War between the Vatican and Brazil

First in brief the (shocking) facts:
A 9-year-old girl was raped by her stepfather. The child is in the 15th week of pregnancy with twins, when an abortion is performed.
Although banned, the Brazilian law allows an abortion in two situations, namely in cases of rape and when the life of the mother is in danger.

The Roman Catholic Church had the (ridiculous) hope that the child would carry the twin pregnancy to the end. Last Tuesday, the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Dom Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, tried to convince the girl’s parents to refrain from abortion. The mother of the girl did not budge and did not even wish to talk with the Archbishop.

Subsequently, the Archbishop excommunicated the mother, doctors and others involved in the abortion.

“As a Christian and Catholic, I regret the fact that a bishop of the Catholic Church takes, I should say, this conservative position. Or in other words, it was not possible for the girl raped by her stepfather, to give birth to a child, as the girl herself was in mortal danger. I think that in this aspect medicine acted more appropriately than the church. The doctors did what needed to be done: save the life of a nine years old girl,” said medical-director Sergio Cabral.

According to the doctors, the girl, who is 1.33 m high and weighs 36 kg, had no physical structure for a pregnancy, let alone for a twin.

I do not need to make critical remarks myself. Here is a translation of the blog of Ricardo Kotscho, Paulista, 60 and reporter of iG and the magazine “Brasileiros”.

Can I excommunicate a bishop of my church?
This morning I opened the newspaper after I had written my previous article and could not believe what I read about this incredible incident of a 9 years old child, raped by her stepfather and pregnant with twins.

To save the life of the girl, the doctors of the Maternidade CISAM, University of Pernambuco, in Recife, did what they had to do. On Wednesday, she was subjected to an abortion to terminate the pregnancy.

The medical director of the Maternidade, Sergio Cabral, who was responsible for the operation, explained everything in detail:

“The biggest risk would have been the continuation of pregnancy. The body of a nine years old child has not yet been fully formed. If everything goes well, she will leave the hospital this week.”

Everything well, although not for the lawyer of the diocese of Olinda and Recife, Marcio Miranda, who announced that he will file murder charges against the victim’s mother, who allowed the abortion.

Can you imagine such an absurdity? As if he speaks in the name of God, the Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Dom Jose Cardoso Sobrinho, personally justifies in public the activities of the lawyer:

“We, representatives of the Catholic Church have the obligation to proclaim God’s law. In such cases the aim does not justify the means and is the secular law contrary to God’s law against murder.”

We? Who? This paleface? As a practicing Catholic, baptized, confirmed and educated at a priest school, ex-member of the Council for Justice and Peace of the Archdiocese of São Paulo, I can not accept that this bishop speaks on behalf of me and my church.

Outrageous. But what is at stake are not the laws, neither the secular nor the religious, but the life of a helpless girl and that all in a country, where the law allows victims of rape abortion into the 20th week of pregnancy, without judicial authorization.

As bishop Sobrinho has excommunicated already the whole family and half the world in this tragic drama, I wonder: Do I have the right to ban him from my church?

The more he tries to defend his position, the more rebellious the bishop makes me with what I read in the newspaper, to the point that I doubt whether the words are really from him:

“The girl was totally illegally pregnant, but we must save lives. The Church has always condemned abortion and will continue to condemn.”

Illegally pregnant? What is that? Is there legitimate rape?

If the bishop really is interested in saving lives, he would have given full support to the physicians of the Maternidade CISAM and the mother of the girl and not threatened them with a trial in a secular court.

Or he should go talking to Paula Viana, coordinator of Curumim, a non-governmental organization for the defence of women, who could explain whose lives must be saved:

“With each advancing day, the risk would be greater, the girl felt sick and showed already other complications. Immediate medical intervention was necessary.”

And to think that this Archdiocese of Olinda and Recife has been occupied by a man as my friend Dom Helder Câmara, the bishop who in the darkest days of the military dictatorship, risked his own life to save the lives of others.

I am sure that this church, which dom Sobrinho claims to represent not is my church, not the church of Dom Helder. Someone is in the wrong church.

end blogpost

The Minister of Health José Gomes Temporão, regularly locking horns with the Catholic leaders because of his programs against sexually transmitted diseases and AIDS, classified the decision of the Catholic Church to excommunicate those involved in the abortion as “radical” and “inappropriate”.

“I was shocked by two facts: what happened to the girl and the position of this clergyman who wrongly claims to advocate for life and puts a very important other life at risk.”

President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva also entered the war with the Vatican, when he said in an interview that “medicine has been more correct than the Church.”

