Bravo President Lula - the medical profession was more right than the Church

[malaise]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7929712.stm
<snip>
The Brazilian president has criticised a Catholic archbishop for excommunicating several people who helped a young girl have an abortion.

The nine-year-old child underwent the abortion of twins she conceived after alleged abuse by her stepfather.

President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, himself a Catholic, said he regretted what he described as the cleric's deeply conservative attitude.

But his actions were criticised by President Lula, who said: "As a Christian and a Catholic I deeply regret that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude.

"The doctors did what had to be done: save the life of a girl nine years old.

"In this case, the medical profession was more right than the Church," AFP news agency quoted him as saying.
-------------------------
Now ask the archbishop how the fugg he came up with any god's laws.
I hope doctors ignore the archbishop when he comes seeking medical attention. I would tell him his god has decided it's time for him to die.

[Idealism]

1. Can you imagine an American president ever saying that?

"In this case, the medical profession was more right than the Church."

I am very proud of Lula for this type of stand.

[malaise]

6. They'll probably excommunicate him as well

He's right - the catholic church is not above the law or medical ethics.

[Idealism]

7. Being right isn't always the popular choice n/t

[sufrommich]

16. Yes, I can imagine Obama saying it. nt

[ulysses]

2. happy to k&r.

[EFerrari]

3. Lula is going to be very important in the next four years.

K&R

[LakeSamish706]

4. I know that this is changing the subject a tad... But I sure hope that this stepfather....

rots in a jail cell for life... This is despicable at best and I know that it happens more often than is reported.

[malaise]

5. He has been arrested and the report I heard said

he's likely to to be jailed for 15 years. Bet the archbishop visits him in prison.

[Sinistrous]

8. Killing the messenger...

The archbishop was only stating what is explicit in Canon Law (see Canon 1398).

In this case, the Church is grotesquely in error, but the archbishop had no choice.

[dflprincess]

9. The archbishop could have kept his mouth shut

Head over to Catholic.com the people defending this asshole are sickening. As far as I'm concerned, he's no better than the man who raped the 9 year old.

I told my mother that this is the last straw for me. I don't know how I'm even going to bring myself to walk into a Catholic Church for a family wedding or funeral after this.

[Sinistrous]

11. Keeping his mouth shut would not have made any difference.

The excommunication was automatic.

This is merely a legal nit. I am only saying that the archbishop should not be the object of our opprobrium, but the Church itself.

[MattBaggins]

19. Just doing his job BS defense?

As a Cardinal; he is high enough up in the Church to be personally criticized.

[knitter4democracy]

10. The Church ignores canon laws all the time.

I know that we still have canon laws in the Orthodox Church that say women can't wear pants, have to wear headcoverings, and don't allow any piercings of any kind. It's not like our bishops enforce those. Granted, that one's bigger and more important, but where's the mercy? Abortion was allowed under Jewish law in Jesus's day, and that's why the Church never was entirely against it until the RCC passed that law in, what, the late 1800s?

[Sinistrous]

12. Google "latae sententiae" n/t

[knitter4democracy]

18. Huh. Makes me glad I'm Orthodox.

We're not quite that weird or legalistic most of the time.

[Sinistrous]

26. From your comments, I gather that the Orthodox take

a more realistic and humane approach to human dilemmas than the RCs.

[dflprincess]

23. Around 1868 I think

It was also around that time that abortion became illegal in the U.S. But, the first anti-abortion laws were originally passed because the procedures available at the time were extremely dangerous (and no antibiotics, of course) that the laws were intended to protect women from near certain death. At that time, as dangerous as childbirth was then, it was safer than abortion.

[knitter4democracy]

25. That's a very good point.

It's also why most of the early feminists were against abortion. To them, it was a hugely dangerous procedure often forced on the woman that too often resulted in her death. Big difference between then and now.

[roody]

14. He had a choice. Father Roy Bouegious was excommunicated for

refusing to recant his support of women priests. But then Roy is a Christian.

[Sinistrous]

15. Sorry.

Apples vs. Oranges. Different rules apply.

[roody]

17. The question is "Is one going to make their

life count for something? Or merely live and die?"

[dflprincess]

27. You don't get to be an archbishop unless you know how to play the game

this guy isn't interested in what's right or wrong - he's concerned about his career. If he's young enough, he's probabably thinking he can get a red hat out of this deal and that gives him a shot at the papacy.

[MattBaggins]

20. When they excommunicate

right wingers that vote for war or sentence people to death; I will entertain your "they have to do this" silly argument. Until that time I will go by they can apply Vatican rules as they wish or ignore them as they wish.

[roody]

21. "They have to do this"? You are not quoting me.

[bvar22]

13. K&R for Lula.

South America is being reborn.
The reforms sweeping across South/Central America is the BIGGEST story NOT reported in the MSM.

[EFerrari]

22. Kick. I like Lula more every day. Good for him!

[Zhade]

24. Well, duh. Science is always more right than any church.

For one thing, science has actual facts on its side.