Dr. Pellegrino (center) with faculty members of the Regina Apostolorum Bioethics program.

November 29, 2007. Rome. When a prominent leader in the field of bioethics commends a Catholic institution for offering “the best organized curriculum I have experienced anywhere,” his words carry weight.

Dr Edmund Pellegrino, chairman of the President’s Council on Bioethics of the United States and a well-known professor of medical ethics at Georgetown University, visited the Pontifical Athenaeum Regina Apostolorum last spring to give classes for the Licentiate program of the School of Bioethics, and to participate in evaluating the doctoral defense of Fr. Joseph Tham, L.C., which he had directed.

After his visit, he wrote a letter to the Dean of the Bioethics School, thanking him for the visit and commenting on some of his impressions. “Having been associated with bioethics since its early beginnings,” he said, “I assure you that the state of development of your program, its capacity for attracting excellent students, the quality of the faculty, and the well constructed curriculum are all most impressive.”

On the faculty in particular, he noted: “My conversations with faculty members impressed me with their dedication to scholarship and

	Dr Pellegrino enjoys a moment of laughter with some students in the program.

teaching.”

The letter congratulates the Legionaries for their work in preparing well-formed Catholics to take leadership positions in various fields related to bioethics, and strongly urges them to continue. “We urgently need Catholics who can engage the issues at every level and give witness at the same time to the strength of the Catholic medical moral tradition.”

The letter, presented below, is yet one more encouragement for the Legion’s important, unfolding mission in the field of bioethics.

For more information on the Bioethics School click here