…when it comes to the Brazillian abortion furore.
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva showed great courage and compassion in criticising the actions of the Catholic Church in relation to the comments and threatened excommunication of people involved in the abortion of a 9 year old girls twins.
He is quoted as saying,
“As a Christian and a Catholic, I deeply regret that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a conservative attitude,” he said.
“The doctors did what had to be done – save the life of a girl of nine years.
“In this case, the medical profession was more right than the Church.” [source]
Previously the Catholic Arch- douchebag Father Jose Cardoso Sobrinho had decreed that,
“God’s law is above any human law, so when a human law … is contrary to God’s law, this human law has no value,” Father Cardoso said.
“The adults who approved, who carried out this abortion, will be excommunicated.”[source]
Strangely enough though, child rape doesn’t get you excommunicated, as the vile perpetrator is still welcome in the eyes of the church. Let’s face it, though if they excommunicated every child rapist in the catholic church they would suffer significant staffing issues.
So I would hope Australian catholics are squirming uncomfortably in heir seats at this point, perhaps passing this off as the “Enthusiastic Brazilians” being a little too passionate about their religion.
But then we have this from a senior Vatican Official:
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re told Italian paper La Stampa that the twins “had the right to live” and attacks on Brazil’s Catholic Church were unfair.[source]
The cardinal sees the two twins as persons and states that they had a right to life – but the Nine year old doesn’t?
Hard line anti-abortionists will play a game of semantics and say that it wasn’t absolutely certain that the girl would die , preferring of course to risk the life of the 9 year old and the twin on the slim chance that they could have 3 lives instead of one. Leaving it all to the will of God
Of course these are the same people that will go and see a doctor for a potentially fatal medical condition for themselves, not content to leave that to the will of god are they?
H/T Library Grape
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I see the Church's public excommunications as dramatic demonstration of their desire to exert power and authority over their followers. The church figuratively puts "heads on pikes" to make it clear to Church followers they depend on the Church for their salvation. This is not subtle persuasion but outright extortion. But in times of declining submission to Church authority. Such public demonstration of their power maybe vital to their survival.
I think in a Catholic stronghold like Brazil that this trick still works ie the heads on spikes – at least amoung the uneducated/poor. In a place like Australia I think it has less influence. I see at as a desparate attempt to hold on to power – I think even some Australian clergy would baulk at criticising the doctors acting out of compassion – but then I was recently surprised by the local parish priest who thought that Bush was a great defender of human life through his support of the pro-life brigade.
Who knows?:S
As a Christian and a Catholic, I deeply regret that a bishop of the Catholic Church has such a [misogynistic, hateful] attitude,” he said.
There, I fixed it.
The protestant churches are as bad if not worse, but have less scrutiny.
And less power no?
The picture says it all. Pope has got his priorities all wrong.
What happened to my comment? Did the evil Intense Debate demons eat it?
found it un-spamming now
Couldn't unspam it, posted below:'(
Danny Boy, FCD commented on Catholic Church out of touch, out of love, out of compassion –
It seems like it's an endemic problem of the Catholic church. When your hierarchy is all-male, and your only female role model is a fictional virgin, then I can see where the misogyny is coming from. Here in the Philippines, the church has gone full force to prevent the government from passing a "magna carta for women" and a "reproductive health bill", and they don't care that the majority of its followers support these two measures. They are out of touch, out of love, out of compassion.
http://atheisthaven.blogspot.com/2009/03/no-abort...
Apparently the Church views holocaust deniers more highly than a bunch of dastardly abortion doctors!!!!
And, like as you have mentioned, no one condemns the rapist, cos the priests are doing it themselves, except for one minus difference: Altar boys never ever get pregnant!
Beast FCD
No worries. Thanks for the effort.
I'm just miffed at the stubborn intransigence of the catholic church. They want to hold on to power in their little fiefdom in the pacific. The Philippines is one of only two countries that has an absolute ban on divorce (for any reason), and one of about eleven countries that has an absolute ban on abortion (for any reason). The (mostly catholic) populace is just now trying to have a say on how to run the country and the church hierarchy has been playing dirty politics (lobbying, black mail, etc) to make sure we don't emancipate ourselves from the burden of Rome.
Ah yes the Phillipines and the legacy of the friars. How odd that the church plays dirty. The try the same thing here but it usually gets called for what it is
Let’s face it, though if they excommunicated every child rapist in the catholic church they would suffer significant staffing issues.
LOL. I love it. Anyways, they welcome holocaust deniers and excommunicate rape victims…then preach to us about morality. Wtf is wrong with them?
They'll take anyone as long as it props up their power base. At least the church does not have total control in Brazil and the offender will spend tie in prison. The girl will receive a life sentence though, and without proper counseling I fear that she will probably terminate it at her own hand.
Conditional compassion eh?
child rape doesn’t get you excommunicated, as the vile perpetrator is still welcome in the eyes of the church
That tells me all I need to know about the morality of official Catholicism.
As for the power thing, I think Pope Benny is playing a desperate game. I also think the Cardinals were nuts for electing this guy to lead them in the 21st century. Maybe their mitres are too tight.
I think Benny was put in as a short termer. The previous pope was an anomaly regrading length of service
All popes are in for a short timer. By the time you become a pope, you are old enough to smell the rotting flesh in your brain, which is precisely what is happening to Pope Benedict.
There again, I digress. The whole system is a rotting mass of mass orgies, misplaced morality and total bigotry.
And oh, don't forget………the holocaust never happened.
Beast FCD
I believe the original intent was to ensure that if they chose the wrong guy that he couldn't do too much damage:D