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Analysis
ROME, Italy, February 12, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) ―Pope Francis has appointed four new ordinary members to the Pontifical Academy for life this Friday, at least three of whom raise serious questions as to the future development of the institution created by Pope John Paul II in 1993 for the implementation of Evangelium vitae and the culture of life. Active in the fields of bioethics and moral theology, artificial intelligence and robotics as well as public health and vaccines, the four nominees have clearly been chosen with an eye on contemporary issues ranging from birth control and gender ideology to the “fourth industrial revolution” and the response to the COVID-19 crisis.
Sister Margarita Bofarull i Buñuel, of the Society of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, a medical doctor and surgeon, teaches moral theology at the Faculty of theology of Catalunya (north-east of Spain) and in the Universidad Centroamericana “José Simeón Cañas” in El Salvador. She is also president of the Instituto Borja de Bioética of the Ramon Llull University in Barcelona – of which more later.
She was already a corresponding member, as was the second nominee to full membership, Paola Benanti, an Italian religious of the Third Order Regular of the Franciscans, specializing in moral theology, bioethics and neurotechnologies. He teaches at the Gregorian University in Rome.
Professor Gualtiero Walter Ricciardi directs the Department of Sciences of Women’s, Children’s, and Public Health at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, in Italy, but he was also a prominent scientific counsellor of the Italian government at the height of the COVID-19 crisis in the spring of 2020, and Italy’s representative on the Executive Committee of the World Health Organization (WHO). In April, he made headlines in Italy because of an aggressive tweet against Donald Trump, illustrated by a video showing a number of people punching a puppet of the then U.S. president.
Lastly, Professor Maria Chiara Carrozza is a professor of Industrial Engineering at Biorobotics Institute at the Normal School of Pisa, in Italy. She is especially active in the field of rehabilitation robotics for amputees, wearable exoskeletons and “human-machine symbiosis.” She is also a politician, a member of the center-left Democratic Party (affiliated with the European Socialist Party at the European Parliament); she was the minister for instruction, universities and research in the Letta government in 2013-2014.
Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia (who features in a homoerotic mural painting he commissioned for his cathedral in Terni), the controversial president of the Pontifical Academy for Life appointed in 2017, and its chancellor, Msgr. Renzo Pegoraro, issued the following statement for the occasion:
The new appointments of four Ordinary Academicians represent an important event for the entire Pontifical Academy for Life. Our commitment deepens, following the guidelines indicated by Pope Francis in the speeches he addressed to the Pontifical Academy for Life in recent years and in the definition of the ‘strategic’ objectives of work and study, contained in the 2019 Letter Humana Communitas.
“With Prof. Margarita Bofarull, former Correspondent Academician, reflection in the fields of moral theology and bioethics is strengthened. With Prof. Father Paolo Benanti, former Correspondent Academician and now Ordinary Academician, and with Prof. Maria Chiara Carrozza, the Academy acquires new skills on the topics of technologies and their implications in the ethical and health fields. With the appointment of Prof. Walter Ricciardi, the Pontifical Academy for Life is preparing itself for the next Assembly on the theme of public health in a global perspective in September. That is a topic of great importance both at a social and health level, and for that inescapable ethical reflection in the face of a world changed by Covid19, of women and men in search of meaning and hope for their lives.
On behalf of all the Academicians, we express heartfelt thanks to Pope Francis for the attention with which he looks at our work. And we reaffirm the commitment to bring that gospel-based prophetic inspiration and vocation to our world, in order to show the way for a new time.
The operative words are “public health in a global perspective.” One of the main features of the COVID-19 crisis has shown itself to be a push for global governance regarding health issues, with a largely similar approach in managing the Wuhan virus: lockdowns, obstruction to early treatment in many developed countries and focus on innovating genetically manipulated and manipulating mRNA “vaccines” – a focus which is problematic even apart from the point of view of patient safety because of the involvement of abortion-tainted fetal cells in their development or testing.
