Elio Sgreccia (; 6 June 1928 – 5 June 2019) was an Italian

bioethicist Bioethics is both a field of study and professional practice, interested in ethics, ethical issues related to health (primarily focused on the human, but also increasingly includes animal ethics), including those emerging from advances in biolo ...

and a

cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal most commonly refers to * Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of three species in the family Cardinalidae ***Northern cardinal, ''Cardinalis cardinalis'', the common cardinal of ...

of the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

. He was president of the

Pontifical Academy for Life The Pontifical Academy for Life or Pontificia Accademia per la Vita is a Pontifical Academy of the Catholic Church dedicated to promoting the Church's consistent life ethic. It also does related research on bioethics and Catholic moral theology. ...

, director of the international medical ethics journal ''Medicina e Morale'', president of the Ut Vitam Habeant Foundation and the Donum Vitae Association of the Diocese of Rome, and honorary president of the International Federation of Bioethics Centers and Institutes of Personalist Inspiration (FIBIP).

Early life

Sgreccia was the youngest of six children born to an agricultural family. He was born and raised in Nidastore, a small town in the Comune of Arcevia in the

Province of Ancona The province of Ancona () is a Provinces of Italy, province in the Marche region of Italy. Its capital is the city of Ancona, and the province borders the Adriatic Sea. The city of Ancona is also the capital of Marche. To the north, the province ...

in the

Marche Marche ( ; ), in English sometimes referred to as the Marches ( ) from the Italian name of the region (Le Marche), is one of the Regions of Italy, twenty regions of Italy. The region is located in the Central Italy, central area of the country, ...

region located in central-eastern Italy. His entry into the seminary was delayed by the start of World War II, so he continued to assist his family in the fields and attended a vocational school in the meantime.

Church life

Sgreccia entered the seminary in

Fano Fano () is a city and ''comune'' of the province of Pesaro and Urbino in the Marche region of Italy. It is a beach resort southeast of Pesaro, located where the ''Via Flaminia'' reaches the Adriatic Sea. It is the third city in the region by pop ...

and was ordained a

priest A priest is a religious leader authorized to perform the sacred rituals of a religion, especially as a mediatory agent between humans and one or more deity, deities. They also have the authority or power to administer religious rites; in parti ...

on the

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul The Feast of Saints Peter and Paul or Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul is a liturgical feast in honor of the martyrdom in Rome of the apostles Saint Peter and Saint Paul, which is observed on 29 June. The celebration is of ancient Chri ...

: 29 June 1952. Sgreccia first served as a spiritual minister to the youth of

Catholic Action Catholic Action is a movement of Catholic laity, lay people within the Catholic Church which advocates for increased Catholic influence on society. Catholic Action groups were especially active in the nineteenth century in historically Catholic cou ...

. He completed university degrees in classical letters, philosophy, and theology, and worked as a professor, vice rector, and rector at Pius XI Pontifical Regional Seminary in Fano until 1972, when he became

vicar general A vicar general (previously, archdeacon) is the principal deputy of the bishop or archbishop of a diocese or an archdiocese for the exercise of administrative authority and possesses the title of local ordinary. As vicar of the bishop, the vica ...

of the Diocese of Fossombrone. On 5 November 1992,

Pope John Paul II Pope John Paul II (born Karol Józef Wojtyła; 18 May 19202 April 2005) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 16 October 1978 until Death and funeral of Pope John Paul II, his death in 2005. In his you ...

appointed him

Titular Bishop A titular bishop in various churches is a bishop who is not in charge of a diocese. By definition, a bishop is an "overseer" of a community of the faithful, so when a priest is ordained a bishop, the tradition of the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox an ...

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and secretary of the

Pontifical Council for the Family The Pontifical Council for the Family was a pontifical council of the Curia of the Roman Catholic Church from 1981 to 2016. It was established by Pope John Paul II on 9 May 1981 with his motu proprio ''Familia a Deo Instituta'', replacing the Com ...

, where he served until his resignation in April 1996. He was consecrated as a bishop on 6 January 1993 by

. In 2004, he became president of the Ut Vitam Habeant Foundation and the Donum Vitae Association of the Diocese of Rome. In one of his last appointments,

named him president of the Pontifical Academy for Life on 3 January 2005, a post he held until his age-induced resignation was accepted on 17 June 2008. He was one of four prelates over the age of 80, known for their distinguished contributions to Catholicism, whom

Pope Benedict XVI Pope BenedictXVI (born Joseph Alois Ratzinger; 16 April 1927 – 31 December 2022) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 19 April 2005 until his resignation on 28 February 2013. Benedict's election as p ...

elevated to the rank of

in the consistory on 20 November 2010. Sgreccia was made

cardinal deacon A cardinal is a senior member of the clergy of the Catholic Church. As titular members of the clergy of the Diocese of Rome, they serve as advisors to the pope, who is the bishop of Rome and the visible head of the worldwide Catholic Church. C ...

Sant'Angelo in Pescheria Sant'Angelo in Pescheria or in Piscaria is a churches of Rome, church in Rome. Dating from the 8th century, it is now used as the conventual church of the General Curia of the Clerics Regular Minor, the orders global headquarters. "In Pescheria" r ...

and was installed on 12 March 2011.

