Friday 29th March 2024

Home » Frontpage » Currently Reading:

St. John Paul II’s Academy For Life Is Long Gone

September 15, 2022 Frontpage No Comments

By CHRISTOPHER MANION

Ten years ago, Timothy Cardinal Dolan, admitted in the Wall Street Journal that America’s bishops had suffered from “laryngitis” about Humanae Vitae for years.
Well, it’s contagious. In fact, silence reigns in Rome these days, as defenders of the Church’s teaching on love and family remain woefully silent.
Meanwhile, however, a chorus of Vatican “progressives” has risen to target the magisterial truths so valiantly articulated by St. Paul VI’s masterful encyclical.
As “Exhibit A,” consider what has happened to the Pontifical Academy for Life (Pontificia Accademia per la Vita, or PAV).
In 1994, Pope St. John Paul II founded this revered institution. Its sole purpose: to foster “the interdisciplinary study and defense of human life in all its stages.”
For 23 years, the Academy’s scholars did just that — until Pope Francis suddenly fired them all at one stroke, restructured the Academy, and appointed a new membership at the end of 2016.
When the Pope appointed the scandal-ridden Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia to head the new PAV, defenders of the family knew that the Academy would head downhill fast.
Paglia had already come under fire when, as bishop of Terni-Narni-Amelia, he had commissioned a mural (“disgusting,” “lurid,” and “blasphemous,” said the critics) for his cathedral in 2017. Its narcissistic, homosexual themes were blatantly offensive, but today it still adorns the cathedral while scandalizing the laity daily.
The original Academy’s members dismissed with such smug disdain quickly recognized that the new PAV had taken a dangerous direction. In 2017, several of them made a commitment to continue formally the pursuit of the lofty goals of Pope St. John Paul II for the Academy.
After prayerful consideration, these valiant defenders of the faith founded the John-Paul II Academy for Human Life and Family (JAHLF).
While scholars at the JAHLF continued their important work, the desiccated remains of the PAV/2 spun out of control under the direction of Paglia.
This past July 11, the PAV/2’s official Twitter account sent the following message around the world:
“Be careful: what is dissent today, can change. It is not relativism, it is the dynamics of the understanding of phenomena and science: the Sun does not rotate around the Earth. Otherwise there would be no progress and everything would stand still. Even in theology. Think about it.”
Such high-toned hubris is the calling card of the faux church’s brazen destroyers, the disciples of dissent who pander their counterfeit credo for the fawning fakes so ubiquitous in the Secular City.
Later in July, Pope Francis upped the ante when he told journalists, “When dogma or morality develop, it’s a good thing. A Church that doesn’t develop its thinking in an ecclesial sense is a church that goes backward. . . . Dogma, morality, is always in a path of development, but development in the same direction.”
On that point, His Holiness might take a humble tip from C.S. Lewis. In Mere Christianity, Lewis writes, “Progress means getting nearer to the place you want to be. And if you have taken a wrong turn, then to go forward does not get you any nearer. If you are on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road.”
The JAHLF has followed faithfully the “right road” for the past five years. However, under Archbishop Paglia, the PAV/2 has made a “wrong turn.”
Last week it wound up in the ditch.

Wrong Road? Turn Around!

