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Pope Francis’ Dismantling of Vatican Pro-life Academy Is Devastating if You Know How Important It Wa
LifeSiteNews ^ | March 2, 2017 | Judie Brown

Posted on 03/03/2017 2:56:33 AM PST by BlessedBeGod


Full Title: Pope Francis’ Dismantling of Vatican Pro-life Academy Is Devastating if You Know How Important It Was


March 2, 2017 (ALL) -- Pro-lifers must understand the inherent importance of the Pontifical Academy for Life and of its achievements in order to appreciate—with the appropriate level of shock—Pope Francis’ recent actions to deconstruct it.

Let me explain a bit of background. The Pontifical Academy for Life came into existence in 1994 because of the heroic dedication of Dr. Jerome Lejeune and his long-standing friendship with then-pope John Paul II. Just one year later, on March 25, 1995, Pope John Paul II issued the historic encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life). In that encyclical he explained the reasons why building a culture of life was so important: “We are asked to love and honor the life of every man and woman and to work with perseverance and courage so that our time, marked by all too many signs of death, may at last witness the establishment of a new culture of life, the fruit of the culture of truth and of love.”

Regarding the establishment of the Pontifical Academy for Life, the Holy Father wrote: “It [The Pontifical Academy for Life] will have the specific task to study and provide information and training about the principal problems of law and biomedicine pertaining to the promotion and protection of life, especially in the direct relationship they have with Christian morality and the directives of the Church's Magisterium.”

The Academy became the scientific and philosophical backdrop that would provide the Church and her people with statements, publications, and volumes directed at developing an understanding of what was at stake in the struggle between good and evil. Many of its documents further examined the truth of our position on any number of topics from abortion to human fetal tissue experimentation to euthanasia and many subjects in between.

I served three five-year terms on the Pontifical Academy for Life. Attending the Academy meetings from 1997 through 2010 helped me establish a network of contacts across the world who dealt with the rising tide of secular humanism as exhibited in such practices as experimentation on the human embryo, manipulation of the genome, and so much more. As a grassroots member of the Academy, I learned ways to better communicate the true nature of the challenges we faced then, and still face today—not to mention the most effective ways of exposing the errors of the enemies of life. I admired the intellect and the ability to communicate of its members, including then-president Juan de Dios Vial Correa and his successor Bishop Elio Sgreccia. Both men led lively discussions and never retreated from a good debate.

Those 14 years contributed much to American Life League’s war chest of facts and honest science, and fostered the forging of what have become enduring friendships with many truly great people, including Philippe Schepens, MD, an expert on end-of-life topics who serves on our board.

In one of Schepens’ many writings is his telling of the tragic story of a child born with multiple handicaps. He states that her case

shows us that (again in Holland) things go forward in the wrong direction . . . it is the start of recognition of infanticide as good medical practice . . . this case is a start of a new jurisprudence about infanticide for "deformed babies," so that after abortion and euthanasia, people can be killed "for their own sake" without own request. Once this is achieved, all kinds of (more or less) ill and very ill people will be legally “allowed to be put down,” actually as pets.

It is precisely this kind of insight and factual analysis of the horrors perpetrated by science and medicine that helped me understand the grave nature of our struggle against the death peddlers, for we know that abortion and contraception are just the tip of the iceberg.

Sadly, after Bishop Elio Sgreccia retired from the presidency and Archbishop Rino Fisichella took over, things at the Academy slowly began to ebb.

I will discuss this further in part II of this three-part series.


TOPICS: Current Events; Moral Issues
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 03/03/2017 2:56:33 AM PST by BlessedBeGod
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To: BlessedBeGod

Pope Francis is the Catholic Church’s 0bama.


2 posted on 03/03/2017 3:09:04 AM PST by ConservativeMind ("Humane" = "Don't pen up pets or eat meat, but allow infanticides, abortion, and euthanasia.")
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To: ConservativeMind

< Pope Francis is the Catholic Church’s 0bama.

