Let's remember that, according to Church doctrine, the excommunication of the daughter is completely warranted.

Another great example of just how fucked up religion can be.

CORRECTION: The girl wasn't excommunicated. The mother and doctors were.

as a lifelong catholic, i completely agree. what was it that william s. burroughs said?
"and for god's sake never become a priest or a cop. the only thing they have a key to is the shithouse."

I love the good things that christainity brings to this world.

However, you can stop a bullet with a bible. Next time I get deployed I am taping a dozen bibles to my body.

Sorry, GI, but they disproved that one on Mythbusters a few years ago.

Well, if I could edit my post, I would, but I can't so I won't. The point still stands when you remove "daughter" and insert "mother and doctors."

There are no words foul enough to adequately express my opinion on organized religion, especially the catholic church.

DC,

I was trying the make an of color joke about the preacher that got shot today. He did die but the bullet was deflected by his bible. I am a horrible person. Please pray for my rotten soul.

At least the Catholic Church only has dogma extreme enough such that it results in the nonviolent "penalty" of excommunication. Other fundamentalist religions have dogmas such that they their punishment would result in an ACTUAL DEATH PENALTY for such mothers and doctors.

I'm not saying that the emotional distress the mother and doctors probably felt of being thrown out of the church they had probably followed for their entire lives was small, but it could, practically speaking, be the best thing that could happen to them, because now they may realize that the Catholic Church is wrong and fallible, and they can move on with their lives.

That's the fine thing about the Catholic Church these days: You can just agree to disagree with them, and they won't commit you to death if you decide you want to leave them.

I saw this on Yahoo news last night and my jaw dropped. Which is saying a lot, considering that I've been railing against the Catholic church's stance on many things for many years. Fr'instance: Irish terrorists are not excommunicated. Grabassy priests are not excommunicated. What community would let itself be run this way?

GI: I'll see you in hell b/c I thought the AP repororted that the bible sent "a confetti-like spray of paper into the air in a horrifying scene that congregants initially thought was a skit, police said." That doesn't sound like a deflection to me. I can see the appeal to some in wanting to believe the irony of the bible functioning as a literal shield, however.

This story makes me absolutely sick. It's way too much for my little mind to absorb. Anyone know how we can call the Pope or at least prank call the Pope? Something?

I'm still trying to get to the bottom of this story. The Bishop is a jerk for his insensitivity - but as I understand it, the fact of the abortion makes the mother and the doctor excommunicated automatically. Which would mean its words on the books, and not a reasoned judgement.

Otoh, as I said in another venue - when those who are responsible for shepherding souls lack basic human compassion - perhaps it is time to put them out of work.

QT

I got my google on, and there was, unfortunately no "deflecting" of anything.

"deflect - prevent the occurrence of; prevent from happening"

Like JM I don't have the words to express my disgust.

This story has been pissing me off for a couple days now. The child had allegedly been being abused by her step-father since she was six. She became pregnant with twins, and being only 80 lbs., the doctors felt that she would not survive the pregnancy/child birth. The mother chose to allow the abortion (which had to be approved by the court, because abortion is illegal in almost all cases)...and her reward for saving the life of her child is excommunication. However, the crime that the stepfather committed was deemed not as "heinous" by the Catholic church, so he gets to stay in.

All the Catholic Church cares about is breeding more Catholics and if that means a few women/girls have to be sacrificed then so be it.

The Pope should be ashamed of himself for sticking up for this Bishop, it is completely outrageous that two 15 week fetuses are worth the life of a 9 year old child.

I would be proud to be excommunicated for this. As usual, the Catholic church sets a new standard for hypocrisy.....they go to extremes protecting fetuses and molesters but show no respect for women and children.

QT said:

Otoh, as I said in another venue - when those who are responsible for shepherding souls lack basic human compassion - perhaps it is time to put them out of work.

