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Paglia Prioritizes Political Pragmatism Over Prophetic Witness

The statement from the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAL) should have been a dog-bites-man story, hardly worth issuing. Yet there it was, affirming that its president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia “reiterates his ‘No’ towards euthanasia and assisted suicide, in full adherence to the magisterium.”

In recent years, that the PAL president fully adheres to the magisterium has become, surprisingly, something of a man-bites-dog story. Why that should be is worth noting and speaks to the general environment in Rome.

The PAL was founded by Pope St. John Paul II to advance the Church’s teaching and witness to the sanctity of human life by drawing on the best scholarship from a variety of disciplines. Thus, when Archbishop Paglia said last week that a potential Italian law removing criminal penalties for euthanasia and assisted suicide would be “feasible” and that “legal mediation may be the greatest common good concretely possible under the conditions we find ourselves in,” it struck many as contrary not only to Catholic teaching but the purpose of the PAL.

There was quite a fierce reaction from many Catholic and pro-life circles, especially given the archbishop’s history. He is one of the curious characters that has come to great prominence in the pontificate of Pope Francis.

The details of Archbishop Paglia’s original speech and the subsequent PAL clarification are now well known. This controversy echoed an earlier one, when he called Italy’s abortion law a “pillar” of society. That, too, brought a clarification from PAL, explaining that Archbishop Paglia was simply noting a sociopolitical fact, not endorsing the abortion license itself. His penchant for such statements prompted one Catholic news site to headline its story about this most recent one: “What did Archbishop Paglia say this time?”

Why does Archbishop Paglia speak in a way that appears to be at odds with the magisterium on life issues, especially given that St. John Paul II was exceptionally clear on abortion and euthanasia in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae?

Read more at National Catholic Register 

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