Leading Catholic physician expressed scathing disapproval of the Pontifical Academy for Life’s ongoing appointment of “pro-abortion academics, proponents of some kind of euthanasia, or opponents of Humanae Vitae,” regretting that “someone persuaded the Holy Father of it.”
Spanish physician José Mara Simón Castellv, president emeritus of the International Federation of Catholic Medical Associations (FIAMC), expressed his concern about these appointments in an article titled “Academy for Life: I can’t remain silent anymore!” that was published on October 19. John Paul II founded the Pontifical Academy for Life in 1994.
The selections also go against “what is appropriate for the benefit of the pilgrim Church on this world,” he said.
He bemoaned that “deserving pro-life experts were left out.”
The most recent appointments of Pope Francis to the Pontifical Academy for Life were announced on October 15, and they included Msgr. Philippe Bordeyne, a theologian who has criticized St. Paul VI’s encyclical Humanae vitae on the regulation of birth, as well as the atheist and pro-abortion economist Mariana Mazzucato. Despite Castellv’s lack of naming individuals in his article,
In his piece, Castellv highlighted that St. John Paul II’s feast day is approaching on October 22 and that the saint “in many respects is also considered the Pope of Life and the Family.”
In order to thoroughly research how to safeguard human life and its transmission from conception to natural death, he founded the Pontifical Academy for Life, according to Castellv.
The FIAMC’s former president said that the organization “collaborated with the academy on several occasions and we held joint conferences of a very high scientific level. We have had articles published in prestigious scientific journals.
Its presidents and all of its members “defended human life as God taught them to understand” during those times, he said, setting aside valid intellectual or organizational debates.
Presidents of the Pontifical Academy for Life
He also emphasized that the Pontifical Academy for Life “had presidents who understood DNA, sound obstetrics, and the transmission of the infallible parts of theology and the laws of nature.”
He said, “The first president was Professor Jérôme Lejeune, discoverer of the etiology of Trisomy 21 and a protector of the lives of the unborn and the dignity of people born with Down syndrome.
On August 15, 2016, Pope Francis named Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia as the Pontifical Academy for Life’s head.
“The head of a pontifical academy is a very ideal post for a layperson or for a woman,” said Castellv in his paper. Or is it because there isn’t a woman in the Church who is likable, married, has seven kids, has a strong background in medical, is multilingual, and often travels to Rome? How awful are we really?
He said that he did not believe it was beneficial for anybody for women to have mid-level posts or be referred to be “deaconesses.”
“Yes, it is true that the appointment of a capable clergyman to the office of president is neither sin nor even very near to it. But it is perhaps a lost chance for a layperson or laywoman to do vital work with some kind of exposure,” he said.
Inducing abortion is an act against God, mothers, children, and medicine, the Catholic doctor said. It opposes medication. It will never be approved of or elevated.
In light of the June Supreme Court decision reversing Roe v. Wade, Castellv emphasized the significance of rescinding the purported “right” to legal abortion in the United States.
Whether the pro-abortion lobby likes it or not, he added, “It’s an open door for safeguarding life in a very significant Western nation from multiple points of view and I think that it will assist us over time to reverse the evil of abortion.”
Even while it’s not perfect and not everything has been achieved, he continued, “we should still be enjoying it.”
After that, the Catholic doctor said that he comprehends the need to “attempt to speak with people who support the destruction of intrauterine life and draw them to the cause of the culture of life.”
“However, they cannot be given a stage on which to share their thoughts. They already have an overwhelming majority of too many in the secular world, he said.
the university and birth control
St. Paul VI “asked physicians and medical professionals to acquire all the knowledge required to, with respect to the transmission of life, provide the spouses who contact us intelligent counsel and healthy recommendations that they demand from us with every right,” according to Castellv.
In light of the recent controversies brought on by a book by the Pontifical Academy for Life that would seek to alter the Church’s teaching on contraception, he said, “we should help mothers with problems and spouses who need to space a birth for serious reasons, instead of losing time and health with contraceptives or discussions that are useless.”
The Catholic doctor added that assistance for married couples may be provided “using the resources that nature already affords us: women’s infertile periods, which can now be detected in a straightforward manner, for example using the Billings ovulation technique.”
He said that “the family, a religious leader, and proper palliative care should always be accompanied by the end of life.”
“To die is not the same as to be murdered. We will pass away through disease, old age, and maybe even combat, but we shouldn’t pass away via a planned medical procedure, he stated.
Castellv added “an ancient prayer in favor of the Holy Father and his collaborators, one of whom is the head of the Academy for Life,” at the conclusion of his paper.
The Lord preserve him, bless him, and keep him; grant him happiness on earth; and do not surrender him to the wrath of his adversaries, we Christians must pray as well as talk.