And this is why people leave the Catholic Church

[BoyzMommy]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29531755

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."
Story continues below ↓advertisement | your ad here

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.

A similar case in southern Brazil surfaced Thursday. Authorities in Rio Grande do Sul state told the O Globo newspaper that an 11-year-old girl allegedly raped by her stepfather is seven months pregnant.

The 51-year-old stepfather has been in jail since January while the girl is in a hospital for high risk pregnancies and apparently will not have an abortion.


This sort of thing is EXACTLY why I left the Catholic Church: Blatant stupidity by the old boys club that runs it

[gardengirl]

Exactly. I would like to know what part of God's Law includes the rape of children.
It's sickening.

[Catz]

I totaly agree.
It is pathetic, and sickening.

[Phoenix Within]

Exactly. I would like to know what part of God's Law includes the rape of children.
It's sickening.

Well that' s just it, it's not God's law, it's man's law and calling it from God. I dunno, after seeing some of the decision's that have been made lately by the Catholic Church, I think Pope John Paul II is rolling in his grave.

However I'm also shocked that a 9-year-old girl was able to conceive (i know it's not impossible but still... wow!)!

[eyepop]

Exactly. I would like to know what part of God's Law includes the rape of children.
It's sickening.

Well that' s just it, it's not God's law, it's man's law and calling it from God. I dunno, after seeing some of the decision's that have been made lately by the Catholic Church, I think Pope John Paul II is rolling in his grave.

However I'm also shocked that a 9-year-old girl was able to conceive (i know it's not impossible but still... wow!)!

it's like a miracle.

[warden]

[sarcasm]And just to make this story so much better:

Rape Row Sparks Excommunications

The Catholic Church tried to intervene to prevent the abortion going ahead but the procedure was carried out on Wednesday.

Now a Church spokesman says all those involved, including the child's mother and the doctors, are to be excommunicated.

[Mr Danksworth]

What a disgusting, pathetic lot the catholic church is, but then again, look what god they are emulating....I'm not surprised in the least. The only good this will do is drive more people from their already shrinking membership.

[NoOne]

another sad thing is that the step fathers of these girls can keep their church status. true catholics.

rape a 9 year old girl. get her pregnant. repent. all is forgiven.

[usquebaugh]

Methinks the step-father should be excommunicated from his testicles.

[grammafreddy]

Exactly. I would like to know what part of God's Law includes the rape of children.
It's sickening.

Ummm ......... it's highly approved of by a few churches, y'know. The Catholic Church does it best, IMO, but there are others, too.

Ever hear of residential schools?????????

[grammafreddy]

another sad thing is that the step fathers of these girls can keep their church status. true catholics.

rape a 9 year old girl. get her pregnant. repent. all is forgiven.

Ah yes ... a true Christian ... sows wild oats all week and goes to church on Sundays to pray for a crop failure.

[Glacier]

Methinks the step-father should be excommunicated from his testicles.

Amen!

[usquebaugh]

Methinks the step-father should be excommunicated from his testicles.

Amen!

"Make it so, Number One."

[zzontar]

Again I wonder if some people are not against the raping as much as they are against religion... there were so many rapes committed by soldiers abusing their powers in different wars it would make your head spin, yet not a single thread about it. Guaranteed if every soldier that kept his mouth shut and covered it up were priests, some folks on here would go crazy and their heads would pop right off about it yet wouldn't say a thing if it were the soldiers. Sad to use a horrible crime just to fuel a hatred.

[usquebaugh]

Don't you think it's the "holier than thou" attitude that the Catholic Church has, and the fact that priests (and male parishioners) apparently can get away with this, under the mantel of religion, that pisses people off? Of course, rape and pedophilia wherever it occurs pisses me off (as it does most people). It just happens that the Catholic Church has had a very prominent role in covering its perverted priests' collective *bleep*, and now we see that coverage extending to male parishioners. I'm sure people know that soldiers rape women and children (there's a reason that the phrase is "rape and pillage") during war time, but it happens wherever there aren't any wars, too. And historically, rape has been an underreported crime (even in the West), because of how police used to question a woman, as though to suggest whatever she'd been wearing or if she'd gone out to a club meant she'd been "asking for it."

It also pisses me off to no end when the child is victimized, simply because at the age of nine she had an abortion to terminate a pregnancy that could have resulted in her death, not to mention the emotional scarring of having to carry around a reminder of being raped by her step-father for nine months. Jesus Christ.