A local Catholic university professor had the chance to give Pope Francis a copy of his best-selling new book during a recent conference in Rome. 

Dr. Christopher Kaczor, a philosophy professor at Loyola Marymount University, met the pontiff during the three-day general assembly (Sept. 27-29) of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life, of which Kaczor has been a member since 2015. 

At the end of the pope’s address Sept. 27, Francis greeted each of the conference’s participants. 

“When my turn to meet him came, I shook his hand and asked him to please pray for my family,” Kaczor, who is married with children, told Angelus.

Kaczor then gave the pope a copy of “Jordan Peterson, God, and Christianity: The Search for a Meaningful Life,” written with his LMU colleague Dr. Matthew Petrusek, a theology professor and fellow Catholic. The book, published by the Word on Fire Institute, begins with a foreword from Bishop Robert Barron, auxiliary bishop of Los Angeles and founder of Word on Fire. 

Since its release in July, the book analyzing the popular psychology professor and speaker’s role in reintroducing God and the Bible to today’s secular culture has reached the top ten of “Religious Studies - Psychology” Amazon best-selling book list. 

Pope Francis speaks during a meeting with members of the Pontifical Academy for Life in the Clementine Hall of the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican Sept. 27, 2021. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

At the same meeting, Pope Francis made headlines for slamming abortion and euthanasia as the result of a “throwaway culture” that victimizes children and the elderly. 

“There is the discarding of children that we do not want to welcome with the law of abortion that sends them to the dispatcher and kills them directly. And today this has become a ‘normal’ method, a practice that is very ugly. It is really murder,” Pope Francis said in his address. 

The pope added that both abortion and euthanasia “deny hope” by negating “the hope of children who bring us the life that keeps us going and the hope that is in the roots that the elderly give us.”

The pontiff reiterated such practices were not compatible with the mission of Catholic universities or hospitals. 

“This is a road on which we cannot go: the road of discarding,” he said.

Additional reporting courtesy of Catholic News Agency.