Vatican-backed conference offers a Catholic response to the "infertility emergency"

In vitro fertilization "removes the generative act from the responsibility of the spouses" and hands it over to "the management of doctors and laboratory technicians," warned Msgr. Claudio Giuliodori, president of the ISI Foundation and general ecclesiastical assistant of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore.

"Not a few ethical questions are raised by the fact of moving, without any hesitation, from a procreative act inscribed in the gift of mutual love, which is expressed in becoming one flesh in marriage, to a kind of delegation or subcontracting of the humanly most significant and meaningful act, which is precisely begetting a child, entrusting it to an external process belonging exclusively to the technical sphere," the prelate said during the congress "The Splendor of the Human: Safeguarding Fertility, Curing Infertility," held October 16-18 in Rome.

Msgr. Claudio Giuliodori, president of the ISI Foundation and general ecclesiastical assistant of the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, speaking at the congress. Credit: Isabella Reed/EWTN News.

Pope Leo XIV had been scheduled to receive at the Vatican the specialists from various fields who addressed the scientific, anthropological, and ethical challenges related to sexuality and reproduction.

However, his hospitalization at the Gemelli Polyclinic prevented it.

The congress opened with the keynote address of the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Pietro Parolin, on "the dignity and beauty of procreation in the Magisterium of the Church."

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin speaking at the congress. Credit: Isabella Reed/EWTN News.

For his part, Msgr. Giuliodori warned about the moral conditions surrounding these techniques, from the obtaining of germ cells and the selection of gametes through artificial intelligence to the production, freezing, and possible use of embryos for scientific research.

"We must consider the numerous and complex technical and ethical questions linked to obtaining germ cells, to the selection of gametes today through artificial intelligence, to the modes of producing embryos according to the different techniques, to the number of those who, even after being implanted, are subject to reduction or suppression, to the cryopreservation of embryos that are not implanted and to their possible use for scientific research," he stated.

The prelate emphasized that in Italy it is estimated that there are between 30,000 and 100,000 frozen embryos, although he clarified that there are no precise figures. "No one is able to produce exact data, and this is staggering," he said, highlighting the "health, legal, economic, and above all ethical" implications this reality raises.

According to him, the central question "from an anthropological and ethical point of view, but also existential and social," lies in the fact that in vitro fertilization moves the generation of a new life outside the conjugal relationship.

"Not Produced in a Laboratory"

On July 25, 1978, Louise Brown, the first child born through human assisted reproduction techniques, came into the world. Msgr. Giuliodori noted that many of these techniques were initially developed in the field of animal reproduction and argued that their application to human generation is morally unacceptable. "Reproduction, which may be justified in the field of livestock breeding, appears totally inappropriate and ethically unacceptable for the human being, who has the right to be conceived in the exclusive context of the act of love of his parents, not produced in a laboratory," he declared.

The organizers structured the program into four major sessions: "The Transmission of Life between Society and Science," "The Roadmap to Couples' Fertility," "Preconception Health and Prevention of Infertility," and "Safeguarding the Human between Hypertechnology and the Culture of Waste." Credit: Isabella Reed/EWTN News.

He also lamented that public debate centers almost exclusively on the desire of adults to have offspring. "Unfortunately, much is said about the right to have a child by any means, but very little about the right of the child to be generated humanly within the sphere of conjugal love," he maintained.

Leo XIV and Donum Vitae

During his address, Msgr. Giuliodori recalled recent teachings of Pope Leo XIV on the dignity of every human life and the need to place ethical limits on technological development.

The president of the ISI Foundation also recalled one of the central affirmations of the instruction Donum Vitae, published on February 22, 1987, by the then Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and signed by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger: "What is technically possible is not for that reason morally admissible."

Clinical Alternatives to Artificial Fertilization

In the second part of his address, Msgr. Giuliodori reviewed the history and mission of the Pope Paul VI International Scientific Institute (ISI), founded to offer clinical alternatives to artificial fertilization by treating the causes of infertility.

