Posted on 09/09/2019 8:29:09 AM PDT by ebb tide
LOS ANGELES, California, September 5, 2019 (LifeSiteNews) ― The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life has declared that the academy must broaden its scope and welcome non-Christian “experts.”
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, 74, presented the speech at Loyola Marymount, a private Jesuit university in Los Angeles, yesterday. After introducing the pontiff’s January 6 letter Humana Communitas, the prelate explained that Francis wishes both the Academy for Life and the John Paul II Institute, of which Paglia is grand chancellor, to work “more broadly.”
“The Academy in particular is to become more and more a place of competent and respectful meeting and dialogue among experts, including those from other religious traditions as well as proponents of world views the Academy needs to know better in order to widen its horizons,” he said.
Paglia promised that both foundations would “protect and promote” human life and assured “friends” and “enemies” that “our dialogue with others who do not share our understanding of God’s fruitful love and of the nature of the human family and its challenges, does not mean that we are abandoning Catholic orthodoxy.”
But Paglia also made it clear that the pope wants them to widen their horizons.
“We must also make it clear that the Pope wants the Academy, and the Institute, to (1) widen its scope of reflection, not limiting itself to addressing ‘specific situations of ethical, social or legal conflict,’ (2) articulate an anthropology that sets the practical and theoretical premises for ‘conduct consistent with the dignity of the human person,’ and (3) make sure it has the tools to critically examine ‘the theory and practice of science and technology as they interact with life, its meaning and its value,’” he said.
One widening Pope Francis and Paglia envision is a rejection of absolute norms regarding human life and a redefinition of what it means.
“[Francis] warns us that it is risky to look at human life in a way that detaches it from experience and reduces it to biology or to an abstract universal, separated from relationships and history,” Paglia said.
“Rather, the term ‘life’ must be redefined, moving from an abstract conception to a ‘personal’ dimension: life is people, men and women, both in the individuality of each person and in the unity of the human family.”
Notably, Paglia referred only to the “family” of the Blessed Trinity and to the “human family” — i.e the human race — but not once to the kinship groups most commonly known as “families.” He also decried a “schism” between the individual and the human community and warned that technology is “becoming” a threat to human life.
The archbishop briefly mentioned the controversies around the changes that have swept the pro-life institutions originally founded by John Paul II. In October 2016, Pope Francis promulgated new statutes for the academy, which included the dismissal of its life members and the inclusion of new members of dubious orthodoxy. Then, in September 2017, Pope Francis refounded and renamed the Pontifical Institute for Studies on Marriage and Family.
Most recently, the students and faculty of the “John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for Marriage and Family Sciences” were dismayed to discover that the entire teaching staff had been temporarily suspended, two of its tenured professors dismissed, and advertised courses eliminated.
Paglia’s response was that the “theological basis” of Humana Communitas will inevitably “overcome” concerns.
“In his letter, the Holy Father attempted to give us such a solid and loving theological basis for the work of the Academy that we will be able to address and overcome the concerns and the hesitancies that have greeted the renewed structure of the Academy (and I might add of its sister entity, the John Paul II Institute as well),” the archbishop said.
Paglia’s address closely resembles a speech he gave earlier this year at Sacred Heart Catholic University in Milan.
“[Francis] warns us that it is risky to look at human life in a way that detaches it from experience and reduces it to biology or to an abstract universal, separated from relationships and history,” Paglia said.
Here we go again with Bernadin's "seamless garment".
Ping
Not sure how he thinks he can “redefine life”. But any redef of human life can’t be a move in a good direction (since the church understands and teaches it’s sanctity as a gift from our Creator -however - I pray Francis isn’t planning to reject that gift ?)
For a moment there I thought it was Camille Paglia and I was briefly heartened. I’d trust her before any of these folks.
The new and improved Christianity, still under development. Don’t get to comfortable with your current definition of life, love, sin, or virtue. We are informing God of our new rules, and if he doesn’t comply we’ll find a new one. I’m sure he will, however, if he wants to stay popular.
Yeah, I’m thinking they are trying to find a way to deprecate some or all of Humane Vitae and Catholic orthodoxy on life. They seem to be trying to either find loopholes or generate loopholes out of whole cloth, much like the “penumbras” and “emanations” that were magically discovered by SCOTUS.
Hey pope! If you’re going to give a new definition of life, you first have to give a current definition. This was not done.
So, pope, listen to me, I know it’s hard. Define life. Hint. St Thomas of Aquinas did, as well as any one can do and has ever done. Didn’t they teach you about him in seminary?
Try this google search:
st thomas aquinas life immanent action
It returns several sites which you can go to, if you can take time away from kissing imams, and read up on what St Thomas of Aquinas said about life.
Does a bear crap in the woods? Yep
Does a politician lie? Of course
Is the pope Catholic? Used to be
“redefine life”
AKA = redefine conception
I can see Pope Francis sitting on Satan’s Knee, like a puppet, spewing all of Satan’s Evil in the name of Catholicism’s Doctrine????
great comment, thanks!
Am I just dense, or is this deliberately incomprehensible?
Redefine life - as what? Less abstract and more personal - how? Broader - than what, to what?
The headline is chilling.
Corrupting the language has allowed the Radical Left to advance rapidly over the past few decades.
I'm no theologian, but it sounds like they want to move away from concepts like "the fetus is alive".
If a baby needs to have "experiences" and "relationships" and "history" in order to be "alive", then abortion right up to delivery would seem to be fine.
Conversely, if we avoid "abstract universals" and if we resist the urge to define life in "biological" terms, then, again, it makes abortion so much easier. Assisted suicide too.
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