FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, May 3, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Human Life International, the largest pro-life organization in the world, has registered a protest with the Vatican regarding a Spanish priest who was acquitted following an ecclesiastical trial for paying for the abortion of a girl in his care.
Rev. Manel Pousa, a priest of the Archdiocese of Barcelona, has generated controversy among Spanish Catholics in recent years with his open admission that he has paid for the abortions of at least two young girls.
Pousa claims that they would have risked their own lives in performing the abortions on themselves if he had not paid for them. The same reasoning, citing “unsafe abortions,” is used by pro-abortion activists to advocate the legalization and subsidization of abortion on demand around the world.
Mgr. Ignacio Barreiro Carámbula, Human Life International’s (HLI) interim president, says he has written a letter to various officials of the Roman Curia “stating the concerns of HLI, which are shared by many pro-lifers worldwide, on the decision of the Archbishop of Barcelona acquitting Fr. Pousa of his evident canonical responsibilities after he publicly stated in a book that he had paid for the abortion of two young women.”
In the letter, Barreiro expresses his concern that “the Archbishop of Barcelona has caused grave scandal to a countless number of persons worldwide,” by acquitting Pousa following a recent trial.
“The logic of the Archbishop of Barcelona does not seem to be clear,” Barreiro writes. “How can a person be considered innocent of crime if he provides the economic support that it is necessary to commit this crime?”
“Really it is absurd to state that he only gave the economic support to women who had already decided to commit abortion to help them to do it in more sanitary circumstances. An abortion can be done in better or worse sanitary conditions, but it is always lethal to the babies. So Fr. Pousa is co-responsible in the death of these two babies, as he paid for two murderers,” Barreiro added.
The pro-life leader gives an example to illustrate his point.
“A person has decided to commit a murder but he has a rusty old revolver that can malfunction or even explode when he fires it, hurting him. So if someone out of compassion for the murderer provides him a better weapon to assure that he does not hurt himself when he kills the person that he was intending to kill, is he not an accomplice? I wonder what judge would not consider this ‘compassionate’ person an accessory to crime, an accomplice or even a coauthor of the crime.”
In April, Barcelona’s Cardinal Archbishop Lluís Martínez Sistach concluded that, based on Pousa’s reasoning for his actions, “the aforesaid priest has not incurred the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae established by canon 1398, for not having been in agreement with the intention of procuring the abortion and for not having a principal complicity in the abortions, which were completely decided upon and brought about by two girls in a very precarious economic situation.”
Pousa has never been tried nor disciplined for his other actions against the Catholic faith, including blessing homosexual unions, and endorsing the creation of priestesses. Pousa also says that he has a girlfriend, with whom he claims to have a celibate relationship. However, he openly rejects priestly celibacy.
Contact information:
His Holiness, Pope Benedict XVI
[email protected]
His Eminence Marc Ouellet
Prefect, Congregation for Bishops
Piazza Pio XII 10
00193 Rome, Italy
Europe
phone: 011-3906-6988-4217
fax: 011-3906-6988-5303
His Eminence Mauro Piacenza
Prefect
The Congregation for the Clergy
Piazza Pio XII 3
00l93 Rome, Italy
Europe
phone: 011.3906.69.88.4l.5l
Fax: 011.3906.69.88.48.45
www.clerus.org
Cardinal William J. Levada.
Prefect for The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and Pontifical Commission “Ecclesia Dei”
Piazza del S. Uffizio ll
00l93 Rome Italy
Europe
phone: 011.3906.69.88.33.57
phone: 011.3906.69.88.34.13
fax: 011.3906.69.88.34.09
email: [email protected]