New Academy of Life: Bye-Bye John Paul II [Catholic Caucus]

Gloria TV ^ | June 15, 2017 | Gloria TV

[ebb tide]

Pope Francis' Academy for Life, newly appointed on Tuesday, is more accommodating on subjects such as artificial contraception, in vitro fertilization, so called sexual orientation, homosexualism, passive euthanasia and other delicate topics, writes the Vaticanista Sandro Magister. According to him, those who take their inspiration from Saint John Paul II or Benedict XVI will not have - quote - "an easy life" with these changes.

For Magister the most emblematic new appointee is Father Maurizio Chiodi, who teaches moral theology in Bergamo, Italy. Chiodi is an open critic of Humanae Vitae, the encyclical of Paul VI that rejects artificial contraception, of John Paul II's encyclical Evangelium Vitae that opposes abortion and euthanasia, and of the instruction Donum Vitae that opposes in vitro fertilisation.

The Omaha gynecologist Thomas William Hilgers, the founder and director of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of Human Reproduction, is one of those excluded from Pope Francis' new Academy for Life. Hilgers is a strong opponent of contraception and artificial fertilization. According to Magister, "this is probably the reason why he has been excluded."

A strange new nomination is the Italian biologist Angelo Vescovi, a personal friend of the Academy's president Archbishop Paglia. Vescovi is involved in adult stem cell research, but has never opposed embryonic stem cell research. Some years ago, in his laboratory in Milan, a five-month old unborn baby was found. He spoke of "sabotage". Strangely, no criminal charges were filed.

A non-Christian appointee is Israeli Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, who directs a Jewish medical ethics unit in Jerusalem. He is open to abortion, in-vitro fertilization and preimplantation genetic diagnosis. Archbishop Paglia preferred him to the Roman chief rabbi Riccardo Di Segni, also a physician and expert on bioethics, but whose positions are more moral and sometimes explicitly critical of Pope Francis.

[ebb tide]

Bergoglio is on a roll.

Pray for divine intercession.

[faithhopecharity]

Agreed it looks like very hard times for honest faithful

[Bigg Red]

Prayers up for Holy Mother Church.

[heterosupremacist]

Question: does a Papal Encyclical carry the full weight of the Magisterium?

I always believed (but have not been able to verify) that Catholics were bound by the teaching of Encyclicals.

[Hieronymus]

Here’s the verification: Pius XII Humani Generis 20:

20. Nor must it be thought that what is expounded in Encyclical Letters does not of itself demand consent, since in writing such Letters the Popes do not exercise the supreme power of their Teaching Authority. For these matters are taught with the ordinary teaching authority, of which it is true to say: “He who heareth you, heareth me”;[3] and generally what is expounded and inculcated in Encyclical Letters already for other reasons appertains to Catholic doctrine. But if the Supreme Pontiffs in their official documents purposely pass judgment on a matter up to that time under dispute, it is obvious that that matter, according to the mind and will of the Pontiffs, cannot be any longer considered a question open to discussion among theologians.

I think one could qualify this that the main point of the encyclical is closed to discussion, but it does not follow that one cannot continue to examine supporting arguments, while being duly respectful.