From Rome, A Stone

“While the family of a 9-year-old incest victim’s abortion is excommunicated, the perpetrator never even made it to the ecclesial radar screen. Let this case signal the end of any credible claim to authority of bishops and the dawn of a new era when local communities determine their own members. I daresay the world will be a safer, kinder place.” Mary E. Hunt

An eighty-pound, nine-year-old girl in Brazil is impregnated with twins by her stepfather’s rape. Her doctors advise abortion, explaining that her tiny body will not carry to term without horrible damage or death. The Catholic church, having failed to block the abortion in court, excommunicates the girl’s mother.

The case has caused a furor. Abortion is illegal in Brazil except in cases of rape or when the mother's life is in danger, both of which apply in this case. Legality is not what counts in this human and spiritual tragedy. Mary Hunt of the Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) lays it out masterfully.

Here are excerpts from Hunt’s piece, printed in full at:
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/humanrights/1206/rdpulpit:_excommunicating_the_victims/

“The details of the case are grim. The little girl went to the hospital with stomach pains only to discover that she was four months pregnant. By any measure, the family involved is in big trouble. The father is gone, the mother has at least two children, one of whom is handicapped, and the stepfather is a sexual predator…

“The pregnancy happened because an adult male assaulted a girl child; an oft-told story, tragic every time. The mother endeavored to do the best she could in a bad situation… But the Roman Catholic Church used the tragedy to make a theo-political point...

“It is sickening and morally repugnant to realize that abortion, in this case the most humane solution to a terrible problem, is the cause of excommunication while sexual abuse is not. Something is seriously wrong with this picture, and it is the Roman Catholic Church...

“My sadness in this case comes not only from what has been done in the name of God to people who are living a nightmare, but from what might have been done to help. Sexual abuse, especially incest, is hard to stop. But once perpetrated it need not be made worse by ecclesial sanction...

“A proper pastoral response would include: support for the pregnant child as she lives through an abortion; care for the mother who is responsible for the child and the rest of the family; protection for the family from the stepfather whose arrest may trigger backlash behavior; sensitive work with the other daughter who has also been sexually abused; HIV and venereal disease testing for the girls and the mother; economic support for the family; counseling for the family, the community, even the neighbors and parishioners who have been affected by this trauma; prayer and pastoral attention, including reception of the sacraments according to the family’s wishes. They need a spiritual community more than ever. Instead they got excommunication.

“‘Is there anyone among you, who if your child asks for bread, will give a stone?’ (Matthew 7:9). Apparently there are several in Rome and Brazil...

“I believe that this case serves as further proof that the jig is up for Catholic clerics who dare to excommunicate a mother who has already suffered enough while they continue to embrace priest pedophiles and the bishops who hide their crimes. Let this case signal the end of any credible claim to authority such bishops might make, and the beginning of a new era when local communities determine their own members. I daresay the world will be a safer, kinder place.”