Monday, March 09, 2009

Scuzzbucket of the Week

The Vatican.


From Suspect Device, the news that a senior Vatican cleric has defended the excommunication of the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion in Brazil after being raped.



Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Catholic church's Congregation for Bishops, told the daily La Stampa on Saturday that the twins the girl had been carrying had a right to live.

"It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated," he said.

Re, who also heads the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, added: "Life must always be protected, the attack on the Brazilian church is unjustified."

The row was triggered by the termination on Wednesday of twin foetuses carried by a nine-year-old allegedly raped by her stepfather in the Brazilian state of Pernambuco.


Jose Cardoso Sobrinho...Is it me or does this dude have mean eyes?

The regional archbishop, Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, pronounced excommunication for the mother for authorising the operation and doctors who carried it out for fear that the slim girl would not survive carrying the foetuses to term.

"God's law is above any human law. So when a human law ... is contrary to God's law, this human law has no value," Cardoso had said.

Thought that was bad? Here's more:

He also said the accused stepfather would not be expelled from the church. Although the man allegedly committed "a heinous crime ... the abortion - the elimination of an innocent life - was more serious".

2 comments:

C Woods said...

If there were a just God, the archbishop and the pope, along with the step-father who raped the girl, would burn in hell for this. The people who were excommunicated are better off without such a crazy antiquated church on their backs, but since they are apparently believers, it will be devastating for them. No wonder people seem to be leaving the church in droves, as recently reported. I'm convinced the church is all about power without a speck of compassion for the tiny girl or her family.

Anonymous said...

What is the uproar? The mother was excommunicated, not the nine year old daughter?

Excommunication does expel someone from the church. Excommunication is a punishment for members of the church, calling to return to the church after committing some evil and deny it.

The father is not excommunicated because rape is universally condemned as evil. He will go to jail hopefully, and thus no punishment from the church is needed.

But the father, because of his sin, is forbidden from Communion, unless he repents, because raped is a serious crime. The excommunicated Mother is also forbidden from Communion, unless she repents the Abortion, because we consider it an even more grievous crime.

The difference is that, because Abortion is unfortunately legal, the mother might not know that it is so serious a crime. Hence the church excommunicates her to call her to repentance.

Remember, to Catholics everywhere, we hear this story, and mourn the death of two unborn children, and pray for the scarred nine-year old girl who's mother had doctors rip these children from her womb.

Monday Morning Smile