VATICAN CITY (CNS) — On a movie set in Hollywood, Scott Borgman was hooking a camera to the bottom of a vintage car when he told a fellow key-grip about his decision to go to France and enter the seminary.

“He stopped what he was doing, put the tools down, and said, ‘Scott, I think that is the greatest idea I have ever heard.’”

Thirteen years later, Father Borgman is the coordinating secretary at the Pontifical Academy for Life, which like other pontifical academies, essentially operates as a Vatican think tank; its members are biomedical experts – academics, doctors, scientists, philosophers and theologians – from all over the world.

The priest described the academy as a “consulting arm” for Pope Francis, “a scientific organism for the Holy See. We deal with everything from the beginning [of life] to the end. Over the last two years, our workshops have dealt with end of life care,” he told Catholic News Service. “Our fight is against the idea of a relativistic culture, one that wants to throw away human lives.”

Telling his story, Father Borgman quoted Scripture and used saints’ stories to illustrate his points. He attributed that style of speaking to growing up in the Ivory Coast with his parents, Protestant missionaries who used to bribe him and his siblings with chocolate and ice cream to remember Bible verses. “My dad taught my siblings and I that God loved us, that he had a specific plan for our lives, and that we would understand that plan better through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and a knowledge of the Scriptures,” he said.