On March 11, 2009, The National Catholic Reporter -- NCR -- reported a horrible story under the headline, " Vatican lipservice to women in Women's History Month." It begins:
In an infuriating combination of events, the Vatican rang in Women's History Month by once again paying lip service to women's equality while showing its true colors. The day before Pope Benedict XVI called for increased commitment to women's dignity, a Vatican official announced his support for the excommunications of the mother and doctors of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion after being raped by her stepfather.
In Brazil, abortion is illegal except in cases of rape or when a woman's life is in danger, and both stipulations were fulfilled in this heartbreaking case. The doctors determined that the girl, who weighed only eighty pounds, would not survive this pregnancy. The girl's 23-year-old stepfather admitted to sexually abusing her for several years, and he is also suspected of abusing her physically disabled 14-year-old sister. He has since been arrested and placed in protective custody.
Last Saturday, Cardinal Giovanni Battista, prefect of the Congregation for Bishops and president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America, defended the excommunications first announced by Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, the girl's local archbishop. The very next day, on March 8—International Women's Day—Pope Benedict stated, "Today's date invites us to reflect on … our commitment that always and everywhere every woman can live and fully manifest her particular abilities, obtaining complete respect for her dignity.
How can this egregious hypocrisy even be possible? "
[http://ncronline.org/news/women/vatican-lipservice-women-womens-history-month.]
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In considering the actions of State and Church, after this nine year old child was rendered pregnant when raped by her stepfather, may I offer a quotation from the Latin of liturgy? Vere dignum et justum est -- It is truly right and just.
The NCR article reported that the stepfather " . . . has since been arrested and placed in protective custody." The police, on behalf of State, saw that the young girl's stepfather, admitting he was the rapist, was in danger of vigilante justice. In its compassion for citizens in trouble, State acted swiftly to protect him from such danger. Vere dignum et justum est.
The Archbishop, on behalf of the Church, devoid of compassion, saw only the Church's obsession with absolute power, also acted swiftly to throw out the mother and doctors involved in the abortion. No arrest. No trial. No protective custody. No loving embrace for those most in need of care and comfort. Vere dignum et justum est?
We are left to conjecture what Church and State will do for, on behalf of, or to the nine year old girl herself. The State might place her in an orphanage should the Archbishop and Cardinal so insist. If they stay huddled in sacred silence, State might offer her a witness protection program.
As for Church, well, should she forgive her stepfather and weep, the Archbishop and Cardinal might praise her for mercy and forgiveness. Should she protest the excommunications and weep for her mother and doctors, she faces instant excommunication.
The Pope, baffled by such awesome publicity, might unexcommunicate everybody in sight, wring his hands at heretics who hate the Roman Catholic Church so deeply and unjustly, elevate Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho to Cardinal and give him a basilica in Rome. For protective custody.
Vere dignum et justum est.
And we call it "Church."
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