At a bioethics conference in Rome, George Weigel accused the Pontifical Academy for Life of betraying the legacy of Jérôme Lejeune by contradicting the teachings of the encyclical Evangelium Vitae of Saint John Paul II.
Editor (05/21/2024 10:26, Gaudium Press) The renowned writer George Weigel, known as the biographer of Saint John Paul II, launched harsh criticisms against the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), stating that it had betrayed the legacy of its founding president, Jérôme Lejeune, a world-renowned scientist responsible for discovering trisomy 21, the cause of Down syndrome.
The accusation was made during the II International Bioethics Conference in Rome, held on May 17 and 18. Weigel explained that this betrayal stems from the publication of a book that contradicts the teachings of the encyclical Evangelium Vitae of John Paul II from 1994.
According to Weigel, “for decades, the Academy and the John Paul II Institute carried out creative and innovative work in developing a Catholic moral theology and pastoral practice capable of addressing the challenges of the 21st century, amid attacks on the dignity and sanctity of life, and they did so in various ways, in which they called the culture of death to conversion.”
“However, the academy has now published a book ironically titled The Joy of Life, written by various theologians, which can only be honestly described as ‘in disagreement with the official teaching of Evangelium Vitae.’”
“This book not only weakens the Catholic defense of a culture of life that rejects the grave crimes against life identified in Evangelium Vitae, but it does so from an anti-biblical and anti-metaphysical anthropological perspective that would be completely foreign or even abominable to Jérôme Lejeune and John Paul II.”
The American author explained: “Just as the Pontifical Academy for Life betrays its founding president, Dr. Lejeune, by publishing and promoting an ill-informed and poorly argued book, so too the reconstituted John Paul II Institute, now largely devoid of students, betrays the intention of the saint and scholar who founded it, and who called for the renewal of Catholic moral theology that would not surrender to the Zeitgeist, the spirit of the times, but would convert it to right reason, true compassion, and the noble exercise of freedom.”
“That is why we must hope that the deconstruction of the Pontifical Academy for Life and the Pontifical Institute of Studies on Marriage and Family – a painful process observed over the past decade – will cease and be reversed in the coming years.”
About the Book The Joy of Life
On February 9, 2024, the Vatican Publishing House published a book with a preface written by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the PAV, which caused several controversies due to his comments on euthanasia in April 2023. This text offers reflections on the current challenges of theological ethics, with contributions from priests like Carlo Casalone and Maurizio Chiodi.
The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that, while it does not revolutionize Catholic doctrine, the book outlines significant openings on controversial issues such as contraception, medically assisted procreation, and assisted suicide.
Similarly, in January 2022, Jesuit Casalone, who is a member of the PAV as well as a professor of Moral Theology at the Pontifical Gregorian University of Rome, argued that the bill on euthanasia in Italy was not in conflict with general welfare. His opinion was contested by 60 pro-life groups.
With information from Aciprensa/Infocatólica
Compiled by Gustavo kralj
.