Gualtiero Walter Riccialdi stands out in this field for having said during the first months of the COVID-19 crisis that the only way out was “the vaccine,” with lockdowns and social distancing being presented as necessary as long as the Italian population would not have widely received the shot.
It was Riccialdi who went on record on the public television station RAI Uno on March 8th of last year, in his capacity of Italian representative at the WHO and ministerial advisor, as the man who asked for public Masses to be banned throughout the country. He stated: “Religious ceremonies of any kind cannot be held.” The Italian Bishops’ Conference willingly submitted to the rule, adding even more suffering during the lockdown that lasted into May, with funerals banned even in the regions where COVID was practically absent.
Later, in April, Ricciardi repeated that COVID measures must be implemented in liturgical areas as well as in all others, especially in the hardest hit areas. He stated: “I advise the elderly to continue to follow Mass on TV, to avoid any risk. I repeat: these are universal precautions, which we will have to get used to in all life situations, at least until a vaccine is available: that is 12-18 months. Life is at stake.”
At the time, Italian doctors had been formally instructed not to perform autopsies on COVID-19 victims and treatment was given that actually worsened their condition, until doctors took things into their own hands.
Ricciardi rose to prominence in 2017 as the president of the Italian Superior Health Institute and as an active proponent of the National Plan for Vaccines, playing a leading role in the law which imposed ten compulsory vaccines for newborns.
PETITION UPDATE (3/15/21) -
Reports suggest that the U.S. Catholic Bishops' Conference (USCCB) is preparing a vote on what to do about pro-abortion Joe Biden (and, presumably, other abortion-promoting politicians) who continues to present himself (themselves) for Holy Communion.
Public excommunication would be a suitable response for Biden's obstinate, public and grave sin of scandalously promoting abortion.
Please continue to SIGN and SHARE this important petition.
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PETITION UPDATE (2/4/20)
Since Joe Biden was sworn-in on the 20th of January, he has wasted no time in signing Executive Orders to destroy the protections which former President Trump offered to the unborn and to the innocence and modesty of children of the United States.
In one executive order, Biden rescinded the Mexico City Policy prohibiting the federal government from spending taxpayer monies on abortion and the promotion of abortion.
And, in another executive order, Biden seeks to force girls' athletic programs, restrooms, and locker rooms to accept gender-confused males.
Since the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops was shamefully silent throughout the presidential campaign on the pre-eminent issues of abortion and gender ideology, and what Biden vowed he would do as president, it is cold comfort that their pro-life office is now speaking up about this Administration's wilful disregard for human life and for God's design of human nature (i.e., two biological sexes).
Stated plainly, Joe Biden is as bad as he said he would be, and the bishop, acting in unison (as the USCCB) have an obligation to the Lord (first) and to the faithful (second) to refuse Holy Communion to this grave public sinner.
With all due respect to these bishops, they diminish the Holy Eucharist and their high office, as well as cause grave scandal to the faithful, by dialoguing with a man who is promoting mass murder of the unborn against the constant teaching of the Church.
A man who continues to use the church as a backdrop for statements about how "Catholic/religious" he is, but, at the same time, is now doing everything in his power to protect the murder of the innocent, needs to publicly repent before dialogue can begin.
The bishops should not dialogue with or congratulate someone who has publicly betrayed the Church's teaching and who is leading others astray.
It's an embarrassment and a scandal for the bishops to continue to allow him to receive Holy Communion.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition today!
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PETITION UPDATE (12/10/20)
Prior to the election on November 3, the U.S. bishops did not address Joe Biden’s anti-Catholic position regarding faith and morals as a unified body.
The USCCB, the organization to which every U.S. bishop belongs and which is staffed and led by bishops, remained disgracefully silent in the run-up to the election.
What were the bishops afraid of, losing their charitable tax status with the IRS, or being deprived of fat checks from the HHS (immigration programs) and USAID (foreign aid programs)?
Or, were they just too cowardly to clearly declare Christ's law to be above man's law and risk the ire of a Joe Biden as president?
