The case of a Brazilian nine-year-old girl who was raped and impregnated by her stepfather has shocked many in that country and the world. However, there is a strikingly different view of the most serious elements of this crime. For the Vatican, the most shocking part is that the girl was given an abortion at the recommendation of doctors who said that she was too young to give birth. The Church has now excommunicated the mother and the doctors. It has decided not to excommunicate the step father.
Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho insisted 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.” He only briefly addressed the decision to retain the stepfather as a Catholic while excommunicating the mother and doctors. Cardoso simply said that while the stepfather committed “a heinous crime … the abortion – the elimination of an innocent life – was more serious”.
Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, head of the Catholic church’s Congregation for Bishops and the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, said that the mother’s and girl’s crime was worse than the rape by aborting two twin fetuses: “Life must always be protected, the attack on the Brazilian church is unjustified.”
When the girl’s 4-month pregnancy was discovered, she told police that she had been sexually abuse by her stepfather since the age of six. The 23-year-old stepfather also allegedly sexually abused the girl’s physically handicapped 14-year-old sister. He has been arrested. Remarkably, however, in Brazil, the alleged raping of a child since she was six and the rape of a handicapped child will only bring a maximum sentence of 15 years.
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poor little girl i feel so sorry for her
LET’S GET THIS RIGHT: 9 YEAR OLD HAS AN ABORTION YOU GET KICKED OUT OF CHURCH. RAPE A 9 YEAR OLD GO TO THE FRONT OF THE PEW. WHAT IS THIS? RIGHT NOW I AM GLAD I AM A BAPTIST
To hell with those catholics. they think they are so above everyone else.
This is infuriating. “Protecting life”? What about the life of the 9 year old raped girl? I fail to see how saving the life of a rape victim is worse than the rape itself. This is sickening. I hope somebody strings that guy up by his balls.
This would be why I am NOT Catholic. The step-father SHOULD be RAPED & MURDERED!!! The hell with the “Catholic” ppl. They ALWAYS cover-up their priests’ crimes, that of molesting INOCENT children. I saw the documentary of that on the NEWS!!! I would drag HIS name thru the mud befor I worry about “religion” or “Catholic” for that matter!!!!!!!!!!!
I don’t know how the Pope and all his outdated cronies can be so inhumane towards this poor child and her family. Who gave the Pope the right and authority to decide that those concerned with her termination were no longer worthy of God surely only God himself can judge a person and another little thing… didn’t Jesus preach forgiveness to all mankind and his sins or am I missing something here? It should be the Pope and all his perverted clan that should be cast into the fires of hell along with the step father.
I am a Christian but thank the Lord I am not a catholic, it seems to me that the Vatican are the patron saint of paedophiles. Lets face it the Roman Catholic church has repressed and down-trodden it’s followers for centuries.
This girl and her family deserve much better than that and I am sure that God will support the family and the doctor concerned and lead them to the path of true Christian values as those poor people are worth more than what the catholic church has done to them. God bless that little girl and her family.
If it threatened her life, I’m all in favor. Self-defense.
The girl wasn’t excommunicated, though.
http://adamsmith.wordpress.com/2009/03/30/may-you-rot-in-hell/
Why should we be surprised
More insanity committed in the name of God.If we thought John Paul II was a Neanderthal, and he was, this Prada-wearing pontiff is a throwback to the Dark Ages.Before he became pope he proudly silenced some of the most progressive thinkers in the RCC.His assault on all compassionate and rational people shows no sign of abating in the near future.
And by “this” I mean the strategy of dogma over the will of the people.
If it’s any consolation, this has really backfired for the Pope.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29645316/
The girl went through a horrible thing not only with her step-father but also going through the abortion, who cares what the church is saying or doing, I use to be a Catholic but I left that behind me a long time ago, just because of the way they see things. The girl has only to worry about God he is the one and only that can judge her not the church and believe me after what she has gone through, I asure you the lord has forgiven her. The church has never had the right to judge anyone, only God.
Anyone who places more value on the spawn of a rapist over the safety and wellbeing of the nine-year-old victim of said rapist is as big, if not bigger, a monster than the rapist.
To be fair, the church doesn’t always discriminate against women. They are just as supportive of little boys being raped as they are of girls being raped.
The Catholic Church is the world’s largest pedophile organization, (NAMBLA comes in second).
The mother did the right thing, having the baby would have killed the already born child.
They should consider themselves lucky to be out of the clutches of the Catholic Church who after excommunicating them, probably had themselves an orgy with kindergarten boys.
The ranks of former Catholics are increasing all the time.
A Pew survey showed that their church had lost 30 million members in the last half century. Thirty million!
(Absolute numbers have not decreased only because of the infux of first generation immigrants. Experience shows that the second and third generations will fall away also).
One in ten Americans is in the category variously described as ex-catholic, fallen-away catholic, grateful recovering catholic, or rational human being. This is one of the largest religious bodies in the country.
The Protestant and other churches are teeming with former Catholics who are seeking religion that is not nonsensical.
Well the good news is . . .
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29585222/
Meanwhile, Catholics in Connecticut are distracted from important matters such as this because a priest within their own parishes are convicted of financial misdeeds which include buying a swanky seafront condo in which to entertain his boyfriend.
And people wonder why protestant congregations are attracting so many disaffected Catholics.
Former Fed,
Well said. The girl will not only be a pariah, she had to go the sequence of being villified by the church due to the fact that her mother was excommunicated for protecting her child. And Dpeifer, you have forgotten that the rapist was not excommunicated.