“As in the two previous occasions, the theme of this third congress was the clinical application of the research of somatic adult and umbilical stem cells,” Fr. Pegoraro explained in the letter to academy members.
The meeting, he said, aimed to “give support to the scientific progress in that field” – putting aside what he called “useless controversies about human embryonic stem cells,” a topic the conference would not have dealt with directly.
Fr. Pegoraro followed up this explanation to academy members by noting that the indefinite postponement of the meeting “became also necessary because of the lack of funding.”
Meanwhile, at least three members of the Pontifical Academy for Life, who had declared their opposition to the embryonic researchers' participation in the congress, told CNA they have not received either of the April 4 letters explaining its cancellation.
The Pontifical Academy for Life's own statutes permit collaboration with “non-Catholic and non-Christian medical experts, so long as they recognize the essential moral foundation of science and medicine in the dignity of man and the inviolability of human life from conception to natural death.”
In comments provided to CNA, one member of the academy noted that the choice of speakers for the canceled conference was “obviously contrary to the statutes,” and “attracted opposition not merely from pro-life leaders who are not members,” but also “from a significant number of members of the Pontifical Academy for Life including some on the governing council.”
According to this source, some academy members' “objections to unsuitable speakers were simply rejected by the president,” Bishop Ignacio Carrasco de Paula.
The member, who asked not to be identified, criticized certain officers of the academy for “seeking to deceive the public about the reasons for the cancellation of the stem cell congress, when evidence for the real reasons can be so readily provided to the public.”
According to this source, an earlier e-mail from one of the organizing officials gives “the real reasons for cancellation” – namely, that the academy was “ordered by a higher authority to replace the unsuitable speakers,” but decided the order was “not feasible” and instead chose to cancel the event.
The source within the academy also took issue with the perceived criticism of pro-life activists in the letter sent to the conference’s speakers, in which it was said that activists opposing the congress “do not enjoy any credit from the Pontifical Academy for Life, as well as from the other organisms of the Holy See.”
“Apart from any other considerations that observation seems to me disgraceful,” the academy source remarked. “What does the Pontifical Academy of Life stand for if has no respect for pro-life activists?”
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