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Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia

VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) – The Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life is holding a health conference promoting the abortion-tainted COVID-19 vaccines, and featuring speakers who support and promote abortion itself, in an event described as a “rupture” with the Catholic Church’s perennial opposition to abortion.

The Pontifical Academy for Life is set to stage an online and on-site event from September 27 to 29, entitled “Public health in global perspective: Pandemic, bioethics, future.”

The Vatican has heralded the event for hosting “world-renowned speakers” such as, amongst others, Dr. David Barbe the president of the pro-abortion World Medical Association (WMA); Dr. Carissa Etienne the director of the pro-abortion Pan American Health Association; Dr. Jules Hoffman, the who won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2011.

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), will address the conference on the opening day, before the attendees at the Vatican are granted a Papal Audience.

However, due to its promotion of the abortion-tainted injections, as well as hosting numerous abortion supporters, the conference has been described by the U.K.’s Deacon Donnelly as “the Vatican…signalling to the world that it no longer opposes, in any meaningful way, the murder of babies through abortion.”

Conference based on COVID ‘pandemic’ which is ‘too dramatic to be wasted’

The conference, a mixture of open sessions and other sessions merely for the PAV members, is being held “In the light of the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic,” and “intends to offer a reflection on certain ethical values that proved crucial in this circumstance, but also an analysis of the challenges posed by a necessary ethical, medical and ecological ‘conversion.’” Pope Francis and the Vatican are also making such a call for an “ecological conversion” in a month-long ecumenical, environmental event.

“The aim is to give an original contribution to the important debate on public health and the problems that this health emergency has highlighted,” continued the PAV.

In addition, the PAV’s conference seeks to “not to lose the lessons learned from this crisis. A valuable lesson for a substantial renewal of societies and for a fairer and more sustainable future.”

A PAV press release about the conference described global disruption due to COVID-19 related restrictions as a “crisis…too dramatic to be wasted.”

In speaking about the event, Archbishop Paglia first praised “the greatest vaccination effort ever made in history” which is “the priority,” before describing “vaccination” as “crucial” in protecting against COVID-19, but that it was just one aspect to be addressed.

“The key issue concerns the possibility of truly overcoming the inequalities soon, by implementing a global health policy based on the right of everyone to access treatment,” he added.

Speakers include staunch abortion promoters, ex-friar, pro-abortion Rabbi

The conference’s speakers are notable for their opposition to points of Catholic doctrine, particularly the matter of abortion. The Catholic Church teaches that abortion is always wrong because it kills an innocent human being, thus violating the Church’s prohibition on murder, a teaching which “remains unchangeable.”

The Church also teaches that life begins at the moment of conception, as noted in the Catechism #2270-2274.

However, the guest speakers at the PAV’s event do not all agree with this position. Dr. Barbe of the WMA, who previously served as president of the American Medical Association, publicly opposed 2018 restrictions by former President Donald Trump on federal funding to abortion-giant Planned Parenthood, saying: “We are particularly alarmed about government interference with the patient-physician relationship in the exam room.”

Barbe will address the participants on the matter of “Pandemic in the physicians’ perspective.”

Barbe’s anti-Catholic views on mothers and unborn children are somewhat shared by fellow conference speaker Dr. Daniel Sulmasy, a professor of biomedical ethics at Georgetown University, who has previously declared that “The question of whether the embryo or fetus is a person … is not answerable by science.” Sulmasy had been a Franciscan friar for “27 years,” and reportedly made his solemn vows in 1990, before leaving the order in 2012, “after falling in love and deciding to marry.”

Sulmasy is due to moderate a group discussion on “prevention and care,” and speak on the medicinal matters recommended by the working groups at the conference.

Another speaker, Dr. Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Association and prominent vaccine advocate, has previously expressed her support for pregnant mothers to be given the experimental COVID-19 injections during the first trimester, despite the significant concerns and warnings for pregnant women to avoid the injections, even from the World Health Organization earlier this year.

Etienne is also prominent in her support of the LGBT movement.

Echoing the other speakers in their various rejection of Catholic teaching is the pro-abortion Rabbi Avraham Steinberg, who rejects the Catholic Church’s teaching on the sanctity of life from the moment of conception. Steinberg declared the unborn child has “no human status” before 40 days, and then after 40 days, he argues, an unborn child has “a certain status of a human being, not full status.”

He was appointed to the PAV by Pope Francis in 2017, along with another Rabbi who argued that Scripture justifies abortion in particular cases. Rabbi Steinberg is scheduled to deliver a Scriptural reflection on the second day of the Vatican’s conference.

Yet anther speaker, the 2011 Nobel Prize winning Jules Hoffman, described in 2011 those who do not wish to receive vaccines as “criminal,” adding that “there is no scientific reason why you would refuse to be vaccinated.” Hoffman is to address the PAV’s event on the subject of “Medical research in the context of pandemic.”

‘A rupture’ with the Catholic Church’s ‘absolute opposition to the ‘unspeakable crime’ of abortion’

The Pontifical Academy for Life conference’s promotion of abortion-tainted injections and providing of a platform for prominent global abortion supporters have been described as a “rupture with the Catholic Church’s two thousand years of absolute opposition to the ‘unspeakable crime’ of abortion.”

Speaking to LifeSiteNews about the event, author and catechist Deacon Nick Donnelly said: “If you want to know the Truth about this pontificate’s curia don’t listen to their words, look at their actions. By giving a platform to pro-abortion speakers and those who promote mandatory abortion tainted ‘vaccines’, the Vatican is signalling to the world that it no longer opposes, in any meaningful way, the murder of babies through abortion.”

He noted how the “Vatican’s crusade to promote abortion tainted COVID vaccines violates its own guidance on the matter set out in the CDF Instruction Dignitas personae.” That document “categorically states, ‘These forms of experimentation always constitute a grave moral disorder.’ (DP 34).”

“What we are witnessing in these Vatican conference’s promoting abortion tainted ‘vaccines’ is a rupture with the Catholic Church’s two thousand years of absolute opposition to the ‘unspeakable crime’ of abortion (Gaudium et Spes, 51),” concluded Donnelly.

The Pontifical Academy for Life itself has been described as being permeated by “heretical gnosticism” after it was overhauled by Pope Francis beginning in 2016. The Pope released new statutes for the PAV November 2016, in which members were no longer required to sign a declaration that they uphold the Church’s pro-life teachings, while he also expanded the PAV’s mandate to include a focus on the environment.

Commenting on the reformed PAV in 2017, Lepanto Institute President Michael Hichborn declared, “The retooling of the Pontifical Academy for Life is yet another way the devil is burying the greatest abominations of our age.”