Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Oct 19, 2022 / 14:45 pm (CNA).
The Pontifical Academy for Life issued a statement Wednesday defending the recent appointment of an outspoken advocate for abortion rights on the grounds that members are chosen to contribute to “fruitful interdisciplinary, intercultural, and interreligious dialogue.”
An Italian-American economist and professor at University College London, Mariana Mazzucato, was among seven academics appointed by Pope Francis on Oct. 15 to serve five-year terms with the academy.
As CNA reported Oct. 18, on several occasions Mazzucato shared her pro-abortion views on Twitter when Roe v. Wade was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The statement, from the communications office of the Pontifical Academy for Life, was sent to journalists covering the Vatican.
“Fabrizio Mastrofini, of the Pontifical Academy for Life, asks me to share this message in which he explains the controversy regarding the recent appointments,” it says.
The statement then refers to comments made by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the president and chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, announcing the appointments.
“Consider this phrase above all: ‘it is important that women and men with skills in various disciplines and from different contexts enter the Pontifical Academy for Life, for a constant and fruitful interdisciplinary, intercultural and interreligious dialogue,’” the press release reads.
“This is why among the academics there are also non-Catholic people: two rabbis, a Shinto academician, Muslims, an Anglican theologian. The Pontifical Academy for Life is a study and research body. So the debate and dialogue take place between people of different backgrounds,” the statement continues.
The press release notes that any documents published by the Pontifical Academy for Life go through a vetting process.
“When the Pontifical Academy for Life publishes documents (as in the case of the 5 Notes on Covid-19), then the documents are sent to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith before being published,” it reads.
The statement also explains that Pope Francis nominated the members of the academy, who then made it through the selection process without any red flags being raised.
“All Academics are chosen from among scientists and experts of absolute importance, as Pope Francis reiterated in the Letter ‘Humana Communitas’ of 2019 to the Pontifical Academy for Life. The nominations of the Ordinary Academics are made by the Pope,” the statement reads.
“Therefore, before being nominated, the names proposed or reported go through a procedure that foresees the consultation of the Apostolic Nuncio and the Episcopal Conference of the countries where the Academics live and work. It also happened in this case and there were no problems,” the press release says.
Restructuring at the Pontifical Academy for Life
The Pontifical Academy for Life was formed by St. John Paul II in 1994 with a pro-life mission to “study, information, and formation on the principal problems of biomedicine and of law, relative to the promotion and defense of life, above all in the direct relation that they have with Christian morality and the directives of the Church’s Magisterium.”
The academy’s first president, Venerable Jérôme Lejeune, established bylaws requiring members of the academy to sign a declaration stating, “before God and men we bear witness that for us every human being is a person” and that “from the moment the embryo is formed until death it is the same human being which grows to maturity and dies.”
In 2016, however, with the appointment of Archbishop Paglia as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Pope Francis approved new statutes that eliminated the requirement that members declare themselves “pro-life.”
However, the academy’s new statutes still require members to conform with Church teaching.
The statutes also say members, or academicians, appointed by the pope, can be of any religion, though they should “promote and defend the principles regarding the value of life and dignity of the human person, interpreted in a way that conforms to the Magisterium of the Church.”
An academician can have his or her membership revoked, the statutes say, “in the case of a public and deliberate action or statement manifestly contrary to said principles, or seriously offensive to the dignity and credibility of the Catholic Church and the Academy itself.”
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Mariana Mazucato is not needed at Pontifical Academy! The way how she presented herself on video gram was not dissent. She was very obsessed against Catholic Bible by insulting Catholic values and believes. Everybody on the Earth is well aware about atheistic and communistic ideology!
Catholic Church is not brainwashed ideology. Her foundations and principe Les are from God Creator and are interpreting His will and design for mankind. Maria had offended many listeners when she was presented to Catholic mass media . She acted as obsessed person and she did indicated it by her own words. This is my humble and personal opinion, I am sick and tiered listening lectures from
Communistically formed and created lectures. An academic have to respect his own oppone ed in ideology . As we Catholics in the World for Communist propaganda are enimies number one. They can’t ignored it.
Alice in wonderland – “Words mean what I say they mean, nothing more, nothing less.”
“Pope Francis approved new statutes that eliminated the requirement that members declare themselves pro-life.”
“However, the new statutes still require members to conform to Church teaching.”
What???
As my Jewish friend would say: What, you were expecting coherence from Francis?
As for the “Dialogue” entry in the Catholic dictionary I’m working on: dialogue; an encounter where a Catholic Catholic must shut up, and an anti-Catholic bigot receives unlimited privileges to insult and scold.
‘ And many among them shall stumble and fall, broken snared and captured. ‘
– Is. 8:15
Wondered why the same Zelda Caldwell presented the same topic. Then, pleased to read the Academy statutes requiring non Catholics to respect, and couch their views within in the context of Catholicism’s Magisterial doctrine.
It certainly appears warranted to have this follow up. Although, what nuance of difference may be agreed, how close to Catholic doctrine, what effect within the Church in its practice? It’s just as legitimate to ask this in light of the overall trend during this pontificate.
In a related story, the AP reports that Pontifical Academy of Social Justice has announced that it has appointed David Duke to assure the desired dialogue about the pros and cons of racial discrimination and slavery.
Though sarcasm is not often useful, I DID find this one pithy and appropriate.
Thanks Pauline.
Yours in the mirth of Jesus,
Chris
To Chris in Maryland – I had not seen that AP report, but I certainly believe it.
I miss the “bygone era” when covetousness was frowned upon and not given special privileges by leadership in the Church, and both personal and institutional moral integrity meant something. We are living in an age where to those like Pope Francis and Paglia etc, “jobs” in Catholic institutions reject personal responsibility as a representative, reject accountability, and reject the Virtues of Justice and True Religion. Those in the Academy have the whole rest of the World drunk on the blood of the innocents and holy ones to be challenged with “dialogue” etc. The Academy for Life is not the place for an unrepentant anti-Life “academic”. Teaching a Pro-Abort Atheist how to communicate in line with Catholic Teaching is what happened under Stalin when he sent Communists and Homosexuals into the Seminaries. Why? To destroy the Church. It is a deceitful and damning modus operandi.
The Pontifical Academy for Life should be wound up. Its founding premisses seem rather nebulous and «sentimental» and not entirely «rational», a reaction to events in the secular sphere.
There is a Pontifical Academy of Sciences which also considers matters of ethics in the sciences, its membership has been drawn from a wide spectrum of opinion and religious and non religious belief systems.
It should be remembered that the Catholic view on the moment of «personhood» has shifted over the centuries, likewise the sacredness and inviolability of the body.
Even the idea that life itself is «sacred» is open to discussion. We are not Buddhist or Jain in that regard.
There is no such thing as a “wide spectrum” of truth about right and wrong. The founding premises of the Academy for Life were very clear, to rescue humanity from the dullness and depraved evilness of thought that would lead those who would characterize opposition to the mass murder of millions as just one view among many.
Why is the Pope appointing some dubious character like Mariana Mazzucato? She is a member of WEF and wants to control people’s lives through access to water ( see “Press Conference: The New Economics of Water – Launch of Global Commission” from Davos 2022.) A Pope who can’t sniff out these people’s evil intentions is either weak or in on it. Either way, a danger. One glance at Mariana Mazzucato and you know what group she is part of and it isn’t “Italian.”