By Hilary White
ROME, April 19, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Human Life international has praised and thanked the head of the Brazilian diocese of Olinda and Recife for his clarification on Friday about his remarks on the case of an abortion conducted on a ten-year-old girl.
Last week HLI issued a request for a clarification after Archbishop Fernando Saburido gave an interview to local media in which he appeared to suggest that abortion could be justified in some “hard cases.” Late on Friday, the archbishop issued a “notification”on the diocese’s website, saying that the reporter, whom he described as “anti-Christian,” had misrepresented his views.
HLI’s Fr. Thomas Euteneuer thanked Archbishop Saburido, for his “prompt clarification” and “strong defence of life.”
“Irresponsible media personalities have been put on notice that the new shepherd of Olinda and Recife will not be used to forward their anti-life agenda,” Fr. Euteneuer said.
“The archdiocese again has a champion of life at the helm, which is good news not only for the mothers and children of Olinda and Recife, but for all of us who are fighting for life around the world.”
Today in Rome, Msgr. Ignacio Barreiro, head of HLI’s Rome office, sent a letter to 113 members of the Vatican’s Curia, praising Archbishop Fernando Saburido’s statement. Msgr. Barreiro added his thanks to those issued by HLI’s U.S. head office, saying that the group is very “pleased” with the statement that, he said, has effectively corrected any misapprehensions the article may have created.
In his letter to curial officials, Msgr. Barreiro noted that “Archbishop Saburido’s example stands in sharp contrast” with the actions and statements of Archbishop Salvatore Fisichella, the head of the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy for Life (PAV). Fisichella shocked the pro-life world in March last year when he wrote an article, published in L’Osservatore Romano, that appeared to condone the abortion of the twin children of a nine-year-old rape victim on the grounds of “compassion” and “conscience.”
Fisichella, Barreiro noted, has “refused to clarify his damaging comments even after it became clear that they were being used by the media to indicate a change of softening of the Church’s position on abortion.”
After the publication of the March 15 L’Osservatore Romano article, Archbishop Fisichella angered some prominent members of the PAV at their annual plenary meeting, when he said that a clarification reiterating the Church’s teaching on abortion, issued by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith to address the scandal, had completely “vindicated” his article.
Fisichella’s article was widely praised by pro-abortion advocates as indicating a shift at high levels in the Vatican from the Church’s absolute condemnation of direct abortion. He wrote, addressing the girl as “Carmen,” that “other people deserve excommunication and our forgiveness: not those who have allowed you to live and who will help you to recover hope and trust, despite the presence of evil and the wickedness of many.”