Catholic Church sacrifices girl's welfare on the altar of Canon Law

Considering welfare for abortion

This is one case where my chain does get yanked and a clear situation of where religion has gone off on a tangent from the sombre circle of and sense of Christianity.

A girl of 9 was sexually abused [1] to the extent that it was discovered after she complained of stomach pains that she was carrying twins.

Doctors, note plural, there was more than one were concerned about the welfare of the girl and were of the professional opinion that the child was so small that her uterus cannot sustain one foetus let alone two.

In other words, this is a life threatening situation of a child who had been sexually abused by her step-father, a supposed person of trust in her family since she was six and it transpired that he had also been taking sexual favours off the girl’s handicapped older sister of 14.

A reason to act for life

Abortions in Brazil, a very Roman Catholic [2] country where the clergy hold sway in matter of social opinion has on its statute books the legality of abortion for cases of rape or where the life of the mother is at risk.

The girl’s condition ticked both boxes, so an abortion was procured to save the girl’s which no doubt is already traumatised but sexual abuse and unusual changes to her body along with the attention all that would have garnered.

It was the responsibility of well-meaning adults and professionals in society to consider and protect the welfare of the child with the hope that all would gather round her to ensure are welfare can find solace, succour and compassion in their religious communities.

Between the born and unborn

This was not to be the case, rather than finding a situation where religion deferred in service of humanity the Catholic Church in Brazil stuck to its “Absolutely No Abortion” stance.

The story reads that the Catholic Church tried to intervene to prevent the abortion, the corollary meaning they were happy to bury a child of 9 who had been sexually abused than preserve her life and counsel her to some sort of healing.

When the abortion was procured, the Catholic Church driven by religious dogma masquerading as God’s law excommunicated [3] the mother, the doctors and others that might have been involved.

On the altar of bad dogma

The Archbishop of Olinda and Recife [4], Jose Cardoso Sobrinho [5] seriously believes he is doing God’s bidding by saying the law of God was above any human law, which I would agree with but what law prefers risking the life of a child for the survival of an unborn child that cannot medically be carried to term?

I beg to differ, the Catholic Canon Law [6] that drives this decision is part of a legal system that is crudely church government; Canon Law [7] is NOT chapter and verse the Bible, it is NOT God’s law, it is human law promulgated for their purposes of association and adherence.

This is where the Catholic Church or its fundamentalist clergy have failed in their service to humanity because even if the girl has not been excommunicated she might well be driven in to the more compassionate arms of other church denomination when she fully learns that the Catholic Church did not care one iota about her life and welfare.

God does not live in the Catholic Church

Most importantly, what we should know is that the Church as a political and religious entity is simply a community gathering of people who adhere to a particular creed; it is not the conduit to God and not the exclusive arbiter in things concerning life.

God does not live in the Catholic Church and just being kicked out of the church does not mean the heavens have been brazen and impervious to prayer, supplication and thanksgiving.

These people should not be ostracised even though the Catholic hegemony lords it over 94.4% of a community of 3.5 million people, suggesting about 200,000 do not think the Catholic Church fulfils their religious requirements.

Do not hold back in condemnation

The mother has at least 2 daughters to rear and the doctors in their humanity were just doing their jobs – this kind of intemperate and atrocious action by the Catholic Church must be excoriated with the harshest words and condemned in its totality.

The causative actions that lead to this sorry episode were wrong, the Catholic Church have passed up on the opportunity for healing and ameliorative actions which is also wrong.

I am no advocate of abortion on demand, but the particular case of this girl is littered with unchristianly conduct, abominable indifference and unconscionable fundamentalism, coming so soon after one other holocaust denier’s excommunication was rescinded [8], the Catholic Church might be true to its soul but it is out of touch with its nominal societal goal.

It begs the question when the church would take the cases of child sexual abuse in their communities seriously rather than sacrifice the children on the altar of bad religion.

Source

[1] BBC NEWS | Americas | Rape row sparks excommunications

[2] Roman Catholic Church - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[3] CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Excommunication

[4] Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Olinda e Recife - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[5] Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho [Catholic-Hierarchy]

[6] Abortion and Excommunication - Catholic Christian Article

[7] Canon law - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

[8] BBC NEWS | Europe | Profile: Bishop Richard Williamson

Pope in Brazil gives no abortions message

Where are the Catholics?

The Pope has landed in Brazil and there is no doubt that he would be thronged by faithful adherents of the Roman Catholic doctrine and dogma as they gather for a message of hope, of peace and of love.

And that is to be expected, the encouragement to keep with the truth and the admonition to keep away from trends and fads that have no religious bearing on bringing succour to the people.

There is also a kind of disaffection amongst worshippers, people are looking for a livelier God, a kind of worship that includes reverence but also involves the whole of their being in vision, hearing and motion - the type that you would find in Protestant Evangelical churches to which Brazil is haemorrhaging followers.

A message for now?

It would appear the message of hope that the Pope takes to Brazil is the anti-abortion message, one that was at variance with medical realities - a few years ago, a 9-year old girl whose life was at risk if she took the pregnancy to term and the parents decided on an abortion - her parents were excommunicated because the life of the unborn child was more precious to keep than that of the suffering child who might not survive the ordeal of giving birth.

In that circumstance, the parents refused to risk the possible lose of their daughter and prospective grandchild to be succoured with the epithet - God giveth, God taketh away. Nobody, not the doctors nor the church could guarantee the survival of either party should the foetus have come to term.

Of doctrine and of relevance

Indeed, unborn life must be protected, but a humanity of circumstances has to be involved too; religion was made for man to help achieve peace, contentment and balance, it is not an ideological set of dogmatic rules upon which man should be offered as sacrifices to maintain an unconscionable status quo.

Too many times through history, we have allowed such machinations to deprive others of the right to live or exist; driven by some force that portends to speak and act for God, men arrogate to themselves powers that do not belong to any man on earth to exercise terror and dominate the pliant; this should not be so.

We know of the poverty, the disease, the illiteracy, the crime and destitution in certain communities in Brazil - the followers of Catholic doctrine must ask their Holy Father one question - How does the anti-abortion message change our lives for the better, how does it raise Brazilians out of desperate circumstances?

Basically, does the anti-abortion message have any relevance to those who hunger, who suffer, who are deprived and who need a different kind of help?

Even I am listening for an answer in the comfort and security of my Western affluence.