Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo


Marcelo Sánchez Sorondo is an Argentine Catholic bishop, the current Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. Having issued a long set of various publications in the sciences, he earned several honors such as the Légion d’Honneur of France in 2000.

Life

Born in Buenos Aires in 1942, he was ordained a priest on 7 December 1968 in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Buenos Aires. At the Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Angelicum of Rome he was awarded a Ph.D. in sacred theology, the highest level of Church postgraduate studies, with the maximum possible grade of summa cum laude with the dissertation La gracia como participación de la naturaleza divina según Santo Tomás de Aquino.
In 1976 he graduated summa cum laude in Philosophy at Perugia University. From 1976 to 1998 he was lecturer in the history of philosophy at the Lateran University in Rome where from 1982 onwards he was full professor in the same discipline. He was dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at the same university for three consecutive terms from 1987 to 1996.
From 1998 to 2014 he was full professor of the history of philosophy at the Libera Università Maria SS. Assunta and in the same year was appointed president of the degree course in science of education. On 5 October 1998 he was appointed Chancellor of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences and of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences. In March 1999, he was also appointed as Secretary Prelate of the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas. On 19 March 2001, Pope John Paul II consecrated him as Titular Bishop of Forum Novum. On 19 July 2011, Pope Benedict XVI made him a member of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America.
In 2018, he declared that "those who are best implementing the social doctrine of the Church are the Chinese." Matthew Schmitz replied that this statement was "not mere naivete" but also exemplified "the way in which defenses of the "common good" sometimes slip into apologias for authoritarianism". The comments in turn were widely criticized.

Decorations and honours

He was decorated as Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Italian Republic, official of honour of the Légion d’Honneur of France, Grão Mestre da Ordem de Rio Branco of Brazil, official of Austria and knight of Chile. He was appointed Chaplain Grand Cross of Merit of the Sacred Military Constantinian Order of Saint George in 2006 by Infante Carlos, Duke of Calabria and Vice-Grand Prior of the Order in 2008.

Main publications