Vatican Official Defends Abortion

Don't look now, but I think hell just froze over -- or there is a crack in the Vatican's armor.

The Vatican's top bioethics official said the two Brazilian doctors who performed an abortion on a 9-year-old rape victim do not merit excommunication, because they acted to save her life.

The statement, by Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, appeared as the lead article in last Sunday's issue of the official Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano.

"There are others who deserve excommunication and our forgiveness," Fisichella wrote, addressing the unidentified rape victim, "not those who permitted you to live and who will help you to regain hope and faith."

The case drew international attention earlier this month after the local Catholic archbishop excommunicated the doctors who aborted the girl's twin fetuses, as well as the girl's mother.

The child was 15 weeks pregnant, allegedly after being raped by her stepfather. Weighing only 80 pounds, she might have died if forced to carry the pregnancy to term, the doctors said.

What I liked about this report is the acknowledgement that 1) abortion CAN be the best decision for women and girls; and 2) decisions about reproductive health should be left to the woman (or in this case girl) and her physician.

Even when doing the right thing, the Vatican couldn't resist taking a swipe at women having the right to safe and legal abortion.

While reiterating Catholic teaching that abortion is an "intrinsically wicked act," Fisichella suggested that under the circumstances, it might have been the lesser evil.

There are a myriad of reasons why women choose abortion. This report indicates why it's so important that women, in consultation with their physicians, be allowed to make this decision for themselves.

It's surprising to me that the Vatican would allow this pubic discussion.

Vatican officials rarely air their differences in public, let alone on the front page of the pope's newspaper.

According to respected Vatican journalist Sandro Magister, Fisichella's article was probably approved in advance by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, who as secretary of state is considered the Vatican's No. 2 official, after Pope Benedict XVI.

After nearly two months of international controversy over the pope's decision to readmit a Holocaust-denying bishop to the church in late January, Magister called this case of crossed signals the latest indication of confusion at the highest levels of the Holy See.

"It is yet another sign of the disorder that reigns in the Curia," Magister said, referring to the church's international governing bureaucracy. "It shows that Benedict XVI is paying the price for refusing to reform the Curia."

My good friend Fran at FranIAm is going to have to explain this to me. One good thing that I've learned from my day job is that there are some pretty terrific people of faith out there -- and Fran is definitely one of them.