By John-Henry Westen
VATICAN CITY, June 28, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – In an interview published in the June 27 issue of Famiglia Christiana magazine, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, said that those involved in embryonic stem cell research which kills human embryos are excommunicated.
In a wide-ranging interview about the Fifth World Meeting of Families, due to be held in Valencia, Spain from July 1 to 9, the Cardinal was asked about excommunication, first in the case of abortion. He responded that the doctors, the nurses and the mother involved all incur excommunication. He added that the fatherÂis alsoÂexcommunicated if he agrees with the procedure.
Asked if that excommunication also applied to those who do embryonic stem cell research, the Cardinal responded, “Sure. It is the same thing. To destroy the embryo is equivalent to abortion.” He added that the excommunication applies to parents, doctors and investigators “who eliminate the embryo.”
Speaking about politicians who support abortion, Cardinal Trujillo said that they should “not approach the Eucharist.”Â
He noted that he was expressly asked by the Pope to explain such things to politicians; adding that “sometimes they change their minds.”
Ominously the Cardinal warned during the interview that the Vatican fears that the Church will one day be brought “in front of some international Court” if more radical demands are listened to. He explained that “speaking in defense of the life and for the rights of the family is becoming in some societies a type of crime against the State, a form of disobedience to the Government, a discrimination against women.”
See the full interview in Famiglia Cristiana (in Italian):
https://www.sanpaolo.org/fc/0627fc/0627fc44.htm