the body, yet at times do not serve the integral good of the person."

This wisdom is needed to analyse issues in relation to "overzealous treatment," patient and doctor relationships, global inequality in healthcare, the need to be close to the sick and to pay attention to the needs of the most vulnerable.

Sometimes withdrawing from overzealous treatment is wiser than using them, he said.

Francis drew some of his comments from Pope Pius XII's 1957 address to anesthesiologists and intensive care specialists.

These included his comment that it is "morally licit to decide not to adopt therapeutic measures, or to discontinue them, when their use does not meet that ethical and humanistic standard that would later be called ‘due proportion in the use of remedies.'

"It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of ‘overzealous treatment'," Francis said, adding that "such a decision responsibly acknowledges the limitations of our mortality, once it becomes clear that opposition to it is futile."

He said understanding this promotes a focus on accompanying the dying.

While it means ethically avoiding excessive treatments, "it is completely different from euthanasia, which is always wrong, in that the intent of euthanasia is to end life and cause death."

He acknowledged many cases and situations can be "difficult to evaluate," and that there is no one-size-fits-all rule that can be adopted.

"There needs to be a careful discernment of the moral object, the attending circumstances and the intentions of those involved," he wrote.

The patient needs to be at the centre of any discussions and have the right to decide on treatment by discussing it with their doctors.

These discussions include deciding the "proportionality of the remedy" and "refusing it if such proportionality is judged lacking," Francis said.

He also pointed out the "personal and relational elements of the patient's life and also death", which are "after all the last moment in life," must be considered when evaluating his or her care.

Source

• Crux
• Crux
• Catholic Herald
• Image: The Privacy Sugeon

Specialists at Great Ormond Street Hospital where eleven-month old Charlie has being cared for say he has no chance of survival or improvement. Prolonging his life may cause significant suffering.

Charlie cannot see, hear, move, cry, swallow or breathe on his own.

The ten points Sgreccia made are:

1. People who cannot be cured have the most right to be taken care of.
2. Every human being, including the new-born, has a right to dignity regardless of their state of health. This dignity includes their right to care and attention.
3. Feeding and hydration are not therapies, so the hospital's decision to withdraw Charlie's life support is essentially letting him die of hunger and thirst just because he can't feed himself.
4. Doctors and the patient (in this case Charlie's parents on his behalf) must be actively involved in the decision making process and not have to "suffer passively the decisions and choices of others".
5. Charlie needs an integral palliative and systematic approach, regardless of whether he is able to recover. This approach could hypothetically accompany experimental work on his condition.
6. In relation to pain control; it is in Charlie's best interests. It will assure him the most dignified existence possible if he cannot access the experimental protocol in the United States.
7. The European Court of Human Rights did not respect the criteria (one to six) above and "glided in an unbelievable way on all the aspects of content listed up to here and ...beyond, assuming a purely procedural position.
8. There can be a conception of the efficient management of health resources that generates a "rampant disposable culture."
9. There is a cultural paradigm that tends to recognise the non-dignity of certain human existences and confuses that with the pathology with which they are suffering.
10. In these new cultural paradigms you can detect the ambivalence of those who, in demanding the freedom to make their own decisions regarding euthanasia - based on individual autonomy — at the same time deny this autonomy in other cases ...[like Charlie's].

Source

• Zenit
• BBC
• Image: Il dono della vita

The 45 mainly male appointees include several former members as well as new ones.

Experts chosen by Pope Francis for the Academy (which is his bioethics advisory board) include:

The Archbishop of Sydney, Anthony Fisher; an Indian Missionary Society priest and former director-general of the Catholic Health Association of India; a Japanese Nobel Prize-winning stem cell researcher; two prominent U.S. ethicists; a neurologist in pain and palliative care; Muslim and a Jewish scholars and well as world authorities on paediatrics, genetics, bioethics and pharmaceutical law.

Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus is included in the new team, as is an appointee many of the world's media have been focusing on - Professor Nigel Biggar.

Biggar is an Anglican professor of moral and pastoral theology at the University of Oxford, who has in the past supported legalised abortion up to 18 weeks and has expressed qualified support for euthanasia.

