You’d think the Catholic Church would be ecouraging people to sign up to its shrinking flock, not turning them away. But no, they’re now excommunicating people for saving children’s lives.
Here’s the story, as reported by The Irish Times: a nine-year old girl in Brazil is repeatedly raped by her step-father. Remarkably, she becomes pregnant wth twins. Her mother finds a doctor to perform an abortion, which is legal in Brazil in cases of rape and danger to the mother’s life — both true in this case. Brazilian Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho reminds us that both the doctor and the abused child’s mother are automatically excommunicated. God’s law, he says, is more important that the laws of man.
Oddly enough, this man who presumes to speak for God says not a thing about the other man in the case, the one who spent three years sexually assaulting a young child. Though you’d think that might be an area of expertise for Catholic clerics.
