Vatican Excommunicates Doctors, Mother Of Raped 9 Year Old Posted by Pile (8557 views) [E-Mail link]

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.



The nine year old girl was allegedly raped by her step-father, whom the church has stated will not be excommunicated.

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.



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.



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".



Battista Re agreed, saying: "Excommunication for those who carried out the abortion is just" as a pregnancy termination always meant ending an innocent life.



The case has sparked fierce debate in Brazil, where abortion is illegal except in cases of rape or if the woman's health is in danger.



Unfortunately, nowhere in the bible does God say abortion is wrong.

Source



Name: (change name for anonymous posting) Title: Comments: 1 Article displayed.