Last year, the pope reaffirmed the church's commitment to defend human life "from conception to natural death," which usually refers to the church's opposition to contraception, abortion and euthanasia.

He also condemned what he has described as the "culture of waste" in the medical sector, referring to human embryos, the sick, and the elderly as disposable material.

The Crux website says past members absent from the new list include Christine de Marcellus Vollmer, president of the Alliance for Family and of the Latin American Alliance for Family; Monsignor Michel Schooyans, a Belgian and professor emeritus of the Catholic University of Louvain; and Luke Gormally, a former research professor at Ave Maria School of Law.

Source

• The Washington Post
• Sojourners
• National Catholic Register
• Vatican Radio
• Vatican Press
• Image: Pontifical Academy for Life

Msgr Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, who is head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said there was no dignity in her physician assisted death.

Ms Maynard, 29, took a lethal prescription provided by a doctor under Oregon state's death-with-dignity law.

Earlier this year, she was diagnosed with an inoperable brain tumour and was given only months to live

She died on November 1.

"We don't judge people, but the gesture in itself is to be condemned," Msgr Carrasco de Paula told Italy's ANSA news agency.

"Assisted suicide is an absurdity. Dignity is something different than putting an end to your own life," he said.

Ms Maynard became a media sensation after a video she posted on YouTube announcing her decision was viewed 9.8 million times.

This made her an appealing young face for the right-to-die movement.

She worked closely with the advocacy group Compassion and Choices.

But Msgr Carrasco de Paula said: "Killing yourself is not a good thing; it's a bad thing because it says no to life and to all that means in relation to our duty in the world and to those close to us."

He added that assisted suicide was also dangerous because it offered a potential "solution" for a society that sought to abandon the sick and quit paying the costs of their illnesses.

In a final Facebook posting, Ms Maynard wrote: "Goodbye world. Spread good energy. Pay it forward!"

Only two days earlier, she released a video reconsidering the November 1 date she had set for her suicide.

She was still having good days with her family and friends, she said, and she wasn't sure if it was yet the "right time".

Janet Morana, executive director of the pro-life organisation Priests for Life, said: "Pray for Brittany for the repose of her soul, it's in the hands of God right now."

"Anything is possible with God. Don't put limitations on what God can do."

Sources

• National Catholic Reporter
• ANSA
• Catholic News Agency
• Image: Taringa.net

The latest such row, featuring a public call from academy members for its papally appointed leadership to resign, pivots in part on the question of just how "pro-life" is pro-life enough to faithfully represent Catholic teaching.

Also at stake is whether affording a Vatican platform to people who don't completely share Catholic positions risks blurring the church's message — or whether refusal to engage in such dialogue betrays, as one Vatican cardinal has asserted, an insecure, "fundamentalist" position.

Founded by Pope John Paul II in 1994, the Pontifical Academy for Life is essentially a Vatican think tank composed of roughly 70 academics, medical experts and activists. It's led by a bishop appointed by the pope, along with a small staff of Vatican personnel, and coordinated by a six-member governing council.

The recent controversy went public in early May, when Austrian Catholic philosopher and academy member Josef Seifert wrote a six-page open letter to Spanish Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, an Opus Dei member and president of the academy, to report "enormous concern" that the academy is losing "its full and pure commitment to truth." The letter was released to the media.

Seifert cited two recent conferences held under the academy's aegis as problematic: one last February on infertility, and another that had been scheduled for April on stem cell research. In both cases, Seifert charged, organizers had invited speakers who hold public positions contrary to Catholic teaching.

Seifert suggested that the academy's leadership should step down.

Other academy members voicing complaints have included Belgian Msgr. Michel Schooyans, a retired professor at the Catholic University of Louvain; Mercedes Arzú Wilson, a Guatemalan natural family planning advocate; Christine de Vollmer, a Venezuelan who serves as president of the Latin American Alliance for the Family; and American Thomas Hilgers, founder of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction in Omaha, Neb.

Sources

• John L Allen Jr in National Catholic Reporter
• Image: The Word on Fire