Bioethics

From 1974 to 1984 Sgreccia served as a spiritual minister at the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery of the

Catholic University of the Sacred Heart The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

in Rome, where he was involved with the spiritual formation of health care professionals and the investigation of biomedical moral issues. In 1984 he became a bioethics instructor at the same university. In 1985 he founded the university's Bioethics Center, with a focus on clinical ethics, and served as director until 2006. In the 1980s he was an observer for the Holy See on the Ad Hoc Committee of Experts on Bioethics (CAHBI) of the

Council of Europe The Council of Europe (CoE; , CdE) is an international organisation with the goal of upholding human rights, democracy and the Law in Europe, rule of law in Europe. Founded in 1949, it is Europe's oldest intergovernmental organisation, represe ...

. In 1990 he became a full professor at the university and joined Italy's Comitato Nazionale per la Bioetica (National Bioethics Committee), where he contributed to its many expert opinions until 2006. In 1992 he was appointed director of the university's Institute of Bioethics, with a focus on research, and served until 2000. His work at the Bioethics Center and the Institute of Bioethics at the

entailed close involvement with the Agostino Gemelli Polyclinic, the university's teaching hospital. Sgreccia became a member of the Committee for Guidelines on Genetic Counseling and Testing of Italy's Ministry of Health in 2001. In 2003, he founded the International Federation of Bioethics Centers and Institutions of Personalist Inspiration (Federazione Internazionale dei centri ed istituti di Bioetica di Ispirazione Personalista, FIBIP). Sgreccia authored ''Manuale di bioetica'' ('Manual of bioethics'), presenting a reason-based philosophical approach to bioethics that dovetails with the natural law and the moral teachings of the Catholic Church. He referred to his approach as "ontologically grounded personalism", which applies a three-point or "triangular" method of scientific data, philosophical anthropology and reason-based claims of moral obligation for action in order to make ethical judgments. It was first published by

Vita e Pensiero ''Vita e pensiero'' is a magazine that was established in 1914. It was proposed to be a mediator between the Catholic faith and the world and is still published as a magazine of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore Università Cattolica ...

in 1986 with the title ''Bioetica. Manuale per medici e biologi'' (Bioethics: A manual for physicians and biologists). Its first edition under the definitive title ''Manuale di bioetica'' was published in two volumes in 1988. The fourth Italian edition was published in 2007. It has been reprinted numerous times and has been published in whole or in part in roughly ten different languages, including Spanish, French, and Russian. The first complete English edition of Volume I was published by The National Catholic Bioethics Center in 2012 as ''Personalist Bioethics: Foundations and Applications''. On 25 March 2011, Sgreccia received an honorary doctorate from the

Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum The Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum (Italian: ''Pontificio Ateneo Regina Apostolorum'') is an educational institute of the Catholic Church in Rome. The Pontifical Athenaeum is directed by the Congregation of the Legionaries of Christ. ...

in Rome, whose faculty of bioethics was the first in higher education to offer a complete degree program in bioethics: bachelor, licentiate (master) and doctorate.

Death

Sgreccia died on 5 June 2019 in his home in Rome, aged 90. His funeral was held on 7 June 2019 in

St. Peter's Basilica The Papal Basilica of Saint Peter in the Vatican (), or simply St. Peter's Basilica (; ), is a church of the Italian High Renaissance located in Vatican City, an independent microstate enclaved within the city of Rome, Italy. It was initiall ...

and was presided over by Cardinal

Giovanni Battista Re Giovanni Battista Re (born 30 January 1934) is an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic prelate who has served as Dean of the College of Cardinals since 2020. He was elevated to the rank of Cardinal (Catholic Church), cardinal in 2001 and s ...

, Vice-Dean of the

College of Cardinals The College of Cardinals (), also called the Sacred College of Cardinals, is the body of all cardinals of the Catholic Church. there are cardinals, of whom are eligible to vote in a conclave to elect a new pope. Appointed by the pope, ...

Pope Francis Pope Francis (born Jorge Mario Bergoglio; 17 December 1936 – 21 April 2025) was head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of the Vatican City State from 13 March 2013 until Death and funeral of Pope Francis, his death in 2025. He was the fi ...

also led the rite of final commendation and farewell.

Publications

Sgreccia published some 400 works in Italian and various other languages. Some of his works include: * Sgreccia, Elio. ''Personalist Bioethics: Foundations and Applications''. Philadelphia: The National Catholic Bioethics Center, 2012. . Original Italian: ''Manuale di bioetica. Fondamenti ed etica biomedica''. 4th ed. Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2007. . * Sgreccia, Elio and Jean Laffitte. ''The Human Embryo before Implantation: Scientific Aspects and Bioethical Considerations''. Rome: Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2009. . * Sgreccia, Elio and M. Luisa Di Pietro. ''Procreazione assistita e fecondazione artificiale tra scienza, bioetica e diritto''. Brescia: La Scuola, 1999. * Sgreccia, Elio. ''La bioetica nel quotidiano''. Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 2006. . * Sgreccia, Elio, Angelo Serra, and M. Luisa Di Pietro. ''Nuova genetica ed embriopoiesi umana. Prospettive della scienza e riflessioni etiche''. Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1990. . * Sgreccia, Elio and M. Luisa Di Pietro. ''La trasmissione della vita nell'insegnamento di Giovanni Paolo II''. Milan: Vita e Pensiero, 1989. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sgreccia, Elio 1928 births 2019 deaths 21st-century Italian Roman Catholic titular bishops 21st-century Italian cardinals Bioethicists Pontifical Council for the Family Pontifical Academy for Life Italian anti-abortion activists Cardinals created by Pope Benedict XVI People from Arcevia 20th-century Italian Roman Catholic titular bishops