What would God say?

The excommunication of a raped pregnant girl's mother and the doctors who practiced the abortion in Brazil is yet another stumble by the Catholic Church. Though objection to abortion is legitimate, this case was unquestionably abhorrent, and advocating that a nine year old girl carry out a twin pregnancy and have a C-section is bordering lunacy.

Yet we are no strangers to a resurgent extremism in the Catholic Church. With the benefit of a former head Inquisitor (they now call it "Congregation for Doctrine of the Faith), the Vatican has endorsed outbursts of medieval power hunger. According to Corriere della Sera, the Vatican has lent its aegis to Archbishop Sobrinho, who not only ordered the excommunications but claimed that Church law is above State law.

What conclusions can we draw from this show of mediocrity (hint: Sobrinho is wrong)? In a world drifting toward secularism, the Church can apparently either succumb to relativism or to its antithesis, radical conservatism. In both cases, it would implode. The synthesis, on the other hand, remains to be found. It is definitely possible to reconcile a religious moral teaching within a secular legislative framework, as long as no participant expects to rule over the other's jurisdiction. The failure to grasp this simple rule is leading the Catholic Church to its demise.

The excommunication is within the Church's right, combined with lack of it in the rapist's case it becomes a right to hypocrisy. This case will further alienate more laymen from the Catholic church, in a dangerous drift that leads to his most zealous advocates confining Christ to an isolated minority niche. In all this brouhaha, I thank my parents' actions that led to me being baptized Orthodox, for my Church never expected me to belittle the importance of the law of the land I live in.