Removal of pro-life declaration

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Roguish

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I know this is old news, but I didn’t know about it until now, and it makes me very uncomfortable:

www.lifesitenews.com

Pope: Pontifical Academy for Life members no longer required to sign pro-life declaration - LifeSite

Pope Francis has also expanded the PAV mandate to include a focus on the environment.
www.lifesitenews.com www.lifesitenews.com

Specifically, the following is very disconcerting:
Another drastic change for the PAV is the removal of the requirement for members to sign a “Declaration of the Servants of Life,” an avowal geared to members who are physicians and medical researchers, which makes explicit the members’ willingness to follow Church teaching on the sacredness of human life and an obligation to not perform “destructive research on the embryo or fetus, elective abortion, or euthanasia.”

The removal of such a statement can hardly be seen as removing something superfluous. The very founding of the PAV aimed to counteract cultural trends of the “culture of death,” as St. Pope John Paul II has called secularized modern culture.
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What’s going on here?

(Two years ago another thread was launched on this topic. Strangely it got no comments at all.)
 
I had not heard of this either. I am not sure what is going on but it is very concerning. It is also concerning that the “good Catholics of CAF” have no comment either (now, or even 2 years ago apparently). Pray, fast, and stay close to Jesus. He is out hope, our rock, and our refuge.
 
I’ve never signed one, have you? Does that mean because we haven’t signed one we are anti-life?

“Let your yes be yes, and your no be no.”

There is no need for oaths.
 
Hereiam said:
I’ve never signed one, have you? Does that mean because we haven’t signed one we are anti-life?
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No, it does not make you anti-life.

But signing one certainly removes doubt of where others believe you are as well as removes doubt of where you are expected to be.

It was put in place for a reason.
I would worry more about the statement apparent in its removal than if it were never in place to begin with.
 
It took out word sex and now said reads gender. OK The link would not open for the Declaration of Servants of Life page so I can’t read. Is there another link?

Does seem troubling because by taken an oath you kind of re-affirm your beliefs as a group but the academy says by doing so it will broaden their outreach.
 
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gam197 said:
The link would not open for the Declaration of Servants of Life page so I can’t read. Is there another link?
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It doesn’t open because the PAV removed the declaration from their website. “Let’s pretend we never had that.” 🤐

The text of the declaration is still available on this webpage though:
  1. In the presence of God and men, we, the Servants of Life, declare that every member of the human species is a person.
  2. The care due to each does not depend on the age of persons or the kind of illness they may suffer from. The same human being continues his or her life process from conception until death.
  3. The fertilized egg, the embryo, and the fetus may not be given away or sold. They may not be denied the right to progressive development in their mother’s womb and may not be subjected to any kind of exploitation.
  4. No authority, not even the father or the mother, may take the life of the unborn. A Servant of Life may not perform actions such as destructive research on the embryo or fetus, elective abortion, or euthanasia.
  5. We declare, furthermore, that the sources of life must be protected. The human genome, which is the patrimony of all humanity, may not be the object of ideological speculation, commerce, or patenting.
  6. Wishing to perpetuate the Hippocratic tradition and conform our practice to the teaching of the Catholic Church, we reject all deliberate damage to the genome, all exploitation of gametes, and all induced deterioration of human reproductive functions.
  7. The relief of suffering, the cure of illness, the safeguarding of health, and the correction of hereditary defects are the purpose of our work, with constant respect for the dignity and sacredness of the person.
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I say that would have been worth keeping, and its removal suggests that the PAV is trying to sound or appear a little less Catholic in order that it may “better” perform its role in the modern world. The rest of that same webpage is also worth reading. Consider for example the following additional revelation:
[The PAV’s] newly appointed President, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia […] added that the PAV will henceforth also collaborate with "… other academic institutions, including those that reflect belief systems and cultures different from ours, that are active like us in this very sensitive and developing field of study.’”
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The author of the article calls it "moral ecumenism”. Not a bad term if you ask me.
 
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This is very sad. So many things happening in the Church over the last few years have left me feeling rather defeated.
 
LifeSiteNews published this almost two years ago. Are they still following it? Apart from some words, did anything actually change at the Papal Academy for Life?
 
RandomAlias said:
Apart from some words, did anything actually change at the Papal Academy for Life?
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Apparently, yes. Apart from the textual change, the article describes various changes and turns of events that seem incongruent with the academy’s original goals.

P.S. The academy could use some better web designers too. The background image of their landing page is a 1.5 MB JPEG 😮 Their goes my data bundle.
 
