Brazilian archbishop: All who helped a child rape victim secure abortion are to be excommunicated

[BigBearJohn]

The girl, aged nine, who lives in the north-eastern state of Pernambuco, became pregnant with twins.

It is alleged that she had been sexually assaulted over a number of years by her stepfather.

The excommunication applies to the child's mother and the doctors involved in the procedure.

The pregnancy was terminated on Wednesday.

SOURCE: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7926694.stm

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Makes me ashamed to have once been a Catholic. Boy did I make the right decision by leaving.

[ck4829]

1. "child's mother and the doctors, are to be excommunicated. "

No word on the stepfather.

[TechBear_Seattle]

6. Rape and pedophilia *encourage* procreation

Therefore, they are moral and proper. :eyes:

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

8. He's probably still in good standing

After all, he didn't cause the abortion--he just caused the pregnancy. Question--even though the Church isn't going after him, how about civil authorities? Is child rape a crime in Brazil?

[rug]

9. He's in prison.

[TechBear_Seattle]

17. But shriven, not excommunicated n/t

[ejpoeta]

2. but the stepfather's still cool with the church, huh. that just says it all.

[Jamastiene]

3. Those people are sick, deranged, and demented.

The need to get their noses out of that child's life. Let her do whatever she needs to do to survive being raped.

Fuck that archbishop, hard, sideways, with a stack of porcupine quills. :mad:

[jody]

4. At least the religious leaders didn't stone or behead the victim like other religions do. n/t

[Bill McBlueState]

16. The Catholic church could make a new motto out of that

"The Roman Catholic Church: At least we're not the Taliban!"

[bulloney]

5. "There's THAT many archbishops in Brazil?" asked George W. Bush.

Seriously, is that archbishop that obsessed over the abortion that he's overlooking the fact that the stepfather of the girl (and I mean GIRL)allegedly raped her to impregnate her?

That's what's turning me off on a lot of the clergy and administration of the Catholic church. Everything revolves around ONE issue--abortion. You can have a lying sack of shit for a president lie an entire nation into a war and basically destroy another country, kill hundreds of thousands, displace millions, and that's no big deal. You can have a president who takes a cavalier approach to executing people, and that's OK.

But perform ONE abortion performed over extraordinary circumstances, and the whole church has major convulsions.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

7. Well, I wouldn't want to belong to an organization

that thought it was fine and dandy for a child rape victim to have to carry the products of incest to term. I hope the mother and doctor are supported by others who agree with what they did.

[Odin2005]

10. I already knew RCC is an abomination, but this is sick beyond words.

:puke:

[Generic Other]

11. did any of their pedopriests get excommunicated?

the church reeks of corruption.

[MattBaggins]

12. So why is the Catholic Church acting like the GOP

The church is bleeding members at an alarming rate. They are closing down churches and schools all over the world, yet they decide the response to this is to go hardline and chase even more folks away. This new pope risks destroying everything the last one did. Let's also not forget the hypocritical and selective enforcement we see from them. Outlets like ETWN spend hours a day treating women like breeding cows, yet they won't say more then a token word about poverty or war.

To be fair; they have no other choice as they are in the same boat as most of their counterparts. They have lost the liberal or liberal leaning moderates, which leaves the more conservative members by default, in charge. Churches are not going to waste their time appealing to people who are not going to come back, especially if it all it will accomplish is a loss of the conservative members.

[Maru Kitteh]

13. It may end up being the best thing that's ever happened to them

It SHOULDN'T happen - they should be able to practice their faith without fear from those who are sworn to love and guide them for the "crime" of protecting a 9 year old little girl from death by pregnancy and a baby rapist.

It shouldn't happen, but it may be the best thing that ever happens to them.

[Maru Kitteh]

14. And one more thing.

So exactly where did cardinal shithead earn his medical degree?

[Lyric]

15. FYI: Excommunication does not mean that they're "kicked out"

of the church forever. It can be (and usually is) lifted with confession, repentance, and penance. So unfortunately, none of these people are likely to be leaving the church for good.

Frankly, I wish they WOULD leave. They have a lot of moral courage to stand up to the church in support of that little girl's life. There are other faiths that would reward that moral courage with praise, sympathy, and honor instead of excommunication and condemnation.

I see this as the sort of nightmarish thing that comes from allowing religion to have too much say in your society. This is the sort of thing that we, as Americans, will be facing if churches continue to gain little footholds of power and influence over our government and legal system, as they did in Proposition 8. We must fight the incursions of aggressive faith, not out of hostility to religion, but out of our collective duty to keep America as free as possible, and out of respect for the First Amendment of the Constitution, which is the most powerful defensive shield that we have.