Wanna Know Why I'm Not Catholic?

The Vatican defended the choice of the Archbishop of Recife, Brazil to excommunicate a 9 year old victim of rape/incest because she had an abortion. Doctors believed that the girl, who weighs 80 pounds, was too small to have twins and that going ahead with the birth would have put her life in danger. The church also chose to excommunicate her mother and the doctors who performed the medically necessary abortion. Yeah, I'm sure that's exactly what Jesus would have done. He was known for his shocking lack of compassion, right?

Anyone want to know who escaped the wrath of the church? Go on guess....

THE RAPIST STEPFATHER.

Archbishop Sobrinho defended his action. Asked why he did not excommunicate the 23-year-old stepfather, he said:

"He committed an extremely serious crime. But that crime, according to canon law, is not punished with automatic excommunication."

Here are a few more direct quotes, emphasis mine:

“The real problem is that the twins conceived were two innocent persons, who had the right to live and could not be eliminated.”
--Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re,
head of the Roman Catholic Church’s Congregation for Bishops

Oh? That's the real problem, Father? Not the fact that nine year old girls are being raped and impregnated?? The church says no:

"Rape is such a repugnant act that the church does not need to call attention to it. Abortion, however, is not seen as such by some, and that is the reason for excommunication: not only to punish but to show those who practiced the act the gravity of their deeds."
--Archbishop Geraldo Lyrio Rocha of Mariana,
president of the bishops' conference

If it's any help, the church also says this:

"There were early reports that the child was declared excommunicated, but as she is under 17, that wasn’t canonically possible."

But contradicts itself moments later with this statement:

"Excommunication is incurred automatically at the moment a direct abortion is carried out, there was no need to declare with such urgency and publicity a fact that occurred automatically," --Archbishop Rino Fisichella

So, apparently the church can't excommunicate a child, but because they really, really want to, it happens automatically. Automated excommunication, the church really has come into the 21st century hasn't it? Disgusting.