L’effetto Bergoglio sulla contrapposizione fra paradigma cattolico e paradigma laico in bioetica

In his writings and speeches as pope, Bergoglio has seldom reaffirmed the main moral positions characterising Catholic bioethics. One may say that – because Bergoglio has not rejected or modified any statement of the Catholic doctrine that his precedessors used as premises in the justifications of those moral positions – Catholic bioethics is necessarily unaltered, contrary to appearances. This paper shows that this argument is invalid. Omitting to reaffirm a set of principles can weaken them. The moral positions traditionally grounded on that set of principles will be weakened in turn, so as to become uncapable to found the request for a legal prohibition of an action. This is what has happened in our case. The paper concludes that Bergoglio – no matter that he has not altered anything in the Catholic doctrine – has importantly changed the way Catholic bioethics and secular bioethics confront each other.