I don’t need to add more words. Excommunication! Who cares? The Brazilian might be a Catholic, but he is no fool.

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Latin America moves a bit more to the left

After 61 years of centre-right hegemony of the Partido Colorado, of which the most infamous exponent was the dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989) and the last Óscar Nicanor Duarte Frutos who during his 5 year mandate executed a reasonable social-economic policy, we see (as I some time ago wrote in my post “The red rascals of Latin America”), now a clear move to the left after the conquest of the presidential elections in Paraguay last Sunday by Fernando Lugo, an ex-bishop and advocate of the liberation theology.
With more than 80% of the 2,8 million votes counted, of which 40,17% in his favour and leading his closest opponent, Bianca Ovelar, an ex-minister of education, with almost 10% Lugo claimed the victory.

The today 56 year old Lugo became a Roman Catholic priest in 1977 and was during 5 years a missionary in Ecuador, where he came in contact with the liberation theology. As bishop in Paraguay he supported the impoverished small farmers in their struggle against the large landowners.
According to the New York Times it is however a debatable question whether Lugo can be president. The constitution of Paraguay prohibits ecclesiastical officers to fulfil politic functions. After Fernando Lugo voluntarily resigned and proclaimed his political ambitions Christmas 2006, Rome officially refused to accept his resignation. The NYT reports that the Vatican never has honoured the resignation, but other sources consider this proposition a non-issue, as Lugo himself has abandoned the priesthood, but still it might lead to some constitutional lawsuit.

Having been candidate for the “Aliança Patriótica para a Mudança” (Patriotic Alliance for Change), Lugo has the support of social movements, centre and left wing political parties and the Partido Liberal Radical Autêntico (PLRA), the right wing radical liberal party.
This alliance is a bit strange, as the Partido Liberal, the second largest party in the country, is typical right wing conservative and always has been in the opposition, at the other hand the other parties are left wing socialistic and are heavenly supported by small farmer movements. This might arise some problems when Lugo starts to shape his government.
But the ex-bishop must have an extensive experience beating up against the wind regarding his proclaimed liberation theology and at the same time being a priest of the ultra right orthodox and very conservative Roman Catholic Church, which always choose the wealthy side of society in particular in countries as Paraguay. The Church still paints the liberation theology as a Marxist movement

When he announced his candidacy for the presidency his rivals put him in one line with the leftist leaders that emerged in Latin America over the last few years. They did not compare him with moderate social-democrats as Michelle Bachelet of Chile and Lula of Brazil, but with Hugo Chavez or Rafael Correa, the leftist president of Ecuador and now Lugo is definitively the last one in the line of acting leftist oriented presidents in Latin America, where Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Chile and Uruguay leaded the way.

The new president faces an almost impossible task to solve the large variety of problems within a mandate of 5 years (the constitution does not allow re-election). First of all, there is the corruption. Since the dictatorial reign of General Alfredo Stroessner, Paraguay has been transformed into one of the most corrupt countries of Latin America. As a consequence more than 33% of the populace lives below the poverty level. He has to honour his promises to the poor small farmers to regulate a more honest division of the available land, which certainly will face heavy opposition of the large landowners. And on top of all that, he will not have any money available to execute his plans, as the budget is tied up and all important and less important public offices are controlled by Partido Colorado supporters.
Putting it as priority number one during his election period Lugo has to find a solution for the dispute with his neighbour Brazil, regarding the power plant of Itaipu. Lugo wants to renegotiate the price Brazil is paying for the energy supplied by this bi-national power plant. The hydro-electrical power plant in Itaipu is located at the border of the two countries and belongs to neither of them. Both countries could claim 50% of the generated energy, but Brazil consumes 90% as Paraguay does not need more than 10%. Lugo argues that Brazil is paying too low a price for the energy, which belongs to the Paraguayan part, but is purchased by Brazil. If there will be no new agreement and the energy supply will be interrupted a large part of the industrial park of São Paulo (responsible for 35% of Brazilian’s GNP) will come to a stand still.

That the issue is of high priority might be concluded from the fact that shortly after the ballot boxes closed and the first polls indicated a victory for Lugo, the daily ABC Color, the most important paper in the country, came with an article stating that the first priority of the new government should be the renegotiation of the Itaipu-contract.

Albeit Lula is ideologically close to Lugo, the two have steered clear one from the other for a long time, but the coming days should intensify the contact, in spite of Lula’s public statement that it is unthinkable to renegotiate Itaipu. A second Paraguayan-Brazilian war is of course out of the question and what is Brazilian natural leadership of Latin America worth, if it is not willing to help an impoverished neighbour.

photo's: Reuters
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