Roguish said:
I say that would have been worth keeping, and its removal suggests that the PAV is trying to sound or appear a little less Catholic in order that it may “better” perform its role in the modern world.
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Seems that way.

Thanks for researching. The oath makes it very clear, defines what they believe.
 
Roguish said:
Apparently, yes. Apart from the textual change, the article describes various changes and turns of events that seem incongruent with the academy’s original goals.
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I looked at the Academy’s website for a while. I don’t have time to read every page, but I looked here and there around the website and didn’t discover any activity that goes against Catholic doctrine or teaching.

How do you interpret the silence of LifeSiteNews regarding the Pontifical Academy for Life in the two years since they sounded the alarm on this? Could it be that for the past two years, LifeSiteNews can’t find any substantial dirt at the Academy?
 
Roguish said:
its removal suggests that the PAV is trying to sound or appear a little less Catholic
[…]
The author of the article calls it "moral ecumenism”.
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I see that the Academy does have non-Catholic members, at least among their Academicians (the lowest rank of Academy participants).

Their home page currently lists an article, Catholic-Methodist Joint Declaration on End of Life and Palliative Care.

So you see it is not an all-Catholic club. I am not sure what the blogger meant by “moral ecumenism.” It appears that the Academy, at the level of Academicians, is actually ecumenical. Still, the Academicians are required to act in accord with Catholic teaching on life, and may be dismissed for violations.
 
Well I’ll comment this time then.

This seems a common sense Catholic requirement.

WHO would object to it? Apparently someone DID. Or did someone just thoughtlessly edit out the declaration as superfluous because everybody knows that Catholics are pro-life.

Notwithstanding some famous politicians and celebrities who wave a Catholic flag while touting “choice” (in the baby killing field … though we are assured … for the very BEST reasons).

Removing and subverting positive things in the Church is by no means new. And the simple faithful often shrug or dimly wonder what happened after such things are done, e.g., oh … where’s the tabernacle (with the most holy Eucharist) been spirited off to?

Bless whomever spotted this and reported on it. The declaration might seem a little thing … but when people repeat things and say them out loud … they aver the truth of what they say.

Put the declaration back.

And the tabernacles too.

🙏
 
There has been reporting on this since it was noted that the pro-life declaration was removed. A couple of stories come to my mind immediately. There was a story awhile ago about a non-Catholic abortion supporter that now is a member of the academy. There was also a priest on the council that gave a speech awhile back arguing against Catholic teaching that it is OK to use artificial contraception.

www.ncregister.com

Pro-Abortion Theologian Picked as Pontifical Academy for Life Member

New and reappointed members also include Carl Anderson, Supreme Knight of the Knights of Columbus, as well as leading bioethicists, a Nobel laureate, a Muslim and a Jewish scholar.
www.ncregister.com www.ncregister.com


So yes, there has been a definite change in the direction of the academy since the pro-life declaration was removed. It is no longer safe to assume that the academy’s statements or actions are reflective of Catholic teachings.
 
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Thank you for posting this. Very disheartening but important to know.
 
Thanks for these informative links, though their content is very disturbing. The most perplexing:
Pope Francis has appointed 50 academics, including Nigel Biggar, an Anglican professor […], who has in the past supported legalized abortion up to 18 weeks […]. According to The Catholic Herald, Biggar said in 2011 it is “not clear that a human fetus is the same kind of thing as an adult or a mature human being, and therefore deserves quite the same treatment. It then becomes a question of where we draw the line, and there is no absolutely cogent reason for drawing it in one place over another. […] I would be inclined to draw the line for abortion at 18 weeks after conception, which is roughly about the earliest time when there is some evidence of brain activity, and therefore of consciousness.”
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No wonder the declaration had to go. Appointing someone like this would obviously have been impossible with the declaration in place.

I just don’t understand how we got here. How can the Pope appoint a pro-abortionist? I can’t get my head around it. It seems everything is falling apart.
13pollitos said:
Very disheartening but important to know.
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Yes, extremely disheartening. I’m honestly wondering: where do I go from here? Up till recently I would have written “where do we go from here”, but with all these developments it isn’t clear to me anymore who this “we” is. I don’t see how I belong in a Church that appoints pro-abortionists to its “Academy for Life”.
 
I do understand. Not sure what to make of any of this. All I know to do is pray and ask Jesus to lead me to where He needs me to be. I will pray for you as well.
 
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