{"id":24697,"date":"2019-01-15T14:58:08","date_gmt":"2019-01-15T13:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/?p=24697"},"modified":"2019-01-15T15:00:21","modified_gmt":"2019-01-15T14:00:21","slug":"twenty-fifth-anniversary-of-the-creation-of-the-pontifical-academy-for-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vincenzopaglia.it\/index.php\/twenty-fifth-anniversary-of-the-creation-of-the-pontifical-academy-for-life.html","title":{"rendered":"Twenty-fifth anniversary of the creation of the Pontifical Academy for Life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

February\n11, 2019, marks the twenty-fifth anniversary of the creation of the Pontifical Academy\nfor Life.  On this occasion, Pope Francis\nwanted to commemorate the event with a letter, but not simply one that thanks\nthe Academy and its Members for the work they have done in years past and\nencourages them to face with its future with renewed commitment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The first words of the letter in\nLatin, Humana communitas<\/em>, point out exactly where the Academy must focus\nits energy.  Even though we are devoting\nsignificant attention to questions related to the care for creation, humanity\nis faced with a new and far more profound problem with respect to the human\nfamily.  Our focus on creation as a \u201ccommon\nhome\u201d has brought us to the borderlands where the future of the planet will be\ndecided.  Today, particularly because of\nthe extraordinary progress of technology, it is becoming ever more urgent to\npay close attention to those who actually live in that \u201ccommon home\u201d\u2014that is,\nthe entire human family.   This is where\nthe Pope wants attention to be directed, including the attention of the Academy\nfor Life.  He is calling for a deeper\nunderstanding of \u201clife\u201d itself.  \u201cLife\u201d\nis not an abstract universal concept.  It\nis man in his history, it is the whole human family in the weave of its\nrelationships.  The Pope highlights the\nweakening of the bonds that make up brotherhood.  \u201cWe must recognize that brotherhood\nremains the unkept promise of modernity. \nThe universal spirit of brotherhood that grows with reciprocal trust\u2014such\nas that between peoples and nations that is the goal of modern citizenship\u2014lately\nappears very much weakened.  The\nstrengthening of brotherhood, which the adoration of God in spirit and truth\ngenerates among humans, is the new borderland of Christianity.\u201d <\/em> This is a challenge that affects the entire\nplanet. The weakening of brotherhood\u2014whether we like it or not\u2014contaminates all\nsciences—of man and of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The Pope\u2019s Letter shows clearly that\nhe is listening to the cries that arise from the suffering of peoples, and that\nhe wants us to hear them too.  And he\ndoesn\u2019t stop with just hearing them, he asks what the Church in its mission\nwill be doing about them.  He asks\nwhether as believers we have made an adequate contribution to building up a\nhumanism that is not simply limited to an ecclesial context, but rather is able\nto inspire, motivate and bring to the world a more fraternal civil\nsociety.  What are we to make of the\nobvious paradox where technoscience, with all its inventions, could allow all\nof humanity to live in much better conditions, while instead it feeds\ninequality and, at a deeper level, feeds \u201cthat melancholy where life cannot\nfind a role that is up to the level of its spiritual yearning.\u201d? (Num. 3)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The Letter is not limited to general\nreflections.  It reaches into the heart\nof a number of questions, and I would like to mention a few.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Bioethics. The process of\nglobalization links life and health issues ever more closely with social and\nenvironmental concerns, this gives rise to questions concerns about the\nadministration of justice.  Given the plurality\nof cultures and scientific disciplines, and their increasingly close\ninteraction, it is necessary to devise operational criteria that can be\nuniversally shared and that have an effect on the formulation of national and\ninternational policies.  Human rights are\nin many respects the field on which these battles are fought, and it is thus\nnecessary to interpret them correctly and, as Pope Benedict XVI would say, find\nthe proper balance between rights and duties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            To this consideration must be added\nthe so-called emergent and convergent technologies, namely nanotechnologies,\nbiotechnologies, information technologies and cognitive sciences.  They broaden in an extraordinary way our\nability to intervene on living matter, increasing the range of our responsibility.  This applies to therapies, but also to the\npossibility of increasing the potentialities of living organisms.  What is important to realize is that we are\nnot concerned simply with making individual functions of an organism more\nefficient or with transferring them to artificial support.  We are dealing with creating completely new\nrelationships with the world.  New\ninformation technology devices are increasingly findable in unexpected\nsituations, including in our bodies, which are more and more exposed to\ntechnoscientific administrative decisions in the context of what is coming to\nbe called \u201cbiopolitics.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            It is therefore necessary to\nparticipate in discussion and encourage broad participation by all those\nconcerned so that the development and use of these extraordinary resources promotes\nthe dignity of the person and the most universal good.  In short, we must beware of both human\nreductionism and of the even more dangerous complete elimination of what is\nhuman.  If not, a technocratic utopia\nopens the door to an empowerment we think we control but that in reality makes\nus its slaves.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

            The Pope calls on the Academy to\nenter into the territory of technology and to explore it with boldness and\ncreativity, but also with careful discernment. \nThis means not having prefabricated answers deduced from a\npre-determined abstract theory.  It means\ncareful analysis of phenomena in their complexity and a serious process of\ninterpretation in order to understand how the new findings of science and\ntechnology affect our humanity.  This\nmust be followed by formulation of criteria for the promotion of the dignity of\nevery person and of all the populations that inhabit our planet.  This is an undertaking that calls into play\nthe moral conscience, understood not so much as a tool for the application of norms,\nbut as the heart of the whole person, in whom the ethical and spiritual\ndimensions are in no way separate from each other.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

            Faith in the Resurrection encourages\nall of us, even non-believers, to never give up on or compromise the depth of\nour affections and ties.  Our shared life\u2014confused\nand vulnerable as it can seem at times\u2014 must be what unites us in redeeming our\nhumanity, and not a way that leads us into a world that is post-human..<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Pope\u2019s letter was signed on the Solemnity of the Epiphany, an inspiring symbol.\u00a0 The Gospel\u2019s goal is an alliance among peoples, not a closing off of the community.\u00a0 The Magi are a symbol of shared humanity and of the convergence of its wisdom around the eternally begotten Son of God, who becomes man and man\u2019s destiny forever.\u00a0 They are in a way academicians and ambassadors of humanity.\u00a0 They scrutinize the signs of heaven and of life.\u00a0 They escape Herod\u2019s plot and are happy to give their riches to the Child of Bethlehem, the Lord of Heaven and of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n