Dr. Thomas Ward is founder of the National Association of Catholic Families. Dr. Ward served as a Corresponding Member of the Pontifical Academy for Life until Pope Francis ransacked it in 2016, but he didn’t let that daunt his devotion to life and family.
Today Dr. Ward serves as president of the JAHLF Academy.
This past Monday, he issued a statement that speaks for itself: “Last Friday 26 August, Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), was a guest on the RAI 3 programme Agorà- Summer. At one point, the presenter, Giorgia Rombolà, asked Msgr. Paglia for an opinion on law 194/1978, which legalized procured abortion in Italy. Msgr. Paglia replied: ‘I think that law 194 is now a pillar of our social life’.”
It should be made clear immediately that the president of the PAV, in expressing himself in this way, did not intend to merely report a judgment present in the community on the 194 law, a judgment that he did not share — as Dr. Fabrizio Mastrofini, Msgr. Paglia’s spokesman, attempted to claim a few days later in an official note — but rather, was it not that he wanted to express his own personal judgment, a judgment of appreciation?
Indeed that it was a judgment of appreciation is proved by the fact that to a subsequent question from the interviewer who asked Archbishop Paglia whether he intended to question this law, the latter replied: “No, absolutely, absolutely!”
So Archbishop Paglia explicitly defended a law that has caused more than 6 million abortions in Italy since 1978. The Catechism of the Catholic Church recalls that since the dawn of its history, the Church has condemned abortion and “this teaching has not changed. It remains invariable. Direct abortion, that is, abortion sought as an end or as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law” (n. 2271).
“The John Paul II Academy for Human Life and Family, of which I am a member, has called upon Paglia to resign,” Dr. Ward stated.
When news of the interview elicited criticism around the world, the PAV/2 issued a statement insisting that Paglia’s “intention was to simply state that the law is now entrenched in the Italian legal system, not to express a positive view of it.” Paglia “has spoken and written about the defense of and support for life from its beginning until its end, and in all its circumstances,” the statement continued.
But the PAV/2 has a surprisingly short memory. Just a week before Paglia’s RAI television interview, the PAV/2 distributed an account of a recent conversation with Fr. Maurizio Chiodi.
According to the article, “Fr. Chiodi in 2017 publicly argued that some circumstances in marriage could ‘require contraception’ as a matter of responsibility. In the August 19 article, Chiodi said, ‘Humanae Vitae, like any encyclical, including Veritatis Splendor, is an authoritative document, but with no claim to infallibility’.”
Curious. Chiodi was made a member of the PAV/2 that same year — 2017. In the past five years he hasn’t changed his mind: Humanae Vitae is optional because it “has no claim to infallibility.”
By that standard, does Pope Francis have to declare the Doctrine of the Virgin Birth or Christ’s Resurrection “ex cathedra” in order to prevent the Fr. Chiodi’s of the world from declaring them up for grabs?
They might see it that way. Our friend Katrina Carranco in Rome reports that the PAV/2 came under fire in July after publishing a 528 page book entitled Theological Ethics of Life: Scripture, Tradition, Practical Challenges. Hidden in the middle of the book, she writes, the authors attempt to shift the Church’s teaching on contraception from “true” to “maybe.”
Even more troubling is the comment of Archbishop Paglia, listed as the book’s editor, who told Vatican News that the book’s writers “followed a path of study and reflection that led [them] to see the issues of bioethics in a new light.”
Paglia also claimed that Pope Francis was informed of every step and encouraged their project.
Rather than making a U-turn as suggested by Mr. Lewis, Msgr. Paglia has stepped on the gas, embracing the Pope’s notion of “development in the same direction.”
He’s going so fast that he missed the street sign — “Strada Senza Uscita.” Dead End.

Share Button

2019 The Wanderer Printing Co.

Vatican and USCCB leave transgender policy texts unpublished

While U.S. bishops have made headlines for releasing policies addressing gender identity and pastoral ministry, guidelines on the subject have been drafted but not published by both the U.S. bishops’ conference and the Vatican’s doctrinal office, leaving diocesan bishops to…Continue Reading

Biden says Pope Francis told him to continue receiving communion, amid scrutiny over pro-abortion policies

President Biden said that Pope Francis, during their meeting Friday in Vatican City, told him that he should continue to receive communion, amid heightened scrutiny of the Catholic president’s pro-abortion policies.  The president, following the approximately 90-minute-long meeting, a key…Continue Reading

Federal judge rules in favor of Gov. DeSantis’ mask mandate ban

MIAMI (LifeSiteNews) – A federal judge this week handed Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis another legal victory on his mask mandate ban for schools. On Wednesday, Judge K. Michael Moore of the Southern District of Florida denied a petition from…Continue Reading

The Eucharist should not be received unworthily, says Nigerian cardinal

Priests have a duty to remind Catholics not to receive the Eucharist in a state of serious sin and to make confession easily available, a Nigerian cardinal said at the International Eucharistic Congress on Thursday. “It is still the doctrine…Continue Reading

Donald Trump takes a swipe at Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him

Donald Trump complained about Catholics and Jews who did not vote for him in 2020. The former president made the comments in a conference call featuring religious leaders. The move could be seen to shore up his religious conservative base…Continue Reading

Y Gov. Kathy Hochul Admits Andrew Cuomo Covered Up COVID Deaths, 12,000 More Died Than Reported

When it comes to protecting people from COVID, Andrew Cuomo is already the worst governor in America. New York has the second highest death rate per capita, in part because he signed an executive order putting COVID patients in nursing…Continue Reading

Prayers For Cardinal Burke . . . U.S. Cardinal Burke says he has tested positive for COVID-19

VATICAN CITY (CNS) — U.S. Cardinal Raymond L. Burke said he has tested positive for the virus that causes COVID-19. In an Aug. 10 tweet, he wrote: “Praised be Jesus Christ! I wish to inform you that I have recently…Continue Reading

Democrats Block Amendment Banning Late-Term Abortions, Stopping Abortions Up to Birth

Senate Democrats have blocked an amendment that would ban abortions on babies older than 20 weeks. During consideration of the multi-trillion spending package, pro-life Louisiana Senator John Kennedy filed an amendment to ban late-term abortions, but Democrats steadfastly support killing…Continue Reading

