Pontifical Academy for Life to devote 2027 assembly to mental suffering

The Pontifical Academy for Life will focus its 32nd general assembly on mental suffering and care. The conference, titled Unseen Wounds, is scheduled for March 2027.

Archbishop Renzo Pegoraro, president of the academy, told L’Osservatore Romano that the Church has a duty to offer its perspective on a person's interior psychic dynamics. He noted that many adolescents feel inadequate or disoriented in a fast-paced society, often struggling to form meaningful relationships with family and friends. Archbishop Pegoraro stated that these individuals frequently do not feel welcomed, respected, protected, or loved.

The academy intends to study these phenomena and their impact on lived experience to determine how to intervene. Archbishop Pegoraro said that both the analysis and any proposed solutions must be interdisciplinary.