\u201cEvil looks to persuade us that death is the end of all things, that we have come to the world by chance and that we are destined to end in nothingness. By excluding the other from our horizon, life withdraws in itself and becomes just a good to be consumed,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The\u00a0Pontifical Academy for Life<\/a>\u00a0began its June 25-27 general assembly, reflecting on the theme \u201cEqual beginnings, but then? A global responsibility.\u201d<\/p>\n The pope told members that the \u201cethical and spiritual quality of life in all its phases\u201d must inspire the church\u2019s \u201cbehavior toward human ecology.\u201d<\/p>\n He also said that life from conception, childhood, adolescence, adulthood, old age, as well in those moments when it is \u201cfragile and sick, wounded, offended, demoralized, marginalized and those cast aside\u201d is \u201calways human life.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhen we surrender children to deprivation, the poor to hunger, the persecuted to war, the elderly to abandonment, we are not doing our own work but rather the dirty work of death. And where does the \u2018dirty work\u2019 of death come from? It comes from sin,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Speaking to journalists after the pope\u2019s speech,\u00a0Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia<\/a>, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, said it was the first time the pope used the phrase \u201cdirty work of death\u201d to describe issues that threaten the sanctity and dignity of human life.<\/p>\n \u201cThe dirty work of death means all areas \u2014 even legislative decisions \u2014 in which life isn\u2019t helped but rather weakened, hindered, not helped and not supported in all its forms,\u201d Archbishop Paglia said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn this sense, the pope exhorts us to do, in every way possible, the beautiful work of life and not be like Pontius Pilate, who washes his hand and allow the dirty of work of death to cast innocents aside,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Pope Francis also highlighted the need for \u201ca global vision of bioethics\u201d inspired by Christian thought, in which the value of one\u2019s life is not determined by sickness and death but by the \u201cprofound conviction of the irrevocable dignity of the human person.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"Pope](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/thedialog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/20180625T1148-0056-CNS-POPE-ACADEMY-LIFE.jpg\")
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