That hits the nail on the head. Their 'Automatic Dogma Induced'™ decision flies in the face of Jesus's teachings. If you ask WWJD, this is not the answer you would get. This is the answer you get from an arbitrary picayune tyrant.

Oh give them a break! They were still burning Jews 300 years ago. They're just a little slow to change with the times.
Actually I grew up Catholic, but bailed as soon as I moved out of my parents' house. The Church's stance on reproduction will be the death of the entire planet. Ever been to Guatemala? Dirt poor people having a buttload of kids because the fucking assholes in robes tell them birth control will send them to hell! Same with every poor Catholic country in the world. Here is a major irony: The country with the lowest birthrate in the world is (drumroll)
ITALY!!!!!!!!!
Go figure.

I was just sending an article to my 75 year old mother and being disgusted with the Saudi "religious police"--seriously--giving a 75 year old woman 40 lashes and prison time for having 2 men (one related, one just with him) in her house. Visiting. I think I remarked to my mother that the southern baptist police had some serious competition there. I forgot the catholics with that remark.

Were no charges brought against the stepfather? Oh, of course not. What was I thinking.

I don’t know whether I should be sharing this with the community but in light of this additional bullshit involving the Catholic church coming up today I guess… fuck it. It’s a sign from God.™
Here’s the necessary backgrounder: My wife (a lifelong Catholic) is currently Principal of a Catholic elementary school in the Caribbean. After 4 years here we’ve decided we want to return to the states so she’s been sending out resumes.
Yesterday afternoon she received a call from a “Monsignor” (who shall remain nameless for the moment). My first thought, of course, is - they don’t call on weekends unless they’re REALLY interested. (And they should be. My wife is the most extraordinary administrator I’ve ever seen and that’s an objective opinion.) So this guy starts out with, “I’ve been looking at your resume and references and we’re really impressed with you. Are you married? Is your husband coming with you? Do you have furniture to move? How soon can you come here?” etc, etc.
My wife replied, “We have a break in April. I could come then.” He said, “No, I want to resolve this next week.”
Then she asked, “Is this about St. Whatever School?” He said, “No, that’s an All Black school. This is St. Whoever. We’re all upper middle class white here.”
My wife then said, “Monsignor, I’m an African American woman. Is that a problem?”
And - in a flash - the entire conversation did a 180.
“Well”, he said, “we had a woman here previously who was too young and she was doomed from the start. We did hire a Black musician for the choir and it was really difficult for a while but the people finally accepted him. But, of course, it would be different in your case. You’d have to interact with parents and staff. I wouldn’t want you to run the risk of being set up for failure.” (**how compassionate)
Translation: I can’t put a nigger in charge of all these white people, can I?”
She said, “I don’t want to be where I’m not wanted.” He replied, “Thank you for your honesty.” (Apparently she could have been dishonest and pretended to not be Black.)
She said, “thank you for YOUR honesty. If I can do anything else for you, let me know.” and hung up.
Questions: Do these motherfuckers realize it’s 2009? Have they noticed that the man in charge of everybody is Black? And, knowing that she’s currently Principal in a Black Caribbean environment, even if she was a white woman, why was he so comfortable assuming that his racism would be agreed with? Should we go after these assholes legally?
This is a mess. After 22 years in Catholic schools my wife is committed to finishing her career there. I can't argue her out of Catholicism. She was raised in it. Do we have to stay on island or be relegated to n*g*er schools in the states?
Fuck the Catholic Church and the Cross they rode in on.

You just gotta love a religion where the head man lives in a palace, dresses-up in elaborate costumes complete with jewels, crowns and velvet slippers while the rest of his flock live in poverty.

And, don't forget that all the priests who abused thousands of young children and who still remained priests. No excommunication there. Meanwhile, the Church denied responsibility for the pedophilia time and time again. In those cases, too, the Church blamed the victims and hid the crimes of the priest.

This is another example of why I left the Catholic Church. I'm a very happy and content Episcopalian now (Catholic-plus).