(Vatican Radio) “The Pontifical Academy for Life is a scientific research institution
for the Holy See and for Catholic institutions”, says Fr. Scott Borgman, the coordinating
secretary for the Academy.
On the eve of its 19th General Assembly
on “Faith and Human Life”, he dropped by Vatican Radio to tell Emer McCarthy about
the issues on the agenda for participants over the next three days and the challenges
that lie ahead. Listen:
The first
myth he debunked is that the Academy is populated by priests and Vatican officials,
stressing the scientific and academic expertise that it enlists to study the hot topic
issues of today, such as the right to life, the issue of gender and defence of marriage
and the family, to name a few.
“We actually have very few priests or clergy
as members. These are mostly lay people who are active and working in different hospitals
and organisms throughout the world. So as we come together each year we have about
120 members who fly in to Rome to look at the main topic for the year”.
This
year in the context of Faith and Human Life, he revealed that participants will be
focusing on what the Church and Sacred Scripture teach us about the origins of life
within the family founded on marriage between a man and a women:
“For example
the Prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, His Excellency Müller
will be speaking about Human Life in the Magisterium. These are the principals at
the very core of bio-medical issues, that is the respect of every human life as a
person and the other one would be the authentic context of the origin of human life
in marriage and the family which is a topic that has been quite discussed in recent
days”.
But he adds, they will also explore the topic from a scientific point
of view:
“There will also be Dr. Richard Doerflinger, who will be discussing
how faith and science can defend human life in the 21st century. He will
be talking about science and religion as progressing together in the rise and development
of modern science and society”.
Fr. Borgman points out that the Academy is
a space for exploration and reflection on these issues of immense importance in today’s
world and a tool for not only the Vatican but also local Churches.
“We receive
requests from the Holy See, from some bishops and local Catholic institutions to study
the issues that will be the hot topics in the next three four years. I’m thinking
for example last year we studied the problem of infertility. Another thing that we
studied last year is umbilical cords. There’s this freezing of umbilical cords thinking
that some day down the line we may be to use those for the benefit of the individual
and after extensive studies on this issue it would seem that freezing is not an exact
science. I’m not an expert in any of these areas, I am just repeating what I have
heard, but it would seem that the possibility of using those umbilical cords immediately
for someone who needed them would be much higher. So the idea would not to be turned
in on ourselves, to use them for ourselves but to make them available for science”.