When you die, say hi to the horned one for me.

If anything else is needed to prove the fundamental vileness of the Vatican, it's this.

A CATHOLIC archbishop has sparked controversy in Brazil by saying the mother of a nine-year-old girl who had an abortion on Wednesday following a rape is automatically excommunicated for allowing the procedure to go ahead.

Archbishop José Cardoso Sobrinho of Olinda and Recife also declared that according to canon law the doctor who performed the abortion is considered excommunicated, along with anyone else involved.

The child was raped by her stepfather, who has since admitted abusing her over the last three years. Abortion is generally illegal in Brazil but allowed in cases of rape or when the pregnancy endangers the mother’s life.

The child entered hospital in the northeastern city of Recife on Tuesday night, where she was given medication to interrupt the pregnancy, which doctors said was terminated by early Wednesday morning. She was pregnant with twins.

The archbishop’s statements have drawn condemnation from Brazilian politicians and caused disquiet among some theologians concerned by the difficulties raised by the case.

But Archbishop Cardoso Sobrinho has denied media reports that he personally ordered the excommunications. “I simply recalled what is in church canon law. Excommunication is automatic for those who participate in an abortion. I did not excommunicate anyone, just remembered the church’s law which says they are automatically excommunicated,” he said.

Before the abortion was carried out the archdiocese’s lawyers threatened to charge the mother with homicide, citing the Brazilian constitution’s guarantee to the right to life.

The doctor who carried out the procedure has defended his actions. “If the pregnancy had continued, the damage would have been worse, being a high risk pregnancy. The risk would have been of death or at the very least that she would never have been able to become pregnant again,” Dr Olímpio Moraes told O Globo newspaper.

“There are two legal justifications for abortion envisioned by the law, which are rape and risk to life. She [the girl] falls within the two and, as a doctor, I could not let a girl of nine years be submitted to this suffering and even pay with her own life.”

But Archbishop Cardoso Sobrinho has dismissed the fact that the abortion was legal under Brazilian law as irrelevant to the question of excommunication. “God’s law is above whatever human law. So when a human law is contrary to God’s law, this human law has no value,” he said.

The archbishop made clear that the excommunication did not extend to the young girl at the centre of the case. Archbishop Cardoso Sobrinho is a leading member of the Brazilian Catholic Church’s conservative wing and a firm opponent of abortion which he calls a “silent holocaust”.

And some more from the SMH:

The operation - carried out on Wednesday because of doctors' fears the slender girl might die if she carried the foetuses to term - was a crime in the eyes of the church, he said.

"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," Cardoso told the news television network Globo.

"The adults who approved, who carried out this abortion, will be excommunicated," said the archbishop for the Recife region.

[my emphasis]

Cardoso, I know that this is just a little girl we're talking about-because, hey, you really aren't all for equal gender rights-but she is 9 years old and pregnant. I don't know about you, but a 9/10 year old girl giving birth probably won't do a lot of good for her emotional health. Not only that, but if she gives birth, she'll almost certainly die, which kinda goes against your 'pro-life' mantra. Not that you'd care, given that the Vatican is totally opposed to anything more progressive them a Middle Ages approach to reproductive health.

You're supposed represent love and compassion-where the fuck have you shown that? Where's the compassion and mercy for a little girl has been raped for years on end, whose emotional trauma would rival that of a Holocaust survivor? You talk about reproductive health measures denying the littlest children the right to life-how exactly does that stand with a child risking death from pregnancy? Is a clump of stem cells more important then a human being that can think, feel and be hurt? Hell, how does that work with celibacy?! Just how many littlest children have you denied life to?

I'll bet you're all so glad you changed those theological abortion laws (how does that work anyway? Does it mean that past Popes were wrong on the issue? If so, doesn't it mean that this Pope could be wrong?) to further oppress women. What Else Would Jesus Do?

I also note that you've excommunicated the doctors and the mother, but neither the girl nor the step-father. I assume that as far as you're concerned, the girl is being forced to have abortion against her will*. Hey, have you even for a moment considered what the girl wants? Did you ever consider-even for a second-that she might want to simply try piece her life back together, with even a hint of normality? Given that she will otherwise die, I'm willing to bet my internal organs that she wouldn't want to be giving birth at 10. Of course, in your reality, a pair of fetuses that can cannot think or feel or do anthing take priority over a girl who can feel, be traumatised, have aspirations, feel for others and in general be more of a human then you and the rest of you twisted sycophantic rapist-coddlers could ever hope to be. (hell, a fucking zygote is more human then you)
And the step-father, you haven't even mentioned him in your list of excommunications. Why not? Doesn't child-rape count as a sin as well? (actually...don't answer that. I don't wanna hear it)

And then the Vatican has the utter gall to claim so much as a hint of moral superiority in the world.

I'll add this to the list.

On a final note: Cardoso rants on about God's law being all important; what I can't understand is that if abortion is so morally wrong, why do at least 25% of all pregnancies end in a miscarriage? I'd love to see a Bishop answer that with a straight face.

*Which, if it were true, would be equally horrific. If it were true.

UPDATE @ 1250 8/3/09: Darn, forgot to show cross postings here and here.

Also here and here.