A sixth member of the Pontifical Academy for Life has described its president, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, as "absolutely unfit" for office. Professor Josef Seifert, a member of the Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV) and founder and rector of the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein, wrote in response to a request for information from LifeSiteNews.com, that he is in full agreement with the five signatories of a statement published by LSN February 17.
"In my view, notwithstanding that a decision is solely in the Pope's authority, Mons. Fisichella is absolutely unfit for being President of PAV."
The only issue, Seifert said, on which he differed from the statement by the five PAV members was their suggestion that Archbishop Fisichella should be employed elsewhere in the Church.
Although, he said, Fisichella has "a brilliant mind," a "superb education," and an "extraordinary linguistic talent," his statements opposing the Church on abortion, "would make it impossible to nominate him as bishop of a diocese, let alone of a diocese linked to a Cardinal's hat and rank."
Seifert said that while attending the meeting of the PAV in Rome in February, in hope of reaching a solution "in peace and truth," he had prepared a document restating the teaching of the Church and asked Archbishop Fisichella to sign it together with all the members of the Academy.
This document, he hoped, could, "settle all our differences ... restore authentic tranquility of order," and be presented to the pope. The text included a renewal of the oath taken by PAV members to uphold Catholic teaching.
Prof. Seifert told LSN, "I showed this text to Mons. Fisichella before intending to have us distribute it together.
He refused.
"Although Seifert was not among the signatories of the earlier statement, upon reflection, he said, "it seemed to me right and necessary not to remain silent, also towards the Press, about an extremely important doctrinal matter and one that puts many lives of unborn babies and souls in peril and hence is of utmost practical, ethical, and spiritual consequence."
"The press," he said, "had been badly misinformed about the meeting of our Assembly. I thought the time for silence was over."
Seifert denied that his motives, and those of his fellow PAV members, were spiteful, saying that he prays for Fisichella "daily by name," and said that the criticisms have been written with "a bleeding heart, not a fanatic interest in battles and in-fights."
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