Either way, the bishops’ lack of clarity in this regard is a terrible scandal in itself and probably greatly contributed to the possible election of a pro-abortion, anti-Catholic Catholic to the presidency.
Given the fact that exit polling shows Catholics split their vote 50-50 for Trump and Biden, even a slight deviation in the heavily-Catholic swing-states of Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could have produced different results.
The bishops could have spoken out against Biden’s pro-abortion stance collectively, but, again, they were overwhelmingly and shamefully silent.
Because of this, they will be at least partly responsible for the policies advanced by a Biden administration, in the event that Biden is sworn into office.
However, the bishops can, even now, mitigate the damage done by their inaction by taking the following steps: 1) Speak with one voice, as the USCCB, and plainly condemn Biden's pro-abortion stance; 2) Publicly advise Biden not to present himself for Holy Communion because of his scandalous position on abortion and homosexual "marriage;" and, 3) Tell Biden to publicly repent of publicly promoting the wilfull murder of the preborn, sins against nature, and diminishing the natural family.
Thankfully, some individual bishops have spoken out forcefully on Biden's scandalous behavior, and his standing in the Church.
On November 9, Archbishop Strickland of Tyler, Texas tweeted: “A dark cloud has descended on this nation when the USCCB and Planned Parenthood speak in unison in support of a Biden-Harris administration that supports the slaughter of innocents by abortion for all 9 months of pregnancy.”
Additionally, Archbishop Samuel Aquila of Denver, Colorado and Archbishop Charles Chaput have both declared publicly that Joe Biden “should not receive Holy Communion."
But, to add insult to injury, Cardinal Wilton Gregory of Washington, D.C. has said that he will give Holy Communion to Biden because “it’s a matter of the responsibility that I have as the archbishop to be engaged and to be in dialogue with him, even in those areas where we obviously have some differences.”
And, Bishop W. Francis Malooly of Wilmington, Delaware and Bishop McElroy of San Diego also congratulated Biden in statements, but they have not indicated whether or not they would administer Holy Communion to him.
With all due respect to these bishops, they diminish the Holy Eucharist and their high office, as well as cause grave scandal to the faithful, by dialoguing with a man who is promoting mass murder of the unborn against the constant teaching of the Church.
A man who uses the church as a backdrop to make sickening political advertisements about how "Catholic/religious" he is, but, at the same time, says that he will do everything in his power to protect the murder of the innocent, needs to publicly repent before dialogue can begin.
The bishops should not dialogue with or congratulate someone who has publicly betrayed the Church's teaching and who is leading others astray.
It's an embarrassment and a scandal for the bishops to continue to allow him to receive Holy Communion.
Please SIGN and SHARE this petition today!
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
https://www.ncronline.org/news/politics/us-catholics-weigh-mixed-reaction-biden-win
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PETITION UPDATE (9/29/20)
Cardinal Raymond Burke has stated that Democratic candidate Joe Biden should not receive Holy Communion because of his support for abortion.
In an interview for Thomas McKenna's Catholic Action for Faith and Family podcast, Cardinal Burke states the following (starting around 5:00):
First of all, I would tell him [Biden] not to approach to receive Holy Communion, out of charity toward him, because that would be a sacrilege and endanger the salvation of his own soul.
But, also, he should not approach to receive Holy Communion because he gives scandal to everyone, because if someone says, 'I'm a devout Catholic," and, at the same time is promoting abortion, it gives the impression to others that it's acceptable for a Catholic to be in favor of abortion.
Of course, it's absolutely not acceptable, and never has been, and never will be.
We give thanks for Cardinal Burke's frankness and clarity. And, we call on every U.S. Catholic bishop to follow Cardinal Burke's lead and call out Joe Biden for his bloody-minded hypocrisy on the issue of abortion.
To reiterate: You cannot be a Catholic and support abortion.
Thank you for continuing to sign this urgent petition.
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PETITION UPDATE (8/17/20)
The Democratic presidential candidate, Joe Biden, keeps claiming to be Catholic but has said he will do everything in his power to support abortion.
And, with his pick of California Senator Kamala Harris as his running mate, Biden has just cemented abortion into the Democrats' 2020 presidential ticket.
