Posted on 03/05/2009 4:46:19 PM PST by Alex Murphy
RIO DE JANEIRO - A Roman Catholic archbishop says the abortion of twins carried by a 9-year-old girl who allegedly was raped by her stepfather means excommunication for the girl's mother and her doctors.
Despite the nature of the case, the church had to hold its line against abortion, Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho said in an interview aired Thursday by Globo television.
"The law of God is higher than any human laws," he said. "When a human law — that is, a law enacted by human legislators — is against the law of God, that law has no value. The adults who approved, who carried out this abortion have incurred excommunication."
Health Minister Jose Gomes Temporao rebuked the archbishop, saying, "I'm shocked by two facts: by what happened to the girl and by the position of the archbishop, who in saying he defends life puts another at risk."
Abortion is generally illegal in Brazil, which is home to more Catholics than any other nation. But the procedure is allowed when the mother's life is in danger, when the fetus has no chance of survival or in rape cases where the woman has not passed her 20th week of pregnancy.
Doctors said the girl was 15 weeks pregnant when the abortion was performed Wednesday in the northeastern city of Recife, where Sobrinho is archbishop. Health officials said the life of the girl — who weighs 80 pounds — was in danger.
The pregnancy was discovered last week when the girl fell ill and her mother took her to a clinic. The child then told officials she had been abused by her stepfather, who is in police custody.
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
This is a clear and definitive case of life of the girl, you would risk her life for something she would barely understand if at all? You are stating the exception that prove the rule.
And your evidence for that is ... ?
That could mean anything from a "a competent physician examined her and determined that she was in danger of death" to "the abortionist frightened her mother into thinking she could die".
(Why "health officials" and not "doctors"? What exactly is a "health official," anyway?)
She will be traumatized for the rest of her life by the fact that her stepfather raped her. And this rest of her life may be very short if she isn't allowed to abort.
Two wrongs (rape and abortion) don’t make a right.
Unfortunately for us Infidels,that approach to our laws is exactly what the fundamental Muslims believe. - Tom
And also what the founding fathers believed.
Does anyone know if he's even Catholic?
I think what bothers a lot of people about this case is that the people being excommunicated don’t have much if any clout. By contrast, US senators and prominent congressmen and women who not only advocate for partial birth abortion, but take actions that make it more common, face no official sanction. Doesn’t the Bible teach that Christians are not to be respecters of persons, but should treat both the poor and the rich and influential equally?
personally I think, as a Catholic, if the little girl was at real medical risk here, then the Bishop shouldn’t have done this. If the girl wasn’t at risk, the technically the Bishop was correct but he really should have thought this through. This is strong ammo for the abortion zealots all over the world (if the story is true)-—excommunicating people for getting a raped child an abortion when her life was at risk. It makes pro-life people look completely unreasonable.
The Bishop should reserve this stuff for people who use abortion as birth control, not when there are legitimate medical emergencies.
So unless someone can show that the girl wasn’t in danger, the Bishop should have not interdicted.
Everyone knows the Church is strongly against abortion.
Would not a more compassionate and private approach dealing with all involved be more consistent with the pastoral mission of the Church. What is accomplished by hammering people over the head with “excommunication” other than to make a few legalists scream with glee. This only helps to drive people away from the Church.
I said on the other thread, thank God 99.9% of us will never have to make that decision. If the doctors said the risk to her mental and physical health was too great, the 9 year old child’s welfare comes first.
That being said, I would make the decision knowing I could and would be excommunicated. Just as the mother did what she thought was right, so did the church.
The Bishop might say such is the nature of our fallen condition.
In St. Alphonsus’s moral theology, on one side we have laws-—like no abortion or destruction of life. But on the other side we have mitigating circumstances. Killing in self defense is permissible. A soldier killing in battle is not cause for excommunication is it? That is because circumstances mitigate moral culpability.
It seems to me that the horrific circumstances of this incident mitigate the moral culpability of those involved. This is not an ordinary case of procuring an abortion. This was a case of a raped and abused 9 year old left pregnant, who doctors felt that she was incapable of carrying the children to term. Her life and bodily integrity could have been at grave risk.
What if your daughter had been raped, was pregnant with the rapist’s child and the doctors were telling you that the pregnancy might kill her? This is a freakishly bad set of circumstances to use to make an example out of.
In my own humble opinion, it was wrong for the Bishop to take such a heavy handed approach to this, on both a pratical and theological level.
Real tests of faith can be terrible. We pray we may never be so tested but that should the situation arise that we be given strength to carry that cross.
modern medicine, i would think, virtually assures that the girl would live. I am not saying that there would be complications, but I don’t think that, with todays practices, it would be even 10% chance of unsuccess.
Yeah, I know, I am only a kid, and I am not a doctor. I am just basing my opinion on what I personally think is possible.
an excellant analysis. i agree.
you know nothing about this situation.
all these people making judgments on a case they know nothing about.
I so agree with your viewpoint.
Why not add more trauma to this poor child, by publically excommunicating her mother.?
Very poor decision. I am sure the archbishop doesn’t do this for well known people...just like in the states, the kennedy’s get a private pass on all their stuff and Pelosi doesn’t get even a verbal reprimand that is strong?
Yeesh!
I still believe that abortion should NEVER be an option, no matter what the case. So, this issue is sad in any case. It doesn’t matter to me what happened to the girl, whether she was raped or not, she should not have had the abortion, period.
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