This is disturbing. Many of you heard about the 9-year-old Brazilian girl who was impregnated by a relative and was carrying twins.  Upon learning of the situation, the local priest made every effort to communicate to the family that the Church would provide care for the children (all 3 of them,) and tried to talk the parents out of an abortion.  The parents went through with procuring an abortion, and the Bishop followed suit by declaring that the parents and doctors involved had excommunicated themselves by their actions.

As we’d hear from American Papist, this is a good case of bishop backbone.  But wait.  This headline from the AP (and swallow before you read so you don’t foul up your monitor):

“Vatican prelate defends abortion for 9-year-old.”

Apparently a letter from a Vatican official criticizes the excommunication.  The point worth making, of course, is that these folks excommunicated themselves, and the Bishop cannot get around that.  Fr. Euteneuer from Human Life International’s article:

The incident in question involves – unbelievably – the head of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who issued a statement on March 15th criticizing a bishop in Brazil for properly declaring to be excommunicated the doctors…

The great irony in all this is that while we get little or no support from Church officials to correct bishops who are negligent in their duty to guard the faith and the flock, in this case, the local bishop did exactly the right thing in issuing this excommunication edict and he was slapped down by a Vatican official!

The appearance of a Vatican compromise on this issue comes at the worst possible time in the cultural and political situation of Latin America. This Catholic continent is especially the target of attack by the aggressive forces of the culture of death, so the last thing we need is for the Church to look weak or divided about our teachings or our resolve to fight the purveyors of death to our brothers and sisters there.

A couple of Protestant folks I know who have long-term connections to missions work in Brazil have explained that syncretism is alive and well there – mixing and matching different aspects of different faiths.  So although they are predominantly Catholic, it seems more a cultural Catholicism than an actual faith / belief system.  Here the Church could assert herself as a moral authority…but if a Vatican prelate is waffling on an issue that is a clear as can be, then what good can come from it?

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