Vatican Defends Brazilian Catholic Church After Excommunication Of Mother Of 9 Year Old Rape Victim

A senior Vatican official has come out in defense of the Brazilian Archbishop who excommunicated the mother and doctors who helped a 9 year old rape victim, pregnant with her stepfather’s twins, receive an abortion.

“It is a sad case but the real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated,” said Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, “Life must always be protected, the attack on the Brazilian Church is unjustified.” Brazil’s Catholic president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, disagreed with the Cardinal: “The doctors did what had to be done: save the life of a girl of nine years old,” he said. [BBC]