Pope Leo XIV taps Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro for presidency of Pontifical Academy for Life
Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro is the new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. / Credit: ACI Stampa National Catholic Register, May 27, 2025 / 19:06 pm (CNA). Pope Leo XIV has appointed as head of the Vatican’s bioethics think tank Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro, the longtime deputy of its outgoing president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, signaling a desire to continue the course set under Pope Francis.Until his appointment on Tuesday, Pegoraro, 65, had served since 2011 as chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, acting as a close aide to Paglia throughout his turbulent term as president, which was marked by the appointments of pro-abortion members and problematic statements regarding assisted suicide and contraception. Paglia is retiring after turning 80.Dr. Thomas Ward, who is founder of the U.K.’s National Association of Catholic Families, expressed concern about the appointment, saying he never recalled Pegoraro “disassociating himself from any of the egregious positions and comments of Archbishop Paglia.”He continued: “Millions of Catholic parents throughout the world, whose children are threatened by the lies of the culture of death, urgently need to hear the unequivocal defense of Catholic truth on human sexuality and life.”Founded by St. John Paul II and Professor Jerome Lejeune in 1994 to promote and defend human life and the dignity of the person, the Pontifical Academy for Life has historically aimed to provide interdisciplinary dialogue and research on complex bioethical issues such as abortion, euthanasia, procreation, and gene therapy. The goal was to ensure that these topics were addressed in light of Catholic moral theology.As chancellor, Pegoraro was the senior executive of the academy, which is an autonomous body within the Holy See. He shared in its leadership, worked closely with the president, and ensured the smooth operation of its activities. He served first under Spanish Opus Dei Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, who was academy president from 2010 to 2016, and then under Paglia.A native of Padua, Italy, Pegoraro graduated in medicine and surgery from the city’s university in 1985 and was ordained in 1989. He then earned a license in moral theology and a diploma in advanced bioethics. He taught bioethics and nursing ethics, has been a member of centers of medical philosophy and ethics, and served as president of the European Association of Centres for Medical Ethics from 2010 to 2013.From 2016 until the present, he was Paglia’s key collaborator at a time when the pontifical academy was accused of drifting from John Paul II’s original mission to defend the sanctity of life and instead accommodating heterodox and secular ethical arguments, changing its statutes, and undermining its credibility as a pro-life institution.On at least two occasions as chancellor, Pegoraro added his voice to this perceived drift away from the academy’s mission by publicly supporting dissenting positions that had won sympathy during Pope Francis’ pontificate.In 2022, he told the Wall Street Journal that he believed contraception might be permissible “in the case of a conflict between the need to avoid pregnancy for medical reasons and the preservation of a couple’s sex life.”The Church has always prohibited all forms of artificial birth control (except for medically necessary treatments not directly intended to cause infertility), teaching that contraception violates the intrinsic connection between the unitive and procreative aspects of the marital act.In a second incident, also that year, Pegoraro appeared to support two members of the academy who publicly favored assisted suicide as a tactic to prevent the legalization of voluntary euthanasia in Italy.“We are in a specific context, with a choice to be made between two options, neither of which — assisted suicide or euthanasia — represents the Catholic position,” Pegoraro told the French Catholic newspaper Le Croix.But stating that he believed some kind of law was a foregone conclusion, he said that of the two possibilities, “assisted suicide is the one that most restricts abuses because it would be accompanied by four strict conditions: the person asking for help must be conscious and able to express it freely, have an irreversible illness, experience unbearable suffering, and depend on life-sustaining treatment such as a respirator.”Cardinal Willem Eijk, also a qualified medical doctor and a member of the academy, firmly rejected such argumentation, saying there was “no significant moral difference” between medically assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, “neither from the patient’s side nor from that of the physician,” as both bear “the same moral responsibility” in carrying out termination of life.The National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, asked Pegoraro if he still held such positions on these issues and why he did not speak out during the controversies of Paglia’s tenure, but he had not responded by publication time on Tu
Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro is the new president of the Pontifical Academy for Life. / Credit: ACI Stampa
National Catholic Register, May 27, 2025 / 19:06 pm (CNA).
