Pontifical academy devotes annual assembly to universal health care; speakers differ on abortion ‘rights’
February 14, 2026
The Pontifical Academy for Life is devoting its 2026 assembly to the theme of “Healthcare for all: Sustainability and Equity.”
The two-day assembly, which begins on February 16, will be the first held under the presidency of Msgr. Renzo Pegararo, appointed by Pope Leo to the position last May. Msgr. Pegararo, formerly the academy’s chancellor, succeeded Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, the academy’s president from 2016 to 2025.
The assembly’s two dozen speakers include Professor David Jones, director of the Anscombe Bioethics Centre until its recent closing, and economist Mariana Mazzucato.
The Anscombe Bioethics Centre was “highly regarded for its scholarship, its discussions on bioethics, and its defense of the Church’s moral teaching,” the National Catholic Register reported. Pope Francis appointed Mazzucato, a supporter of abortion “rights,” to the pontifical academy in 2022, and later defended the appointment during a press conference.
American speakers at the 2026 assembly include Professor Ezekiel Emanuel, chair of bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, and Professor William Sullivan, chair of bioethics at Georgetown University.
Emanuel, who has said that he will refuse all medical treatment (even antibiotics) after 75, will speak about “Designing High Functioning and Universal Health Care Systems: What the US, China, and other countries can teach us.” Sullivan, who will speak about “Disability and Mental Health,” has criticized Canadian assisted-suicide legislation for failing to protect persons with disabilities.
John Nkengasong, a Cameroonian-American virologist, and Sheila Tlou, co-chair of the Global HIV Prevention Coalition, will also speak at the 2026 assembly. Planned Parenthood applauded President Joe Biden’s 2021 appointment of Nkengasong as United States Global AIDS Coordinator. Catholic News Agency reported that Tlou is “an outspoken advocate of artificial birth control” following her 2022 appointment to the academy.
According to its current statutes, promulgated by Pope Francis in 2016, the pontifical academy “has a primarily scientific role, for the promotion and defence of human life. In particular, it studies various matters dealing with care for the dignity of the human person at different stages of life, mutual respect between the sexes and generations; the defence of the dignity of each individual human being; and the promotion of a quality of human life that integrates material and spiritual values.”
Its members, according to the statutes, are chosen “on the basis of their academic qualifications, proven professional integrity, professional expertise and faithful service in the defence and promotion of the right to life of every human person.”
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