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The president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Msgr.
Elio Sgreccia, responded to statements by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini,
published Friday by the online Italian magazine “L’Espresso,” and said
the Catholic Church has not changed her position on fundamental issues
such as the right to life from conception to natural death.
In
a conversation with the Catholic News Agency, the prelate preferred not
to directly address the statements by Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini,
Archbishop emeritus of Milan, saying instead that “at the Vatican, we
do not consider it necessary make a controversy out of something that
does not merit it.”
Referring
to an interview he gave on Saturday to the Italian daily “Corriere
della Sera,” Msgr. Sgreccia said the “union of the feminine chromosome
and the masculine chromosome contains in itself two pro-nuclei, and it
is a fertilized ovum in which the process of fertilization has already
begun.” This fusion of the nuclei in the cytoplasm of the ovum, he
continued, is what results in creation of a new individual or
individuals, in the case of twins.
“This
beginning,” Msgr. Sgreccia pointed out, in contrast to statements by
Cardinal Martini, is “precisely the beginning of an individual life and
leads to an irreversible process towards successive development,
containing already at that point a unique [genetic] patrimony.”
Msgr.
Sgreccia also referred to artificial, or “in vitro,” fertilization,
pointing out that “in artificial procreation-fertilization, the unitive
dimension of the spouses, expressed through the gift of self in the
conjugal act, is missing. This anthropological dimension has been
considered essential for the legitimacy of the procreative act since
the teachings of Pius XII on insemination and successively with Paul VI
and John Paul II.”
Regarding
the use of the condom, even in order to prevent the spread of AIDS,
Msgr. Sgreccia said, “Let us remember that scientifically it does not
offer complete protection,” and therefore “the most effective method of
prevention is in the correct use of sexuality, which consists of
chastity and fidelity.”