Both do seem to have the same employer - Satan.


3 posted on 03/03/2017 4:17:01 AM PST by jsanders2001
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To: ConservativeMind

Pope POS 1, his ASSholiness.


4 posted on 03/03/2017 4:23:19 AM PST by LeonardFMason (426)
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To: ConservativeMind

The pope ain’t Jesus. This idiot is only making Catholics better.

The Catholic Church isn’t a dictatorship and we don’t have to listen to this commie pig. Even though the commie pig thinks otherwise.


5 posted on 03/03/2017 4:26:29 AM PST by mindburglar (When Superman and Batman fight, the only winner is crime.)
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To: ConservativeMind

Antichrist and false prophet? The former is supposed to receive a deadly wound that gets healed and everyone marvels at it. I wonder if it’s at all literal, or just figurative? But now I think of the rest in those verses and I don’t see pope Francis creating an image of Obama and causing everyone to worship it lol. I can’t really see anyone doing that, but apparently it happens at some point.


6 posted on 03/03/2017 4:27:18 AM PST by kelly4c
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To: LeonardFMason

The objective is to increase income from wealthy, socially liberal members. This is an effort to curry favor with wealthy, pro abortion “members”and possible “converts” to increase income with the goal to offset all those pedo-priest lawsuit payouts worldwide. It’s all about income stream for the RC Church. RCINC is the oldest most profitable multinational corporation on the planet.


7 posted on 03/03/2017 4:31:51 AM PST by slapshot ( Speaker Ryan is a sober and less tan version of John Boehner)
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To: slapshot

I see a lot of Anti-catholic rhetoric on this site. Please take it elsewhere. This is not the right forum for bashing. The media takes things out of context as well as some well meaning people who don’t have all the facts. Keep Lent Holy. If that quote offends you, then you should not be in this forum


8 posted on 03/03/2017 5:16:57 AM PST by xelliott123 (World Youth Day)
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To: BlessedBeGod; Ann Archy

.


9 posted on 03/03/2017 5:29:07 AM PST by gaijin
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To: xelliott123

This site is not anti-Catholic. This site is sickened by the horrible and sometimes evil leadership of the current Pope. The church will survive this awful man.


10 posted on 03/03/2017 6:01:04 AM PST by ohioman
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To: slapshot

The real issues are MUCH bigger than money.

The Pope and his corrupt cardinals have all the money they need—from Soros.

They are trying to destroy the Church because they are sodomites, one-worlders, socialists, and pro-abortion.


11 posted on 03/03/2017 6:09:53 AM PST by Arthur McGowan (https://youtu.be/IYUYya6bPGw)
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To: BlessedBeGod

The false prophet living it up...until the check comes due.


12 posted on 03/03/2017 6:19:51 AM PST by WKUHilltopper (WKU 2016 Boca Raton Bowl Champions)
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To: BlessedBeGod

Pope Francis = Satan’s demon


13 posted on 03/03/2017 8:30:12 AM PST by faucetman (Just the facts, ma'am, Just the facts)
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To: xelliott123

RCINC is only interested in $$. I take it you have never experienced the suffering someone you know from the exploitation of a pedo-priest. You probably have not observed when the piece of garbage is finally brought to trial. You have not observed RCINC employing 300$/hr. attorneys to defame and besmirch the reputation of the individual(s) exploited by a pedo priest. BTW pedo was convicted, diocese pled poverty,(despite hiring 300$/hr. attorney) dragging out settlement, and victim attempted suicide due to reliving trauma as an 11 yo altar boy raped by priest( but thankfully recovered). That is your RCINC.
If those facts offend you, then YOU shouldn’t be on this forum.


14 posted on 03/03/2017 10:11:07 AM PST by slapshot ( Speaker Ryan is a sober and less tan version of John Boehner)
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To: BlessedBeGod

I smell sulfur


15 posted on 03/03/2017 11:52:30 AM PST by virgil (The evil that men do lives after them.)
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