By Cindy Wooden, OSV
Pope Leo XIV appointed Cardinal Baldassare Reina Grand Chancellor of the John Paul II Pontifical Theological Institute for the Sciences of Marriage and the Family. The cardinal succeeds Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who turned 80, the Vatican's mandatory retirement age, on April 20. The archbishop had served as grand chancellor since 2016.
Cardinal Reina, as papal vicar for Rome, is automatically the grand chancellor of the Pontifical Lateran University, where the institute is based.
The Institute for Studies on Marriage and the Family was established by St. John Paul II in 1982 after the 1980 Synod of Bishops on the family called for the creation of centers dedicated to the study of the Church's teaching on marriage and the family.
The last 10 years
Following the recent meetings of the Synod of Bishops on the family in 2014 and 2015, which called for a more pastoral and missionary approach to modern family life, Pope Francis updated the statutes in 2017. He pointed out the need for greater reflection and academic formation from a pastoral perspective and attentive to the wounds of humanity, keeping alive the original inspiration of the ancient institute.
By broadening the scope of the institute by making it a "theological" institute dedicated also to the human "sciences," Pope Francis wrote, the institute's work will study - in a "deeper and more rigorous way - the truth of revelation and the wisdom of the faith tradition."
The anthropological and cultural changes underway affect all aspects of human life, he wrote, and that calls for a new approach that is not limited to pastoral practices and mission "that reflect forms and models of the past."
Pontifical Academy for Life
Archbishop Paglia is also the president of the Pontifical Academy for LifeHe is also expected to retire from this position now that he is 80 years old.
Pope Francis also updated the statutes of that body in 2016. The main objective of the academy, founded in 1994 by St. John Paul II, remains "the defense and promotion of the value of human life and the dignity of the person," according to the new statutes.
The new statutes add, however, that achieving the objective includes studying ways to promote "care for the dignity of the human person in the different ages of existence, mutual respect between genders and generations, the defense of the dignity of every human being, the promotion of a quality of human life that integrates its material and spiritual value in view of an authentic '....ecology human' that helps to recover the original balance of creation between the human person and the entire universe".