Transgender student wins as U.S. Supreme Court rebuffs bathroom appeal

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed a victory to a transgender former public high school student who waged a six-year legal battle against a Virginia county school board that had barred him from using the bathroom corresponding…Continue Reading

New York priest accused by security guard of assault confirms charges have now been dropped

NEW YORK, June 17, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) — A New York priest has made his first public statement regarding the dismissal of charges against him.  Today Father George W. Rutler reached out to LifeSiteNews and other media today with the following…Continue Reading

21,000 sign petition protesting US Catholic bishops vote on Biden, abortion

More than 21,000 people have signed a letter calling for U.S. Catholic bishops to cancel a planned vote on whether President Biden should receive communion.  Biden, a Catholic, supports abortion rights and has long come under attack from some Catholics over that…Continue Reading

Bishop Gorman seeks candidates to fill two full time AP level teaching positions for the 2021-2022 school year in the subject areas of Calculus/Statistics and Physics

Bishop Thomas K. Gorman Regional Catholic School is a college preparatory school located in Tyler, Texas. It is an educational ministry of the Catholic Diocese of Tyler led by Bishop Joseph Strickland. The sixth through twelfth grade school provides a…Continue Reading

Untitled 5 Untitled 2

Attention Readers:

  Welcome to our website. Readers who are familiar with The Wanderer know we have been providing Catholic news and orthodox commentary for 150 years in our weekly print edition.


  Our daily version offers only some of what we publish weekly in print. To take advantage of everything The Wanderer publishes, we encourage you to su
bscribe to our flagship weekly print edition, which is mailed every Friday or, if you want to view it in its entirety online, you can subscribe to the E-edition, which is a replica of the print edition.
 
  Our daily edition includes: a selection of material from recent issues of our print edition, news stories updated daily from renowned news sources, access to archives from The Wanderer from the past 10 years, available at a minimum charge (this will be expanded as time goes on). Also: regularly updated features where we go back in time and highlight various columns and news items covered in The Wanderer over the past 150 years. And: a comments section in which your remarks are encouraged, both good and bad, including suggestions.
 
  We encourage you to become a daily visitor to our site. If you appreciate our site, tell your friends. As Catholics we must band together to rediscover our faith and share it with the world if we are to effectively counter a society whose moral culture seems to have no boundaries and a government whose rapidly extending reach threatens to extinguish the rights of people of faith to practice their religion (witness the HHS mandate). Now more than ever, vehicles like The Wanderer are needed for clarification and guidance on the issues of the day.

Catholic, conservative, orthodox, and loyal to the Magisterium have been this journal’s hallmarks for five generations. God willing, our message will continue well into this century and beyond.

Joseph Matt
President, The Wanderer Printing Co.

Untitled 1

Catechism

Today . . .

Abortion Advocates No Longer Consider It “A Necessary Evil,” They Celebrate Killing Babies

Last week, Kamala Harris became the first vice president in U.S. history to make a public visit to an abortion clinic. Though the Democratic party’s support for abortion is nothing new, Harris’ Planned Parenthood appearance does illustrate how that support has become a flagrant celebration of abortion as a public and personal good, essential to both “freedom” and to “healthcare.” At the appearance, Harris proclaimed,  It is only right and fair that people have access…Continue Reading

Wisconsin Supreme Court says Catholic charity group cannot claim religious tax exemption

The Wisconsin Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a major Catholic charity group’s activities were not “primarily” religious under state law, stripping the group of a key tax break and ordering it to pay into the state unemployment system. Catholic Charities Bureau (CCB) last year argued that the state had improperly removed its designation as a religious organization.  The charity filed a lawsuit after the state said it did not qualify to be considered as an organization…Continue Reading

Walgreens and CVS Will Start Selling Abortion Pills That Kill Babies

The two largest pharmacies in America will start selling abortion pills this month that end the lives of unborn children by starting them to death. Walgreens and CVS will both sell the abortion pills despite the fact that they kill a developing human being and have killed at least dozens of women and injured tens of thousands more. They plan to initially roll out abortion drug sales in Rhode Island, Massachusetts, New York, Pennsylvania, California…Continue Reading

Cardinal Burke announces novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe for ‘crises of our age’

VATICAN CITY (PerMariam) — Raymond Cardinal Burke has announced the start of a global, nine-month novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, calling on Catholics to beseech Mary’s intercession on the Church and the world in the face of the “crises of our age.” In a new endeavour published online over the weekend, Cardinal Burke announced a novena beginning in March, and culminating on the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12.

