Friday April 16, 2010
HLI Calls for Swift Clarification from Brazilian Archbishop on Abortion
Update: Since this article was published the archbishop has issued a statement ‘clarifying’ his remarks. Read about it here.
FRONT ROYAL, Virginia, April 16, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The president of Human Life International has called upon a newly-installed Brazilian archbishop to clarify that all procured abortions are a grave evil in the eyes of the Catholic Church. The request comes after the archbishop gave interviews to local newspapers in which he appeared to say that an abortion on a minor in his diocese may be justifiable.
“Archbishop Saburido, please issue an immediate clarification of your recent comments on abortion, ensuring that no one may interpret from them that abortion is ever permissible,” said Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International in a letter to Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Dom Fernando Saburido.
“Pro-abortion activists are ready to exploit any lack of clarity in the Church’s position as an endorsement of abortion. This must not happen.”
Rev. Euteneuer was referring to the comments given by Archbishop Saburido in a recent interview, in which the prelate reiterated Church teaching that life must be defended at all points, but under further questioning seemed to imply that abortion was permitted if deemed necessary by a physician.
“If there is a medical consensus that the life of the mother is at risk, abortion is something to be considered,” Saburido told Bem Paraná, though paradoxically adding that “the Church is against the procedure” and that “we defend the preservation of life, of all lives.”
The archbishop’s comments were similar to others he made in an interview with the Diario de Pernambuco newspaper the same day. When asked about the case involving the abortion on the minor, he expressed opposition to an abortion, but when asked, “If the child’s life is at risk, the abortion should be an option?” he responded, “That decision is a medical one, much more than one having to do with the Church.”
“It depends on the medical opinion, on the situation,” he added “Also, one can’t radicalize things. Sometimes you commit an act to defend the life of a person, so it makes sense.”
Saburido’s statements appear to contradict Catholic teaching on the intrinsic evil of direct abortions. Although Catholic moral teaching allows doctors to administer lifesaving treatments that could unintentionally cause the death of an unborn child, which are called “indirect abortions,” it condemns all direct abortions as gravely evil.
Brazilian media have been quick to pick up on the apparent shift from the previous archbishop’s courageous defense of life. When pressure was building last year to kill the unborn twins of a 9-year-old girl, who became pregnant after being raped by her mother’s companion, the now-retired Archbishop of Olinda and Recife, Dom Jose Cardoso-Sobrinho, declared that anyone who performed or facilitated an abortion would incur an automatic excommunication. Meanwhile, pro-abortion forces were campaigning to exploit the girl’s tragic situation as reason for expanding access to legal abortion, even going so far as to lie about the risk the pregnancy posed to the girl’s life.
The case of last year acquired greater urgency following the release of an article written by the president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, which attacked Archbishop Cardoso, and in which he demonstrated significant ignorance of the facts of the case.
When it became clear that pro-abortion forces were citing Fisichella’s article as evidence of a “change” in the Church’s position on abortion, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith was forced to release a correction, reiterating Church teaching on the importance of defending life at all stages.
To view the letter sent to Archbishop Saburido, please visit https://www.hli.org.
See related LifeSiteNews.com coverage:
Brazilian Archbishop Defends Abortion for Pregnant Minor in his Diocese
https://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/apr/10041404.html