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September 1, 2006
Can anyone explain the logic behind this?
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| This is Cardinal Alfonso López Trujillo, a Colombian prelate who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family. Cardinal López said this week that the doctors who aborted the pregnancy of an 11-year-old who had been raped by her stepfather were "a network of evildoers" who "incur automatic excommunication" from the Church. | The man receiving communion at his 2001 wedding - and apparently in no danger of excommunication - is Carlos Castaño, the AUC paramilitaries' paramount leader during the late 1990s and early 2000s. Castaño was killed by his own comrades - including, probably, his own brother - in 2004. He died without ever showing a hint of remorse for ordering and planning hundreds of murders, massacres, tortures and forced displacements. But he never faced "automatic excommunication." |
Thanks to a journalist who shall remain nameless for pointing this out in a recent conversation.
Posted by isacson at September 1, 2006 1:55 PM
Comments
A lot of people who shall remain nameless have wondered about the same thing too.
It should also be pointed out that "automatic excommunication" has not been applied to guerrillas either, not to mention common murderers and others that deserve it, on an individual basis, just as much as Castaño did.
As for the abortion issue itself, it goes without saying that the Cardinal is behind the times, to put it lightly.
Posted by: jcg ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/blog/nav-commenters.gif)
at September 1, 2006 3:47 PM
Adam asks if anyone can explain the logic of denying communion to the doctors who helped the rape victim and extending the sacrament to Castaño. As a Catholic myself, I'd simply observe that logic isn't a requirement for Church pronouncements and positions.
Of course, the Colombian hierarcy has the reputation of being one of the most conservative in Latin America. There is no liberation theology (to my knowledge) among the Colombian prelates, which is one reason that Father Camilo Torres left the Church and joined the ELN (Ejército de liberación nacional).
Castaño was, perhaps, (I don't really know) one of the many Colombians who are "cultural Catholics." They rely on the Church for baptisms of children, marriages, and funeral masses without necessarily being Catholic or even Christian in any meaningful sense.
Posted by: richtiger at September 2, 2006 12:54 AM
Take a look a this strange communion wafer: http://www.mariafullofgrace.com/desktop_640.html
Who knew the body of Christ was wrapped in latex? And yet it won El Premio de OCLACC (Organization of Catholic Clergy Award).
Posted by: Izzy Stoner at September 2, 2006 7:42 AM
I believe the Colombian Church is good at picking "fights": they fell they can "win" in keeping Colombia "free from the evil of legal abortion", while they must have come to the conclusion that paramilitaries are impossible to defeat... Or even worse: they might have decided paramilitaries are NOT to be defeated...
Regards, Doppiafila
Posted by: Doppiafila at September 2, 2006 8:49 AM
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