Crisis talks at the Pontifical Academy for Life

Archbishops Fisichella and Cardoso

Many pro-lifers were shocked and scandalised a year or so ago when Archbishop Fisichella published an article condemning the declarations of excommunications made by Archbishop Cardoso of Olinda and Recife, thereby appearing to condone those who conspired to abort the twins being carried by a nine year old girl from Recife in Brazil. The pro-abortion lobby certainly saw the significance of Fisichella's statement: Catholics could, after all, co-operate in abortion in these 'hard' cases.

This year's annual congress of the Pontifical Academy for Life of which Archbishop Fisichella is president is to be held behind closed doors rather than in public.

For the Academy to survive surely there is only one solution, and that is for Fisichella to stand down or, as sometimes happens in the Vatican, to be 'promoted' out of the Pontifical Academy for Life to some other post where he can do no harm.

See Lifesitenews for more.

Pontifical Academy for Life members call for removal of Fisichella

Lifesite news reports on the disquiet within the Pontifical Academy for Life to which I have referred in a previous post. Five members have published a statement which refers to conerns about integrity within the Vatican curia as well as the fact that the Academy's president Archbishop Fisichella has undermined greatly the Church's ability to witness to the sanctity of life.

As lifesite news reports:

The statement says that members held back from a direct confrontation last week, believing that an open challenge at the time would have merely caused the Vatican’s Curia to “close ranks” around one of their own “because of the clericalist culture of that body” and despite the “lack of support” for Fisichella himself.

“There is credible information that Fisichella is widely perceived in the Curia to be an inappropriate President of PAV and there is a reasonable hope that the Holy Father will recognise the need to provide him with an occupation better suited to his abilities,” the statement said.

The statement’s signatories include Monsignor Michel Schooyans, Professor Emeritus of the University of Louvain, Belgium; Professor Luke Gormally, the former director of the Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics; Christine de Marcellus de Vollmer, head of the Alliance for the Family in Venezuela; Dr. Maria Smereczynska a corresponding member from Poland and Dr. Thomas Ward, president of the National Association of Catholic Families.

It says that Fisichella’s claim that the Academy “is moving forward and working to speak as a united body” is belied by the reality and that it gives a distorted and false impression to the Church at large of the situation in the Academy.

They call it “absurd” that the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, is “being led by an ecclesiastic who does not understand what absolute respect for innocent human lives entails.” The situation is one that can “be rectified only by those who are responsible for his appointment as President.”

Read the full report and the full statement of the members, two of whom are from England: Professor Luke Gormally Professor Luke Gormally, Ordinary Member of the Academy and former Director (1981-
2000) of The Linacre Centre for Healthcare Ethics, London, UK, and Dr Thomas Ward, Corresponding Member of the Academy,President of The National Association of Catholic Families and a Retired General Practitioner, UK.

UPDATE: See John Smeaton of SPUC.

New Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation

The Vatican Information Service and the Catholic News Agency (CNA) reports today the promulgation of the Motu Proprio of Pope Benedict Ubicumque et semper (everywhere and always) by which he establishes a new Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelisation.

The president of tne newly established Council is Archbishop Rino Fisichella who gave a press conference about the motu proprio.

Here is the summary publshed today by VIS and currently available only in Latin and Italian:

Given below are extracts of "Ubicumque et semper", the Apostolic Letter "Motu Proprio data" by which Benedict XVI establishes the Pontifical Council for Promoting New Evangelisation.

"The Church has the duty to announce the Gospel of Jesus Christ always and everywhere. ... Over history this mission has assumed new forms and methods, depending on place, situation and historical moment. In our own time, one of its most singular characteristics has been that of having to measure itself against the phenomenon of abandonment of the faith, which has become progressively more evident in societies and cultures that were, for centuries, impregnated with the Gospel.

"The social transformations we have seen over recent decades have complex causes, the roots of which are distant in time and have profoundly modified our perception of the world. ... If, on the one hand, humanity has seen undeniable benefits from these transformations and the Church received further stimuli to give reasons for the hope she carries, on the other, we have seen a worrying loss of the sense of the sacred, even going so far as to call into discussion apparently unquestionable foundations, such as faith in the God of creation and providence; the revelation of Jesus Christ our only Saviour, the shared understating of man's fundamental experiences like birth, death and family life, and the reference to natural moral law".

"Among the central themes examined by Vatican Council II was the question of relations between the Church and the modern world. In the wake of this conciliar teaching, my predecessors dedicated further reflection to the need to find adequate forms to allow our contemporaries to still hear the Lord's living and eternal Word".

"Venerable Servant of God John Paul II made this demanding undertaking one of the pivotal points of his vast Magisterium, summarising the task awaiting the Church today in the concept of 'new evangelisation' (which he systematically developed in numerous occasions), especially in regions of age-old Christianity".

"Thus, in my turn, sharing the concern of my venerated predecessors, I feel it appropriate to offer an adequate response so that the entire Church, allowing herself to be regenerated by the Holy Spirit, may present herself to the modern world with a missionary vigour capable of promoting a new evangelisation".

"In Churches of ancient foundation, ... although the phenomenon of secularisation continues its course, Christian practice still shows signs of possessing vitality and profound roots among entire peoples. ... We also know, unfortunately, of areas which appear almost completely de-Christianised, areas in which the light of faith is entrusted to the witness of small communities. These lands, which need a renewed first announcement of the Gospel, seem particularly unreceptive to many aspects of the Christian message".

"At the root of all evangelisation there is no human project of expansion, but the desire to share the priceless gift that God wished to give us, sharing His life with us".

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