The new president of the academy is on record as having defended the use of contraception in certain cases in a marriage.
VATICAN CITY (LifeSiteNews) — Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia has been replaced as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, after nearly nine years as its head, with his former right-hand man being named president by the Vatican today.
The former Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro, will replace Paglia, whose record on several issues pertaining to life and family were cause for controversy.
Last week, Pope Leo XIV announced that Paglia was to be replaced as Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Theological Institute “John Paul II” for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family, with Cardinal Baldassare Reina named in Paglia’s place.
Speaking to Italian newspaper La Stampa on Monday, the 80-year-old archbishop confirmed his additional resignation from the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV), after having led both institutions since August 2016.
Paglia commented:
It is the ordinary practice in the Roman Curia: once you turn 80, all appointments expire. I turned them on the day Pope Francis died, and the situation delayed the notification.
Of course, my term as president of the Pontifical Academy for Life also ends. Actually, already at the age of 75, like everyone else I had submitted my resignation to Pope Francis who told me to continue until I was 80. That's all.
There had been no mention of Paglia’s departure from the PAV in the Holy See Press Office bulletin announcing his replacement at the John Paul II Institute.
In the Holy See Press Office bulletin of May 27, the former chancellor of the PAV was announced as its new president. Monsignor Renzo Pegoraro will now take over from Paglia, after having been appointed to the PAV in 2011 and thus Paglia’s right-hand man since the latter’s leadership began in 2016.
Commenting on his appointment, Pegoraro praised the work of his predecessor:
The work carried out in recent years alongside His Excellency Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia and, before him, alongside His Excellency Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, has been fascinating and stimulating, in line with the operational and thematic guidelines of the late Pope Francis
He expressed his intention to “work in continuity with the themes and methodology of recent years, making the most of the specific competences of our large and qualified international and interreligious group of Academicians.”
Pegoraro emphasized his focus on “the issues of global bioethics, dialogue with the scientific disciplines according to the transdisciplinary approach indicated by Pope Francis, artificial intelligence and biotechnology, and the promotion of respect and dignity for human life in all its stages.”
Pegoraro has been described by some sources close to the Vatican as reliable on ethical issues.
In 2022, he commented about other PAV member’s support for assisted suicide and the likelihood at the time that either an assisted suicide law or a euthanasia law would be legalized in France. He admitted that it seemed a forgone conclusion that one of the two would be legalized, and that of the two, assisted suicide offered more safeguards than the euthanasia law.
However, the monsignor firmly outlined that both options were opposed to Catholic teaching.
But a controversial interview he gave in late 2022 suggested that Pegoraro was open to the possibility of the use of contraception. Speaking to veteran Vaticanist Francis Rocca, Pegoraro is quoted by the Wall Street Journal thus:
The rule against contraception “signals values that must be preserved in married life – in particular the sense of sexuality and the transmission of life – but it is also true that other values worth protecting may be present in the situation that the family is experiencing.”
For instance, Msgr. Pegoraro said, 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.”
As LifeSiteNews has previously presented, the Catholic prohibition on artificial contraception has remained constant, and Pius XI did not ban the use of natural methods (known commonly known as NFP) as Paglia has previously attested. Section 59 of Pius XI’s Casti Connubii notes that couples are not “considered as acting against nature who in the married state use their right in the proper manner although on account of natural reasons either of time or of certain defects, new life cannot be brought forth.”
Under Pope Francis, the PAV went through a revolutionary overhaul which led to a number of scandals in recent years due to comments from Paglia and other members which appeared to diverge from Church teaching.
In November 2016, Francis released new statutes for the PAV in which members were no longer required to sign a declaration that they uphold the Church’s pro-life teachings, while also expanding the PAV’s mandate to include a focus on the environment.
READ: Pope: Pontifical Academy for Life members no longer required to sign pro-life declaration
As a result, the PAV has been described as being permeated by “heretical gnosticism,” and Paglia’s leadership drew the academy into regular scandal and additional disrepute, prompting calls for his immediate resignation.
Paglia himself expressed in a 2022 interview that he “believe(d) the day will come” when Pope Francis or a successor would issue a document on moral issues in line with the PAV’s recently published book which opened the door to permitting contraception.
Asked directly about his remarks during a February 2024 press conference, Paglia told this correspondent that he did not recall making the comments as repeated back to him.
Paglia’s 2022 interview comments came in light of the highly controversial and much-contested book The Theological Ethics of Life – born out of a previous PAV assembly – that proposes both contraception and artificial insemination as morally acceptable.
In defending the book against criticism from concerned Catholics online, the PAV wrote in 2022 that theology requires “progress” as part of a natural process. “Be careful: what is dissent today can change,” the PAV wrote.
Pegoraro’s assuming the reins at the PAV comes after a tumultuous presidency under Paglia and also a pontificate which was no stranger to controversy and confusion. Academy members – both current and former – will be looking for the PAV to garner fewer headlines in the future, except when defending Catholic ethics.
