EWTN News portal reports that “Pope” Leo XIV has appointed Father Andrea Ciucci as chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life, an institution founded in 1994 by John Paul II — a manifest heretic and apostate whose entire pontificate was characterized by the promotion of false ecumenism, religious indifferentism, and the systematic dismantling of Catholic moral theology. Ciucci, a 59-year-old priest from Milan with a doctorate in the philosophy of religion, has served as the academy’s secretariat coordinator since 2016 and is also the general secretary of the so-called RenAIssance Foundation, a Vatican institution promoting an “ethical perspective” on artificial intelligence. This appointment is not merely administrative; it is a continuation of the conciliar sect’s strategy of subordinating every domain of human activity — including bioethics and technology — to the relativistic, naturalistic framework of the post-conciliar revolution, entirely divorced from the supernatural order and the Kingship of Christ.
A “Pontifical Academy” Founded by an Apostate
The Pontifical Academy for Life was established in February 1994 by Karol Wojtyła, known as John Paul II — a man who, according to the principles articulated by St. Robert Bellarmine in De Romano Pontifice, ceased to be Pope and head the moment he became a manifest heretic: “a Pope who is a manifest heretic, by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” Bellarmine’s teaching is confirmed by Wernz and Vidal in Ius Canonicum, who explain that “by notorious and publicly manifested heresy, the Roman Pontiff, should he fall into it, is deprived ipso facto of his personal jurisdiction even before any declaratory sentence by the Church.”
John Paul II’s heresies are not a matter of speculation. His entire pontificate was a synthesis of the very errors condemned by Pope St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici Gregis and in the decree Lamentabili sane exitu, which condemned the proposition that “dogmas, sacraments, and hierarchy, both in concept and in reality, are merely modes of explanation and stages in the evolution of Christian consciousness” (proposition 54). John Paul II’s theology of the body, his Assisi gatherings, his kissing of the Koran, his embrace of evolutionism and religious liberty — all of these are manifestations of Modernism, which St. Pius X rightly called “the synthesis of all heresies.”
Therefore, the Pontifical Academy for Life is not a Catholic institution. It is an organization founded by a man who had no authority to found anything in the Church of Christ, operating within the structures of the conciliar sect — what can only be described as the “abomination of desolation standing in the holy place” (Mt 24:15). Its statutes, its missions, and its appointments are juridically null and spiritually toxic.
The RenAIssance Foundation: Ethics Without God
Father Ciucci’s role as general secretary of the RenAIssance Foundation deserves particular scrutiny. This Vatican institution claims to promote an “ethical perspective” on artificial intelligence. But what kind of ethics can an institution of the conciliar sect possibly offer? An ethics divorced from the supernatural order, from the natural law as understood by the Church for two millennia, from the sacramental life, and from the absolute sovereignty of Christ the King over all human activity?
Pius XI, in the encyclical Quas Primas, taught with absolute clarity: “His reign, namely, extends not only to Catholic nations or to those who, by receiving baptism according to law, belong to the Church, even though their erroneous opinions have led them astray or discord has separated them from love, but His reign encompasses also all non-Christians, so that most truly the entire human race is subject to the authority of Jesus Christ.” And further: “The state is happy not by one means, and man by another; for the state is nothing else than a harmonious association of men.”
The RenAIssance Foundation, like every post-conciliar Vatican initiative, operates within the framework of secularism and laicism — the very plague that Pius XI identified in Quas Primas: “This plague is the secularism of our times, so-called laicism, its errors and wicked endeavors; you know, Venerable Brethren, that this crime did not mature all at once, but has long been hidden in the soul of society. It began with the denial of Christ the Lord’s reign over all nations.”
An “ethical framework” for artificial intelligence that does not begin with the recognition that “there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12) is not ethics at all. It is humanism masquerading as moral theology — precisely the error condemned by Pope Pius IX in the Syllabus of Errors, which rejected the proposition that “human reason, without any reference whatsoever to God, is the sole arbiter of truth and falsehood, and of good and evil; it is law to itself” (proposition 3).
The Philosophy of Religion: A Discipline Corrupted
Ciucci holds a doctorate in the philosophy of religion from the Pontifical University of Sant’Anselmo in Rome. One must ask: what is taught under the name of “philosophy of religion” in the post-conciliar universities? The Syllabus of Errors condemned the proposition that “philosophy is to be treated without taking any account of supernatural revelation” (proposition 14). The conciliar sect’s academic institutions have systematically replaced Thomistic philosophy — which proceeds from the principles of faith and reason in their proper hierarchy — with a relativistic, historicist, and phenomenological approach to religion that treats all faiths as equally valid expressions of the human spirit.
This is the very error of indifferentism condemned by Pius IX: “Man may, in the observance of any religion whatever, find the way of eternal salvation, and arrive at eternal salvation” (proposition 16), and “Protestantism is nothing more than another form of the same true Christian religion, in which form it is given to please God equally as in the Catholic Church” (proposition 18). A “philosophy of religion” degree from a post-conciliar university is, in all likelihood, a degree in the comparative study of religions as if they were all equally valid — a direct contradiction of the Catholic faith, which teaches that the Catholic Church is the only true religion, outside of which there is no salvation.
