Vatican defends science
https://sightmagazine.com.au/essays/essay-vatican-defends-science-from-politics-ideology-and-misinformation/
Rather than attacking science, this new statement of concern from the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, Protecting Freedom of Science and Preventing Distortion of Scientific Truth, is a full-throated defence of science, which it believes is “fundamental to the development of humankind” and needs to be protected “from ideological or political interference”.
The document is especially timely in the United States, where government officials are giving more credence to conspiracy theories than scientific consensus. For example, American research universities like Harvard are under attack, and scientific research is being defunded for political reasons by the Trump administration-run National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, which used to be big supporters of science.
https://www.pas.va/en/events/2025/statement_of_concern.html
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences’ Council and co-signing members of the Academy issue this statement with deep concern for the growing global threats to the freedom of science and the systematic misrepresentation of scientific truth. Across multiple contexts and continents, we are witnessing an alarming rise in attempts to discredit, politicize, or suppress scientific knowledge. These developments not only endanger the integrity of science but also imperil the well-being of societies that depend on science to address their most pressing challenges, including poverty, pandemics, health care, climate change, and use of artificial intelligence.
Patterns have emerged in recent years that indicate a disturbing trend: scientific institutions are being undermined through political pressure, budgetary and workforce cuts, and censorship. Evidence-based findings are ignored or openly mis-represented. The peaceful, open discourse that characterizes the scientific process is being replaced in some quarters by ideology-driven narratives, misinformation, and disinformation. In extreme cases, scientists are harassed, marginalized, or personally threatened for their work.
Such attacks are not confined to a particular region or political ideology; they are surfacing in democracies and authoritarian systems alike, in the global North and South. The undermining of truth through denialism and anti-scientific rhetoric has become an international phenomenon. This is not merely a crisis of communication—it is a structural assault on the values and institutions that make science a pillar of human progress.
The Pontifical Academy of Sciences, guided by its statutes and tradition, has always upheld the belief that science is fundamental to the development of humankind. The Academy has engaged deeply with issues of science diplomacy, from pandemics and climate change to the ethics of artificial intelligence, access to and use of energy, and pathways to reduce global poverty, and has advocated for education accessible for all as a means to reduce knowledge-based inequalities in today’s world. These endeavors rely on a shared respect for truth and on the protection of scientific inquiry from ideological or political interference.