VATICAN CITY, JAN. 31, 2005 (Zenit.org).- John Paul II’s 1995 encyclical «Evangelium Vitae» will be the focus of study by specialists at the 11th General Assembly of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
The academy’s annual meeting, which this year will address the topic «Quality of Life and Health Ethics,» will be held in the new synod hall in the Vatican from Feb. 21-23.
Cardinal Javier Lozano Barragán, president of the Pontifical Council for Health Care Workers, will preside at the opening Mass of the event.
Monsignor Ignacio Carrasco de Paula, chancellor of the Academy for Life and professor of bioethics at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the University of the Sacred Heart, Rome, will be the moderator of the first working session of the assembly.
Wolfgang Waldstein, former professor of Roman law of Salzburg University and retired professor of common law at the Lateran University, will moderate the second session Feb. 21.
Corrado Manni, retired professor of anesthesiology from the University of the Sacred Heart, will moderate the session on the second day.
A round-table discussion will follow, on «Perspectives and Alternatives: Medical-Surgical Therapies and Techniques of Assistance, Prevention and Adoption.» Its moderator will be Dr. Philippe Schepens, president of the Belgian Association of Doctors «Who Respect Human Life.»
The third day of the assembly will address internal issues and activities of the Academy for Life.
For more information, see www.academiavita.org or write to pav@acdlife.va.
