From the time that Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia was named President of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) by Pope Francis in 2016, the institution has gone through seismic changes. Today it bears little resemblance to the institution founded by Saint John Paul II in 1994 and run by its first President, the Venerable Jérôme Lejeune.
In July, PAV came under fire for publishing a book entitled Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, Practical Challenges. Hidden in the middle of this 528-page book is a stealth effort to change the Church’s teaching on contraception. The editor of the book is Archbishop Paglia himself. In an interview with Vatican News, he claimed that “[the contributors] followed a path of study and reflection that led [them] to see the issues of bioethics in a new light.” He added that Pope Francis had encouraged their project and was kept informed every step of the way.
As if this weren’t bad enough, Archbishop Paglia has now given a catastrophic interview with one of Italy’s largest TV networks Rai Tre. During the interview he was asked about Law 194, the infamous law which in 1978 legalized abortion in Italy. “I think that Law 194 is now a pillar of our social life” the archbishop replied.
The journalist, who appeared somewhat startled that Paglia would seemingly endorse the law, pressed for clarity, “Is it not up for debate?”
Archbishop Paglia replied “But no, absolutely not, absolutely not.”
In other words, instead of taking the opportunity to condemn the law that allows the taking of unborn lives, the archbishop appeared to minimize, or even support, Law 194. And not for the first time.
In 2020, PAV released a Note concerning the Italian Ministry of Health’s decision to change the guidelines on chemical abortion. The new guidelines, issued on 12 August 2020, made it easier for women to obtain pharmaceutical abortions in the home. They also permitted the abortion-inducing drug RU486 to be used up until the ninth week of pregnancy without requiring hospitalization.
The PAV’s evaluation of the new guidelines bizarrely attempted to claim that some good could be found in Law 194 in two articles which have been, it said, “largely ignored…but still could be at least a partial basis for seeking, nourishing, and sharing a civilization that affirms life.”
They referenced Article 1 of the Law 194 which affirms “the social value of motherhood” and Article 2 where it states that “providing information leading to a choice” [emphasis added] while overseeing the “safe and effective” implementation, the duty of government family counselors is to assist in “overcoming the causes that could lead women to choose abortion.”
Pro-life leaders around the world were dumbfounded. In evaluating the new guidelines on chemical abortion in Italy the Pontifical Academy for Life [emphasis added] made no mention of the life of the unborn child but only focused on the woman. Moreover, the PAV also failed to mention the crime that is abortion, even though this was the primary purpose of the law they that they cited in such a positive manner.
As these blatant acts made clear, the PAV has strayed far afield from its mission, assigned by its Founder, Pope Saint John Paul II, to combat the Culture of Death. Instead it appears, under the leadership of Archbishop Paglia, to be compromising with it. The above actions, undertaken in the name of inclusion, human fraternity and synodality, not only stain the Church but lead souls astray.
In his letter appointing Archbishop Paglia as President of the PAV in 2016, Pope Francis wrote of how he hoped Paglia would help it to undergo “a renewal and further development.” “As President of the Pontifical Academy for Life” the Pope wrote, “I urge you to deal with the new challenges concerning the value of life…[I]n theological study, a pastoral perspective and attention to the wounds of humanity should never be missing.” He called for the Pontifical Academy for Life to focus “ever more clearly on the horizon of mercy.”
Before his appointment, Archbishop Paglia was primarily known for commissioning a homosexual artist to paint an arguably blasphemous and homoerotic mural inside his cathedral, not to mention for his open support of the distribution of Communion to “remarried” divorcees. Was this the kind of “mercy” that Pope Francis expected him to display?
In any event, he displayed no mercy towards the sitting members of the PAV. As soon as he took office, he removed these stalwart opponents of abortion en masse, and then replaced them with individuals who, in some cases, were open abortion supporters. He followed up with a new mandate for the Academy, one which expanded its mission to include immigration and environment. To many, this seemed less like “renewal” than a deliberate dilution of PAV’s previous ironclad commitment to protect and defend human life.
In response, a new laity-led academy was launched in 2017. Its founding members included former members of the PAV who were fired by Paglia because, it would seem, they were too outspokenly pro-life. Steven Mosher, President of PRI, currently serves as its treasurer and a member of its board of directors.
Called the John Paul II Academy for Human Life and the Family, or JAHLF, it was founded not to oppose the Pontifical Academy for Life, but to carry on the work that PAV was now seemingly abandoning. The new John Paul II Academy addresses ethical truths concerning human life, death, and marriage from both a scientific and a theological point of view. As Saint John Paul II intended, it focuses on “interdisciplinary study and defense of human life in all its stages” and the “study of marriage and the human family.”
Given Archbishop Paglia’s apparent defense of Italy’s abortion law, however, the John Paul II Academy felt committed to release a statement. In it, the lay-run Academy both defends the truth on life and the family as well as actively opposing the efforts of the current president of the Academy for Life to spread a false morality which subsumes Catholic Truths to a false and hollow “mercy.”
We wish them well.