Texas attorney general targets Catholic nonprofit, alleges it facilitates illegal immigration

Washington, D.C. Newsroom, Feb 21, 2024 / 21:15 pm Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is trying to shut down a Catholic nonprofit organization in El Paso based on allegations that the group may be facilitating illegal immigration, harboring immigrants who entered the country illegally, and engaging in human smuggling.  Paxton filed a lawsuit against the nonprofit Annunciation House, which has operated in the state for nearly 50 years. The lawsuit asks the District Court of El Paso…Continue Reading

The King of Kings

Cindy Paslawski We are at the end of the Church year. We began with Advent a year ago, commemorating the time awaiting the coming of the Christ and we are ending these weeks later with a vision of the future, a vision of Christ the King of the Universe on His throne before us all.…Continue Reading

7,000 Pro-Lifers March In London

By STEVEN ERTELT LONDON (LifeNews) — Over the weekend, some seven thousand pro-life people in the UK participated in the March for Life in London to protest abortion.They marched to Parliament Square on Saturday, September 2 under the banner of “Freedom to Live” and had to deal with a handful of radical abortion activists.During the…Continue Reading

An Appeal For Prayer For The Armenian People

By RAYMOND LEO CARDINAL BURKE (Editor’s Note: His Eminence Raymond Cardinal Burke on August 29, 2023, issued this prayer for the Armenian people, noting their unceasing love for Christ, even in the face of persecution.) + + On the Feast of the Beheading of St. John the Baptist, having a few days ago celebrated the…Continue Reading

Robert Hickson, Founding Member Of Christendom College, Dies At 80

By MAIKE HICKSON FRONT ROYAL, Va. (LifeSiteNews) — Robert David Hickson, Jr., of Front Royal, Va., died at his home on September 2, 2023, at 21:29 p.m. after several months of suffering and after having received the Last Rites of the Catholic Church. He was surrounded by friends and family.Robert is survived by me —…Continue Reading

The Real Hero Of “Sound of Freedom”… Says The Film Has Strengthened The Fight Against Child Trafficking

By ANA PAULA MORALES (CNA) —Tim Ballard, a former U.S. Homeland Security agent who risked his life to fight child trafficking, discussed the impact of the movie Sound of Freedom, which is based on his work, in an August 29 interview with ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner. “I’ve spent more than 20 years helping…Continue Reading

Advertisement

Our Catholic Faith (Section B of print edition)

Catholic Replies

Editor’s Note: This lesson on medical-moral issues is taken from the book Catholicism & Ethics. Please feel free to use the series for high schoolers or adults. We will continue to welcome your questions for the column as well. The email and postal addresses are given at the end of this column. Special Course On Catholicism And Ethics (Pages 53-59)…Continue Reading

Color Politics An Impediment To Faith

By FR. KEVIN M. CUSICK The USCCB is rightly concerned about racism, as they should be about any sin. In the 2018 statement Open Wide Our Hearts, they affirm the dignity of every human person: “But racism still profoundly affects our culture, and it has no place in the Christian heart. This evil causes great harm to its victims, and…Continue Reading

Trademarks Of The True Messiah

By MSGR. CHARLES POPE (Editor’s Note: Msgr. Charles Pope posted this essay on September 2, and it is reprinted here with permission.) + + In Sunday’s Gospel the Lord firmly sets before us the need for the cross, not as an end in itself, but as the way to glory. Let’s consider the Gospel in three stages.First: The Pattern That…Continue Reading

A Beacon Of Light… The Holy Cross And Jesus’ Unconditional Love

By FR. RICHARD D. BRETON Each year on September 14 the Church celebrates the Feast Day of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. The Feast Day of the Triumph of the Holy Cross commemorates the day St. Helen found the True Cross. It is fitting then, that today we should focus on the final moments of Jesus’ life on the…Continue Reading

Our Ways Must Become More Like God’s Ways

By FR. ROBERT ALTIER Twenty-Fifth Sunday In Ordinary Time (YR A) Readings: Isaiah 55:6-9Phil. 1:20c-24, 27aMatt. 20:1-16a In the first reading today, God tells us through the Prophet Isaiah that His thoughts are not our thoughts and His ways are not our ways. This should not come as a surprise to anyone, especially when we look at what the Lord…Continue Reading

The Devil And The Democrats

By FR. DENIS WILDE, OSA States such as Minnesota, California, Maryland, and others, in all cases with Democrat-controlled legislatures, are on a fast track to not only allow unborn babies to be murdered on demand as a woman’s “constitutional right” but also to allow infanticide.Our nation has gotten so used to the moral evil of killing in the womb that…Continue Reading

Crushed But Unbroken . . . The Martyrdom Of St. Margaret Clitherow

By RAY CAVANAUGH The late-1500s were a tough time for Catholics in England, where the Reformation was in full gear. A 1581 law prohibited Catholic religious ceremonies. And a 1584 Act of Parliament mandated that all Catholic priests leave the country or else face execution. Some chose to remain, however, so they could continue serving the faithful.Also taking huge risks…Continue Reading

Advertisement(2)