Observation:
There is a large ground-swell for the notion of life, but it seems to be Bios rather than Zoe. Bios is the life of the
individual. Zoe is the relational
life of the Divine Persons, and therefore, the human person as image and likeness. The difference is
epistemological. In the Christian community, most favor life over abortion (72%
nationally), but there is massive ambiguity and confusion over the metaphysical
anthropology of Humanae Vitae. Case
in point confusion over pre-natal adoption. Most would see it valid since it is
“pro-life.” But the hard truth is that the child as person (and therefore constitutively
relational, cannot be in the womb as the result of technological insertion. The
presence of the child in the womb must come from an act of love between and man
and woman. The epistemology concerning the human person, and the meaning of
sexual union as self-gift is not clear in the general Christian consciousness –
all of which is the grounding of the proscription of the contraceptive. And
yet, without understanding the depths of the truth of conjugal sex, we are
incensed and exercised over the violation of this truth in the HHS mandate. I
offer this as preface to the John Allen report that follows:
* * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* *
Vatican
academy mulls how pro-life is pro-life enough
May. 30, 2012
Pope
Benedict XVI waves during a meeting with members of the Pontifical Academy for
Life at the Vatican Feb. 25. (CNS/L'Osservatore Romano via Reuters)
Analysis
In the normally tranquil
world of the Vatican, where keeping up at least the appearance of unity is a
fine art, the Pontifical Academy for Life has long been something of an
outlier. There, internal tensions have a habit of erupting into full public
view.
The latest such row,
featuring a public call from academy members for its papally appointed
leadership to resign, pivots in part on the question of just how “pro-life” is
pro-life enough to faithfully represent Catholic teaching.
Also at stake is whether
affording a Vatican platform to people who don’t completely share Catholic
positions risks blurring the church’s message -- or whether refusal to engage
in such dialogue betrays, as one Vatican cardinal has asserted, an insecure,
“fundamentalist” position.
Founded by Pope John Paul
II in 1994, the Pontifical Academy for Life is essentially a Vatican think tank
composed of roughly 70 academics, medical experts and activists. It’s led by a
bishop appointed by the pope, along with a small staff of Vatican personnel,
and coordinated by a six-member governing council.
The recent controversy went
public in early May, when Austrian Catholic philosopher and academy member
Josef Seifert wrote a six-page open letter to Spanish Bishop Ignacio Carrasco
de Paula, an Opus Dei member and president of the academy, to report “enormous
concern” that the academy is losing “its full and pure commitment to truth.”
The letter was released to the media.
Seifert cited two recent
conferences held under the academy’s aegis as problematic: one last February on
infertility, and another that had been scheduled for April on stem cell
research. In both cases, Seifert charged, organizers had invited speakers who hold
public positions contrary to Catholic teaching.
Seifert suggested that the
academy’s leadership should step down.
Other academy members
voicing complaints have included Belgian Msgr. Michel Schooyans, a retired
professor at the Catholic University of Louvain; Mercedes Arzú Wilson, a
Guatemalan natural family planning advocate; Christine de Vollmer, a Venezuelan
who serves as president of the Latin American Alliance for the Family; and
American Thomas Hilgers, founder of the Pope Paul VI Institute for the Study of
Human Reproduction in Omaha, Neb.
The Feb. 24 conference on
infertility, part of the academy’s annual assembly, included a handful of
presenters who appeared to support in vitro fertilization, despite the church’s
moral opposition. Seifert blasted the event as a “Planned Parenthood-like
meeting” and called it “the worst day” in the academy’s history.
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Members also objected to
another conference scheduled for April on stem cells, which was to include
speakers such as George Daley of Harvard University and Children’s Hospital
Boston. Daley supports embryonic stem cell research, while the church approves
only research with adult cells.
That conference was
canceled at the last minute. The academy’s chancellor, Italian Fr. Renzo
Pegoraro, sent a letter to speakers saying the cancellation was for logistical
reasons, and not “the lobbying activity of some pro-life activists.”
That phraseology clearly
irked members who had voiced concerns. In a later May 8 letter, Carrasco
apologized for any offense, insisting that “the fulcrum of our academy has
always been, and is, now more than ever, the Gospel of Life.”
Sources say that both the
February and April events were not actually organized by the Academy for Life,
but by other organizations and academic institutions, with the academy acting
only as a cosponsor. Sources told NCR that Carrasco privately
apologized to members for the February event.
This is not the first time
members of the academy have led what amounts to an insurrection.
Members offered a similar
vote of no confidence in 2009 for the body’s previous president, Italian
Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who had criticized a Brazilian bishop for
proclaiming that the mother and doctors of a 9-year-old girl who had an
abortion following abuse by her stepfather had been excommunicated. In an
article for the Vatican newspaper, Fisichella argued the emphasis instead should
have been on compassion for the girl and her family.
Several academy members
signed a letter of protest, and one year later the Vatican reassigned
Fisichella as the first head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New
Evangelization.
Most observers feel it’s
unlikely something similar will happen to Carrasco, in part because of what’s
seen as his less confrontational style, and in part because he turns 75 in
October and will therefore submit his resignation.
While trying to send
conciliatory signals to disgruntled members, academy officials have also
insisted that they won’t abandon a policy of outreach to people who don’t share
church teaching.
In an interview with The
Associated Press, French Fr. Scott Borgman, a member of the academy’s staff, said
that an essential part of its mission is “creating dialogue with science and
not closing ourselves off.”
Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi,
president of the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture, struck a similar
note in a recent interview with Catholic News Service. He defended a stance of
listening to the opinions of those who disagree with the church, saying that
fear of such exchange often occurs when someone “doesn’t feel capable of
defending or justifying his own reasons.”
On the Catholic side, Ravasi
pointedly said, such dialogue presumes “an identity that’s serious and
well-formed, not just fundamentalist.”
[John L.
Allen Jr. is NCR senior correspondent. His email address is
jallen@ncronline.org.]
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