Pope’s remarks in Brazil fuel abortion controversy

SAO PAULO, Brazil – Launching his first papal pilgrimage to the Americas, Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday issued a strong condemnation of abortion and immediately touched off a firestorm by suggesting Catholic politicians who legalize it have excommunicated themselves from the church.

Benedict arrived in Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world, and confronted a continent whose once-universal Catholicism has been eroded and whose church is profoundly divided.

Under drizzly leaden skies, Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva welcomed the pope in a small ceremony inside a cavernous military airport hangar. At the Benedictine monastery where the pope is staying, hundreds of people chanted his name and kept vigil late into the night.

In his opening remarks, the pope urged a more determined fight against abortion. He said he was confident that Brazilians will protect “values that are radically Christian” including respect for “life from the moment of conception until natural death as an integral requirement of human nature.”

Earlier, speaking to reporters aboard his flight from Rome, the pope was asked if he agreed with the excommunication of Mexican legislators who recently legalized abortion in Mexico City.

“Yes,” Benedict replied. “The excommunication was not something arbitrary. It is part of the Code (of Canon Law). It is based simply on the principle that the killing of an innocent human child is incompatible with being in Communion with the body of Christ. Thus, they (the bishops) didn’t do anything new or anything surprising, or arbitrary.”

The pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, later sought out reporters to attempt to downplay Benedict’s statement. Church leaders in Mexico have not actually excommunicated the legislators, Lombardi noted, and said that the pope meant that politicians who favor abortion rights in effect excommunicate themselves and should be denied communion, a milder sanction. Benedict did not mean to set new policy, Lombardi said.

“If the bishops haven’t excommunicated anyone, it’s not that the pope wants to,” Lombardi said. “Legislative action in favor of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist. Politicians exclude themselves from Communion.”

The issue of punishment for Catholic politicians who legislate in ways that conflict with church belief is a debate that has raged for years. Ordering excommunication for Catholic politicians also would have tremendous ramifications in the United States. Although some priests have decided to deny communion to pro-abortion politicians, such punishment has never been a blanket Vatican policy, which is why Benedict’s comments had such significance and his aides appeared so intent on softening them.

Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard, who signed the law on April 26, said his government would continue to enforce the legislation. “I would simply and very frankly add,” he said, “that we are in the 21st century, and not the 16th century.”