Catholic universities to hold Rome roundtable on vulnerability and healthcare

By Vatican News

SACRU, an international network of Catholic universities, is holding a round-table discussion on ‘Vulnerability and Healthcare’, an interdisciplinary, collaborative project that has involved doctoral students and supporting faculty from seven different institutions.

The meeting will be held on Monday, April 7, from 4:30 to 7 p.m at the Rome campus of the Australian Catholic University.

Throughout a series of virtual meetings, the doctoral students have been exploring the theme of vulnerability and healthcare through the lens of their respective research projects, which address topics such as vaccine trials in developing countries, physician-assisted suicide, prenatal genetic testing, interreligious dialogue on healthcare in conflict zones, boundaries in environmental ethics, the history of monastic medicine, Aristotelian and Thomistic virtues, and social and ecological justice in elderly residential care.

The meeting will be opened by Prof. David G. Kirchhoffer, Director of the Queensland Bioethics Centre at the Australian Catholic University and Chair of the SACRU Working Group on Vulnerability. This will be followed by the keynote speech “The Concept of Vulnerability: Recent Developments in Theological Ethics” by Professor James Keenan, SJ, Vice Provost for Global Engagement at Boston College.

The roundtable on Vulnerability and Healthcare will be led by doctoral students from SACRU member universities: Lachlan Green (Australian Catholic University), Dorothy Goehring (Boston College), Gabriel Vidal (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile), Jefferson da Silva Bellarmino (Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro), Joana Ramos (Universidade Católica Portuguesa), Enrico Frosio (Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore), with contributions from Aitana Juan Giner (Universitat Ramon Llull) and Geetanjali Rogers (Australian Catholic University).

After a Q&A session and open discussion, the final speech “Reflections on Vulnerability and Healthcare: A Response to the Panel” will be delivered by Carolina Montero Orphanopoulos (Universidad Católica Silva Henríquez), winner of the 2024 Centesimus Annus Pro Pontifice Foundation Prize in “Economy and Society” for her research entitled “Vulnerability: Toward a More Humane Ethics.