Indeed, Harris is vehemently pro-abortion.
During her time as attorney general of California, Harris played a key role in defending Planned Parenthood over its sale of aborted baby parts (which violated multiple federal laws, according to undercover video of abortion industry personnel).
And, last year, Harris unveiled a plan to essentially force pro-life states to seek permission from the federal government before pro-life laws can take effect.
Additionally, Harris has dangerous views on religious liberty and freedom of speech.
Harris displayed anti-Catholic bigotry in the confirmation hearings of Judge Brian Buescher. Harris cited his membership in the “all-male society” the Knights of Columbus and its stances against abortion and same-sex “marriage” as grounds for rejecting Buescher for a federal district court in Nebraska.
And, David Daleiden, head of the pro-life investigative group Center for Medical Progress, wrote that from his firsthand experience, he considers Harris the “greatest threat to First Amendment civil rights our country has ever seen.”
Joe Biden has seriously erred by taking on Kamala Harris as his running mate, further distancing himself from the truths of the Catholic Faith, especially that every life is sacred from conception till natural death.
Please CLICK HERE to read an article which details one U.S. bishop's warning about the Biden-Harris ticket.
And, please continue to SIGN and SHARE this petition.
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Of course, these two things are incompatible: you cannot be Catholic and pro-abortion.
And, a "Catholic" politician's responsibility in this regard is absolute: On pain of serious sin, he or she can never promote abortion because abortion is the wilful murder of innocent preborn human beings, and also because doing so causes grave scandal to the Church and the faithful.
Please SIGN this urgent petition asking the bishops of the United States to refuse to give Holy Communion to Joe Biden until he publicly repents from his scandalous promotion of abortion.
Biden recently promised to “codify Roe v. Wade” as president, adding, "my Justice Department will do everything in its power to stop the rash of state laws that so blatantly violate a woman’s protected, constitutional right to choose."
And, since starting his latest run for the presidency, Biden also flip-flopped against the Hyde Amendment, saying that he would allow federal funds to be spent on abortion - a position he claimed to be against for more than 40 years.
In short, Joe Biden will do everything in his power to enable and defend the wilful murder of innocent preborn human beings.
So, this should not be a hard decision for our U.S. bishops. In fact, in another circumstance, it was already done by an Illinois bishop.
Indeed, Bishop Paprocki, of Springfield, Illinois, invoked Canon 915 of the Code of Canon Law to withdraw Holy Communion from two Illinois state politicians who had worked to enact radical new abortion legislation in 2019.
Canon 915 states: "Those who have been excommunicated or interdicted after the imposition or declaration of the penalty and others obstinately persevering in manifest grave sin are not to be admitted to Holy Communion."
Of course, no-one, least of all the bishops, wants anyone to be deprived of Holy Communion.
A politician who publicly and obstinately advocates for the murder of innocent preborn babies puts himself out-of-communion with the Church and her teaching.
Pro-abortion politicians should not think that they can advocate for the murder of the unborn and receive the Body of Christ at the same time. This would be to defile the Eucharist while giving scandal to the faithful.
Depriving politicians of Holy Communion is not just meant to prevent scandal; it is also designed to bring a grave public sinner to repentance. In this way, such an action is meant to be for the good of their souls, too.
Thank you for SIGNING this urgent petition which calls on the U.S. Catholic bishops to refuse to admit Joe Biden to Holy Communion until he publicly repents from his scandalous promotion of abortion.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Joe Biden: I support abortion ‘under any circumstance’ - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/joe-biden-i-support-abortion-under-any-circumstance
Catholic priest denies Joe Biden Holy Communion for pro-abortion stance - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/catholic-priest-denies-joe-biden-holy-communion-for-pro-abortion-stance
Cardinal McCarrick and the Concealing of Rome’s Position on Denying Communion - https://www.lifesitenews.com/news/cardinal-mccarrick-and-the-concealing-of-romes-position-on-denying-communio
**Photo Credit: Joshua Roberts / Getty Images
At the beginning of 2020 – before the COVID-19 pandemic erupted in Italy – the Swiss anti-vaccine association Corvelva published an article underscoring the public health specialist’s “conflicts of interest,” as listed in his personal declaration to the European Commission on March 28, 2013, in view of a European mission.
