Abp. Paglia’s first appointment was with the students at Loyola Marymount University (Los Angeles) on September 3 and it was focused on the theme of Global Bioethics. During this meeting Abp. Paglia outlined the topics covered by Pope Francis in the Humana Communitas Letter, published last January to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
At the Loyola Marymount University Abp. Paglia was introduced by Prof. Roberto Dell'Oro, Director of the Center for Bioethics and Academics of the Pontifical Academy for Life. Here the speech.
In his speech Abp. Paglia said: "In his letter, the Holy Father attempted to give us such a solid and loving theological basis for the work of the Academy that we will be able to address and overcome the concerns and the hesitancies that have greeted the renewed structure of the Academy (and I might add of its sister entity, the John Paul II Institute as well). Thus, my message today is that to understand the mission that the Holy Father has given to the Academy, and the Institute, we have to understand that while science and technology do contribute to the overall good of man and the fulfillment the God’s plan for salvation, and that our members and programs will continue to offer solutions to specific societal concerns, we must now work more broadly—toward an understanding, an appreciation, of life itself—which is the great expression of the love that is God. And we must work to teach the women, men and children of today what life itself means, what God had in mind when, as an outpouring of the passionate love that makes God a family, the Humana Communitas, the human family, came into being, and God Himself, in Jesus Christ, became its first-born member. As a very practical first step, we must reassure our friends, and our enemies, that we will never slacken our resolve to protect and promote human life from its beginning to the end of its earthly days, and that our dialogue with others who do not share our understanding of God’s fruitful love and of the nature of the human family and its challenges, does not mean that we are abandoning Catholic orthodoxy. With that, however, we must also make it clear that the Pope wants the Academy, and the Institute, to (1) widen its scope of reflection, not limiting itself to addressing “specific situations of ethical, social or legal conflict,” (2) articulate an anthropology that sets the practical and theoretical premises for “conduct consistent with the dignity of the human person,”and (3) make sure it has the tools to critically examine “the theory and practice of science and technology as they interact with life, its meaning and its value".
Vatican City, September 9, 2019