Responding to the ethical and bioethical challenges of our time

Following the recent publication of the resource “Life is always a good”, edited by the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, the first two online meetings were held in May and June with the heads of the Family and Life Offices of some Episcopal Conferences, divided into language groups (North America and English-speaking European countries and Italian-speaking Mediterranean countries).

The directors of the Institutes for the Family of the REDIUF (International Network of Family Institutes) from their respective continental regions were also invited to the meetings.

As announced, the aim of these meetings is to accompany those responsible so that they can reflect on how to take the first useful steps towards incorporating more structured work into national pastoral planning with regard to the Pastoral Care of Human Life.

The urgent need for formation to accompany people in making good choices in favour of life

The meetings, each lasting two hours, allowed representatives from various contexts to discuss the most complex challenges that local Churches are currently facing in defending the value of human life and creating ethical awareness of this value. The urgent need for formation of the laity, seminarians and priests, but also of medical doctors, emerged with insistence. Many issues of everyday bioethics have now become a source of great turmoil in people's lives, but the lay faithful, and especially parents and families, do not feel accompanied in making choices consistent with their desire to live a truly Christian life. Issues such as human sexuality education, the use of contraception and abortifacients, recourse to in vitro fertilisation, and the end of life are questions that challenge all families throughout the world.

The moral disorientation of our time requires us to train trainers at all levels, in all ecclesial and educational contexts, to accompany people in making good choices in favour of life. This has highlighted the need for a “cascading” formation, which, starting from the episcopal conferences, should be articulated in the formation of formators at the diocesan level, so that the Church may be equipped with a broader Leadership for Life, solid in the theological and moral principles that the Magisterium shows us. The importance of strategic collaboration with local Catholic universities with an Institute on the Family, particularly those belonging to REDIUF, was therefore reaffirmed. This synergy could provide the human resources to build pastoral paths in the medium to long term that are equal to the complex ethical issues of our time.

‘For a Pastoral Care of Human Life: the Co-responsibility of the Laity,’ the speech by Gabriella Gambino in honour of Cardinal Elio Sgreccia

On the sidelines of the two webinars, a study seminar dedicated to the thought of Cardinal Elio Sgreccia, entitled A Life with Science for the Love of Christ and Man, was held on 6 June at the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome. Below is the speech by Prof. Gabriella Gambino, Undersecretary of the Dicastery for Laity, Family and Life, who focused on the importance of Don Elio Sgreccia's extraordinary intuition of a Pastoral Care of Human Life for the Church.