These include Novartis for the MenB vaccine, GlaxoSmithKline, Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur for Gardasil (the HPV vaccine), and others, for whom he acted in a consulting and advisory capacity regarding the assessment of the impact of their vaccines on health. It was he, according to the MEP Massimo Baroni, who proposed to create a National Center for the Assessment of Health Technologies in Italy whose objectives, said Baroni, “seem, curiously, to coincide with those of GlaxoSmithKline in the ViHTA program” which that pharmaceutical company funded in Italy.
To put it briefly, a prominent vaccine pusher is now a full member of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
No less controversial is the figure of Sister Margarita Bofarull i Buñuel, as suggested at the beginning of this story.
When she became a corresponding member of the Pontifical Academy for life at the close of 2013, nominated by its then president Msgr. Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, a number of Hispanic pro-lifers pointed out that she was the president of the “pro-abortion, pro-euthanasia and pro-eugenist Instituto Borga de Bioética” founded by the Jesuit Father Francesc Abel i Fabre, who had a formative role for Sister Margarita.
Publications of the Institute available online show that this to be true: its publication Bioètica & Debat, whose editorial board is now headed by Bofarull, includes texts saying that contraception, legal abortion in some cases and morning-after pills that prevent implantation of the human embryo in the womb before it has full human status can be allowed, if only out of empathy for the woman. Surely, some of these were published before Sister Margarita replaced Abel i Fabre (to whom she devoted an admiring biography), but she endorses them all by appearing at the head of the editorial board on the webpage where they are available.
In 2015, Fr. Custodio Ballester of the Catholic blog Adelante la Fé noted that Bofarull has always been careful in her public statements, letting her underlings at the Institute “carry out the task of demolishing Catholic morals.” But Fr. Ballester highlights some quotes that do show what Bofarull thinks, such as her saying: “Abortion is not a woman's right, it is another thing that it should be legally regulated, but not as a right, that is another matter.” The Borja Institute, Fr. Ballester recalled, gave a helping hand to the socialist government when it decided to legalize abortion.
Shortly after her nomination to the PAL, in January 2014, the Spanish “priests for life” had already criticized Bofarull in a statement published by the Germinans Germinabit blog. It recalled that she also had organized a conference on euthanasia for the Saint John of God hospital of Esplugues, Catalunya which had to be transferred to a local hotel because of the outcry against its pro-euthanasia bias.
Fr. Ballester, who authored the statement, quoted at length from the pro-abortion publications of Bioètica & Debat, and also cited Professor Josef Seifert who in 2012, wrote an open letter in which he spoke of his concern at the PAL’s growing lack of commitment to the truth and respect for human life.
Before Sister Margarita’s nomination to the PAL, in April 2013, ACI Prensa (the Hispanic sister agency to Catholic News Agency), published a story criticizing the financial support given to the Borja Institute of which she was already the president, quoting its support for abortion, in particular for victims of rape, and its support for “a possible depenalization of euthanasia” as early as 2005.
Sister Bofarull herself published a book at the Centro Monseñor Romero, El Salvador, in 2014, under the title Una sexualidad liberadora (“A Liberating Sexuality”), co-written with Cristián Barría Iroumé, a medical psychiatrist. The nun devoted her part of the booklet to a biblical view of sexuality, showing that sex can be used by men to dominate women and pleading for a new approach that would not submit one to the other at all.
Her co-author, Barría Iroumé, followed up with a reflection on modern contraception, slamming the traditional approach of Humanae vitae that Catholics, he said, don’t follow anyway. His contribution concluded that Church teachings should evolve in these matters.
It was not Bofarull who made these statements, for sure. But she did accept to “cohabit” with Barría under one title and between the same book covers. It can at least be said that she did not disapprove.