Vatican-backed congress offers a Catholic response to the ‘infertility emergency’

ROME — A Vatican-backed congress on infertility treatment in line with Catholic teaching was held in Rome last week.

Over the three-day gathering, specialists from various fields addressed the scientific, anthropological, and ethical challenges connected with sexuality and reproduction.

Pope Leo XIV was himself set to address the first day of the Oct. 16–18 conference, titled “The Splendor of the Human Person: Preserving Fertility, Healing Infertility,” but the audience had to be canceled due to the pontiff’s hospitalization Oct. 13–17.

The congress, held at the Rome campus of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, opened with a lecture by Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin on “the dignity and beauty of procreation in the Church’s magisterium.”

Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin greets participants after he spoke at the congress “The Splendor of the Human Person: Preserving Fertility, Healing Infertility” at the Rome campus of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart on Oct. 16, 2026. | Credit: Isabella Reed/EWTN News

Bishop Claudio Giuliodori, president of the Italy-based Paul VI International Scientific Institute Foundation…