The Pontifical Council for the Family: A Modernist Stronghold
Ciucci’s earlier work at the former Pontifical Council for the Family (2012–2016) places him within one of the most compromised structures of the conciliar sect. This council, under the direction of figures like Cardinal Ennio Antonelli and later Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, systematically promoted a pastoral approach to marriage and family that undermined the indissolubility of marriage, the intrinsic evil of contraception, and the Church’s teaching on the primary end of marriage.
The Syllabus of Errors condemned the proposition that “the Church has not the power of establishing diriment impediments of marriage, but such a power belongs to the civil authority by which existing impediments are to be removed” (proposition 68), and that “by the law of nature, the marriage tie is not indissoluble, and in many cases divorce properly so called may be decreed by the civil authority” (proposition 67). The post-conciliar “Pontifical Council for the Family” has, in practice, advanced precisely these errors through its pastoral documents, its synodal processes, and its embrace of the Amoris Laetitia framework, which opened the door to Communion for the divorced and “remarried.”
“New Technologies and Their Influence on Young People and Families”: A Naturalistic Obsession
The article notes that Ciucci is “a public speaker and writer on the topic of new technologies and their influence on young people and families.” This is entirely consistent with the conciliar sect’s obsession with naturalistic, temporal concerns at the expense of the supernatural order. While the conciliar structures devote enormous resources to discussing artificial intelligence, social media, and technological ethics, they remain systematically silent about the state of grace, the necessity of confession, the reality of mortal sin, the dangers of modernism, and the obligation of fidelity to the unchanging Catholic faith.
Pius XI warned in Quas Primas: “When God and Jesus Christ — as we lamented — were removed from laws and states and when authority was derived not from God but from men, the foundations of that authority were destroyed, because the main reason why some have the right to command and others have the duty to obey was removed.” The conciliar sect’s “ethics of technology” is precisely this: ethics derived from human reason apart from God, which is no ethics at all but rather the building of a new Tower of Babel — a technological civilization organized without reference to Christ the King.
The “Bishop” Pegoraro and the Escalating Compromise
The article notes that last month, Renzo Pegoraro, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, received the title of “bishop” from Leo XIV. Pegoraro served as chancellor of the academy from 2011 to 2025. This “episcopal” appointment within the conciliar sect carries no sacramental or jurisdictional authority, as the man who confers it — Leo XIV (Robert Prevost) — holds no legitimate office in the Church of Christ.
According to the teaching of Pope Celestine I, quoted in the sedevacantist sources: “If anyone who was excommunicated or exiled by Nestorius, or anyone who followed him, from the time he began to preach such things, whether a bishop or cleric, it is evident that he remained and continues in our communion, nor do we consider him outside, because he could not remove anyone by sentence who himself had already shown that he must be removed.” The principle is clear: a heretic cannot confer valid jurisdiction or validly appoint anyone to office. The “bishops” of the conciar sect are not bishops in the Catholic sense; they are functionaries of a paramasonic structure that has occupied the physical buildings of the Vatican while emptying them of all Catholic content.
The Silence That Condemns
What is most telling about this article is what it does not say. There is no mention of the Church’s teaching on the moral limits of technology. There is no reference to the Syllabus of Errors, which condemns the proposition that “the Roman Pontiff can, and ought to, reconcile himself, and come to terms with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (proposition 80). There is no acknowledgment that the entire framework within which the Pontifical Academy for Life operates is fundamentally incompatible with the Catholic faith.
There is no warning that participating in, supporting, or recognizing the authority of these conciliar structures constitutes formal cooperation with the apostasy that has consumed the visible Church since the death of Pope Pius XII. There is no reminder that Canon 188.4 of the 1917 Code of Canon Law states that “every office becomes vacant by the mere fact and without any declaration by reason of tacit resignation, recognized by the law itself, if the cleric publicly defects from the Catholic faith” — and that the post-conciliar hierarchy has done precisely this.
Conclusion: The Abomination Continues
The appointment of Father Andrea Ciucci as chancellor of the Pontifical Academy for Life is a minor administrative act within a major spiritual catastrophe. It is one more step in the conciar sect’s project of constructing a counter-Church — a structure that uses Catholic vocabulary while emptied of Catholic substance, that speaks of “ethics” while denying the natural law, that discusses “life” while promoting the culture of death through its silence on abortion, euthanasia, and the sacramental means of grace.
The faithful who desire to remain Catholic must recognize that “the Church, established by Christ as a perfect society, demands for itself by a right belonging to it, which it cannot renounce, full freedom and independence from secular authority” (Pius XI, Quas Primas). The true Church of Christ endures — not in the structures occupying the Vatican, but in the faithful who profess the integral Catholic faith, who reject the conciliar revolution, and who await the restoration of all things in Christ the King.
“Then at last, to use the words which our predecessor Leo XIII addressed to all bishops 25 years ago, so many wounds can be healed, then there will be hope that the law will regain its former authority, sweet peace will return again, swords and weapons will fall from hands, when all willingly accept the reign of Christ and obey Him, and every tongue will confess that our Lord Jesus Christ is in the glory of God the Father.” (Pius XI, Quas Primas)
Source:
Pope Leo names Father Andrea Ciucci chancellor of Pontifical Academy for Life (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 10.04.2026