Pope Leo XIV has appointed as head of the Vatican’s bioethics think tank Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro, the longtime deputy of its outgoing president, Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, signaling a desire to continue the course set under Pope Francis.Until his appointment on Tuesday, Pegoraro, 65, had served since 2011 as chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, acting as a close aide to Paglia throughout his turbulent term as president, which was marked by the appointments of pro-abortion members and problematic statements regarding assisted suicide and contraception. Paglia is retiring after turning 80.Dr. Thomas Ward, who is founder of the U.K.’s National Association of Catholic Families, expressed concern about the appointment, saying he never recalled Pegoraro “disassociating himself from any of the egregious positions and comments of Archbishop Paglia.”He continued: “Millions of Catholic parents throughout the world, whose children are threatened by the lies of the culture of death, urgently need to hear the unequivocal defense of Catholic truth on human sexuality and life.”Founded by St. John Paul II and Professor Jerome Lejeune in 1994 to promote and defend human life and the dignity of the person, the Pontifical Academy for Life has historically aimed to provide interdisciplinary dialogue and research on complex bioethical issues such as abortion, euthanasia, procreation, and gene therapy. The goal was to ensure that these topics were addressed in light of Catholic moral theology.As chancellor, Pegoraro was the senior executive of the academy, which is an autonomous body within the Holy See. He shared in its leadership, worked closely with the president, and ensured the smooth operation of its activities. He served first under Spanish Opus Dei Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, who was academy president from 2010 to 2016, and then under Paglia.A native of Padua, Italy, Pegoraro graduated in medicine and surgery from the city’s university in 1985 and was ordained in 1989. He then earned a license in moral theology and a diploma in advanced bioethics. He taught bioethics and nursing ethics, has been a member of centers of medical philosophy and ethics, and served as president of the European Association of Centres for Medical Ethics from 2010 to 2013.From 2016 until the present, he was Paglia’s key collaborator at a time when the pontifical academy was accused of drifting from John Paul II’s original mission to defend the sanctity of life and instead accommodating heterodox and secular ethical arguments, changing its statutes, and undermining its credibility as a pro-life institution.On at least two occasions as chancellor, Pegoraro added his voice to this perceived drift away from the academy’s mission by publicly supporting dissenting positions that had won sympathy during Pope Francis’ pontificate.In 2022, he told the Wall Street Journal that he believed contraception might be permissible “in the case of a conflict between the need to avoid pregnancy for medical reasons and the preservation of a couple’s sex life.”The Church has always prohibited all forms of artificial birth control (except for medically necessary treatments not directly intended to cause infertility), teaching that contraception violates the intrinsic connection between the unitive and procreative aspects of the marital act.In a second incident, also that year, Pegoraro appeared to support two members of the academy who publicly favored assisted suicide as a tactic to prevent the legalization of voluntary euthanasia in Italy.“We are in a specific context, with a choice to be made between two options, neither of which — assisted suicide or euthanasia — represents the Catholic position,” Pegoraro told the French Catholic newspaper Le Croix.But stating that he believed some kind of law was a foregone conclusion, he said that of the two possibilities, “assisted suicide is the one that most restricts abuses because it would be accompanied by four strict conditions: the person asking for help must be conscious and able to express it freely, have an irreversible illness, experience unbearable suffering, and depend on life-sustaining treatment such as a respirator.”Cardinal Willem Eijk, also a qualified medical doctor and a member of the academy, firmly rejected such argumentation, saying there was “no significant moral difference” between medically assisted suicide and voluntary euthanasia, “neither from the patient’s side nor from that of the physician,” as both bear “the same moral responsibility” in carrying out termination of life.The National Catholic Register, CNA’s sister news partner, asked Pegoraro if he still held such positions on these issues and why he did not speak out during the controversies of Paglia’s tenure, but he had not responded by publication time on Tu
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