He noted that the Institute currently works within the Agostino Gemelli University Polyclinic Foundation, where it benefits from "all the support necessary for the most advanced research" and from an interdisciplinary approach that allows "very precise and profound diagnoses" to be made. According to him, this method offers "the real possibility, already widely documented, of providing concrete answers for eliminating the causes of infertility."

Msgr. Giuliodori affirmed that the experience accumulated over twenty-five years has made ISI Pope Paul VI an international reference for couples who wish to face infertility without resorting to artificial fertilization techniques.

Participants reflected on the causes of infertility, the therapeutic possibilities compatible with Christian ethics, and the promotion of a culture that values human life from conception. Credit: Isabella Reed/EWTN News.

"The results obtained, also in terms of pregnancy, exceed in percentage terms those reported by centers for medically assisted procreation," he stated.

"The Emergence of Infertility"

For her part, Dr. Paola Pellicanò, a physician at the Center for Natural Regulation of Fertility of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, a consecrated member of the Ordo Virginum (Order of Virgins), and president of the Donum Vitae Association, defended the need to address "the emergence of infertility in which we find ourselves" with responses that go beyond the technical or reproductive solutions commonly proposed.

In this regard, she noted that the latest guidelines of the World Health Organization (WHO) are beginning to recognize the importance of fertility education, the promotion of healthy lifestyles, and respect for the personal convictions of couples. According to her, these recommendations point toward a greater appreciation of knowledge of the fertile periods of the female cycle, prevention, and the dissemination of educational messages to the general population.

The specialist recalled that as early as 1988 the WHO itself had published a guide on natural fertility regulation services, defined as "primarily educational," and stressed that "the success of these programs depended on the training of qualified instructors."

A Response to a Cultural and Social Emergency

During her address, Pellicanò linked the work carried out by the Center for Natural Regulation of Fertility in Italy to a broader vision of the person and the family. Its origins date back to 1976, when the gynecologist and missionary Anna Cappella, trained in natural regulation of fertility through her collaboration with John and Evelyn Billings, took over the direction of a project promoted by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart with the support of the Holy See and the Italian Episcopal Conference.

That work later led to the creation of a study and research center specializing in natural regulation of fertility, which over the years became an international reference point.

Pellicanò particularly highlighted the clinical experience accumulated by the center, which has accompanied more than 8,000 couples. The specialist insisted that fertility should not be considered solely from the perspective of seeking a pregnancy: "Passion does not stop at resolving the problem of having or not having a child, but encompasses the whole of life."

According to her, "knowing fertility and becoming aware of it enables people to become protagonists of their own decisions" and to avoid "a merely passive attitude toward certain interventions or reproductive techniques."

Prevention, Responsibility, and Generosity

Pellicanò stressed that concepts such as prevention, responsibility, and generosity are fundamental for addressing not only sterility but also broader phenomena such as the demographic crisis. "Here words such as prevention acquire value, but also responsibility and generosity, important for addressing the cultural and affective aspects of sterility and of the very decline in birth rates," she explained.

She also highlighted the extensive training network built over these decades, with more than a thousand instructors of the Billings Ovulation Method (a natural fertility-recognition technique based on daily observation of the characteristics of cervical mucus and sensation in the vaginal area) in Italy, integrated into international bodies and linked to projects developed on different continents.

The president of Donum Vitae advocated a scientific approach that does not lose sight of the human dimension of procreation and of medicine. "Safeguarding fertility is a scientific vision that places the person at the center," she stated.

In this regard, she recalled that the tradition developed by the center is rooted in the conviction that knowledge of female fertility is a reality inscribed in women's very nature and capable of being studied scientifically.

Pellicanò placed this vision in continuity with the teachings of recent popes, from St. Paul VI and St. John Paul II to Benedict XVI, Francis, and Leo XIV, who in his encyclical Magnifica humanitas presents openness to life as an expression of human beauty and dignity.

See full biography

Tommaso and Pina move the Pope with their "vocation" born of the pain of infertility

This married couple shared their story with the Pope. After the difficult diagnosis of infertility, they adopted two children with special needs, in a gesture of extraordinary generosity and love.

Expert explains how Jesus' grandparents...