On 25 February 2009, the media announced that doctors in Recife, Brazil, were planning to abort a nine-year old girl made pregnant with twins by her step-father.

On 3 March, the bishop of Recife, Archbishop Sobrinho, warned that if the abortion was done, all medical staff involved would be excommunicated from the Church, as per canon 1398 of Catholic Church law.

On 4 March, the abortion was performed.

On 15 March, Archbishop Fisichella, head of the Pope’s “Academy for Life” (PAV), published an article in the Vatican newspaper, Osservatore Romano, condemning Archbishop Sobrinho, saying that the abortion was justified as a means of saving the young mother’s life.

On 16 March, a number of Sobrinho’s fellow bishops issued a letter defending Sobrinho’s action, describing the compassionate help the girl and her family had received, behind the scenes, from her parish priest and bishop — and how the warning regarding excommunication had been delayed until other methods of persuasion had failed.  They also quoted the Chief of Obstetrics at a Rio de Janeiro hospital, who, in 35 years coping with difficult pregnancies, had never found it necessary to resort to abortion “to save lives”.

On 4 April, a majority (but not all) of the members of the PAV wrote to Archbishop Fisichella, explaining why his Osservatore Romano article was wrong, and asking him to withdraw his condemnation of Archbishop Sobrinho. Fisichella refused to do so.

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The PAV members then approached Pope Benedict himself.

On 7 July, an article of “clarification” appeared in Osservatore Romano, reversing what the Fisichella article had said, and declaring that Archbishop Sobrinho had been right in his actions, and reiterating that “formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offence. The Church punishes this crime against human life with the canonical penalty of excommunication.”

February 2010: The latest news is that the PAV itself, having had its credibility ruined, may be dismantled. (http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2010/feb/10020802.html)

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Excommunication is an excellent part of the Church’s way of doing things. A warning of likely excommunication can do good in convincing a Catholic to avoid serious sin.

For the Church not to do so would be unjust to that sinner — and harmful to the Church’s witness to God’s love and holiness.