Pontifical Academy for Life Appoints Pro-Abortion Atheist Member, by Edward Pentin

VATICAN CITY — The Pontifical Academy for Life has appointed to its list of full members a highly influential atheist economist who supports legalized abortion and whose views on the economy have in part been praised by Pope Francis.

Mariana Mazzucato, who teaches the Economics of Innovation and Public Value at University College London and is closely linked to the World Economic Forum, was appointed on Saturday by Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, president of the academy, and Msgr. Renzo Pegoraro, its chancellor.

A married mother of four, Mazzucato is one of 14 new ordinary members appointed to the academy. Others include Congolese-born Jean Marie Okwo-Bele, former director of the department of Immunization, Vaccines and Biologicals of the World Health Organization (2004-2017) and now director on the board of trustees of the International Vaccine Institute; Muslim Mosaad Helaly Saad Al-Din, professor of Islamic jurisprudence at Al-Azhar University; and professor Roberto Dell’Oro, formerly a corresponding academician who serves as director of the Bioethics Institute at Loyola Marymount University. …