James O'Reilly
On the same day that Pope Leo XIV was presenting 'Magnifica Humanitas' to the Church and the world from the Vatican, a scientific conference on human health and aging was taking place in another part of Rome.
Titled the 'Vatican Longevity Summit', the purpose of the event is to bring to Rome,
...a global and cross-disciplinary dialogue on how science, medicine, ethics, and spirituality can collaborate to give dignity, value, and quality to life as it advances.
In other words, how to age well in mind, body, and spirit. But one of the founders of the summit, Fr. Alberto Carrara, revealed a more personal story about the project:
FR. ALBERTO CARRARA
Professor of Philosophy, APRA
So the first edition started last year and was inspired by a friend of mine that directed brain research here in Italy and passed away last year when we closed the program of the first Vatican Longevity Summit last year. Attended the summit, two Nobel Prizes for medicine, Professor Yamaha. Very famous for induced pluripotent stem cell research, and also Professor Ramakrishna, who decodes the ribosome, the machinery that builds the protein.
The list of speakers for this year's summit included both Christian and non-Christian scientists alike, living up to the organization's goal of creating a space for 'cross-disciplinary dialogue'.
For example, Dr. Hiromitsu Nakauchi, originally from Japan, is an atheist.
DR. HIROMITSU NAKAUCHI
Genetic biologist
So I'm a physician scientist, so I'm doing research to help patients, regardless of their reasons. But you know, I do see some religious issues, ethical issues, so probably this could be a good place to discuss and that is the reason why I accepted the invitation to come and speak here.
And here is what some of the speakers had to say about Leo XIV’s first encyclical.
DR. RICHARD MARSHALL
CEO of Juvenessence
The most senior leaders in the world, you know, standing up and rather than, you know, maybe just criticizing from the sidelines or being concerned from actually taking an active role and saying, well, look, you know, this is clearly a transformational technology: how can we help to make it the safest, most effective technology in the same way that we do with our medicines?
The tagline for this year's longevity summit was 'redeciphering the algorithm of life'—a fitting theme as the Church continues to tackle the great rewards and risks of artificial intelligence in wake of Pope Leo's 'Magnifica Humanitas'.
