One word: Irony

This news has been up and about for quite sometime now. It's about 9 year old girl in Brazil who got repeatedly raped by his stepfather since she was 6. She was carrying twins into her 4th month. Doctors allowed an abortion to happen because her back wasn't developed enough to support twins and that issue sparked a debate among Brazilians populated Catholic society. The Vatican got involved as well. More of the story here and here.

The issue on the debate was directed at the abortion itself. Here are some clarifications.

- In Brazil, abortion is allowed in the case of raped or when the mother is put at health risk.

- Abortion is illegal within the Catholic community as it is a form of murder (taking away an innocent life) which matches up to the Ten Commandments.

The question brings to a new issue. How many days/weeks/months is considered "life".

The Vatican says that life starts in the form of an embryo and that God's love does not differentiate itself from an embryo to an adult. Read here.


So now we have 2 points are are openly contradictory to one another. The girl has clearly twins that are passed the embryo-stage and she is also risking her own life by supporting weights she herself cannot support.

At this stage, what are you going to do?

Her mother approved the abortion and doctors went ahead as well in support in order to save the girls life. The Brazilian archbishop however excommunicated the people involved with the abortion deeming it as a sin to take away life. Excommunication here means, to be expelled from the church.

Cardinal Re from the Vatican since then defended the archbishop's decision in the light that many were against. This situation produces a very big dilemma for people like you and i who are at the far side of the world.

In my opinion, it is a rather difficult judgment and decision to make. Ultimately, we're all human and we have to take a stand to something that we belief and stand for am i not right? To be ignorant of such matters is equivalent to a blind man who sees darkness. Might as well right?

The Vatican is known to put church laws above human rights for most of the time. They argued that in this case, human rights do not apply because it is the responsibility of a human to protect the lives of the twins. Also, because God allowed the existent of the twins, thus only God can take away their life. That is the claim.

At the same time, doctors say that continuing with the pregnancy might kill the girl as her bones and muscles are not developed to carry and handle such weight.

Now you be the judge of this.

I know my opinion already and i have no choice but to agree with the abortion solely because its inhuman not to. How can the church think about a poor 9 year old supporting twins? Do they expect her to survive? What if she dies? That's 3 lives they would have taken away. From the church point of view, it doesnt matter as long as life is preserved. What an irony! To preserve life, they are willing to let another go. What form of preserving is that! From the doctor's point of view, it seemed like a textbook decision, to save your patient, you do what is necessary. I do think in making life so much an issue, the church forgot what love is. How are they expecting a mother, to watch her daughter go through a pain no child is suppose to go through, especially labour, at her age! I don expect the church heads to know because clearly they are deprived of such wonders and nightmares of life, yet retaining the status quo that they know what is best for families. Irony again. It is true that God's love has no boundaries, from a zygot to an elderly, but don they think God's love exist for the girl too? Some may argue that yes, the girl would maybe able to give birth in the end if God loved her so much, but being rape and then force to give birth is like double raping her. If forcing wasnt enough in the first place by her rapist stepdad, the church still stood by willingly to force her again . And for what? Seriously, for what? The church isnt gonna take care of them are they?? The church has lost sight of the main issue and missing the point altogether. I do think that the church in becoming God's witnesses to the communities of the world, they let slip what's the basic importance for an individual. So often emphasis is given to societies, communities, congregations, groups, organisations and teams, yet they lose sight of the fact that within all those, exists unique individuals that make them up, each with their own special talent and gifts from God.

No doubt that i've pondered what it would be like to actually have the twins lead a normal life, but then again, i must not lose sight of what is in front of me, in front of them, which is the girl. The Bible does not give such clear answers to situations like this, but still, it calls us to not lose sight in God and to fix our eyes on Him. By fixing our eyes on Him, we could make decisions such as this case. I believe the Catholic church has lost sight of things, looking at the options rather than the immediate consequence.

Having said that, yes the church might be right about all this and the girl may actually survived, but somehow they excommunicated the mother, the child and the doctors. That itself makes their blindness so clear. It goes to show how unloving their loving church is. Who has authority but God alone to deny anyone to enter church. Then again, church refers to the people, not a building. In the light of the excommunication, the Catholic church signalled their intention by not wanting sinners in their church. Irony again.

As humans, everyone is a sinner, and falls from God's grace all the time, everytime. Yet, God still loves us, welcomes us with open arms. Even followers of Jesus dont deny their sins, but delights in their weaknesses to make them grow stronger in Christ. 2 Corinthians 12:9

"......Therefore i will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when i am weak, then i am strong.

The Catholic church however, desires the holy and expels the unholy. Who are they to judge people's righteousness and actions but God alone. An individual's sin is an individual's sin. It is not a collective total towards the community's sins to which the church can have any authority in having a say on it. Only by God's grace can we be forgiven, and it is not by our own works, or anyone else works, so that no one can boast.

In my heart, i felt sad to see how the church can opt to follow such a path, just for the sake of a law that they intepret as being the word of God. Many would argue with me to question how the doctor would anyway know that carrying the twins were life-threatening to the girl and that the doctor may have made the wrong assumption. I don't honestly, but because he could come to a decision like that, that is serious enough to jeopardise his own membership with the church, i think its goes to show the bravery to what he stood up for, whether in profession and in faith. Whereas to the church leaders, it shows hyprocrisy, willingness to persecute a victim of rape in favour of their sins by excluding them in what is rightfully only God's grace to save and forgive.

The church leaders should by now know God does not discriminate sinners. Nor does he allow us to judge one another.

Let's pray for the girl shall we?

PS: I speak from a Christian point of view, not a Catholic. Do not be mistaken, these 2 terms vary like A and Z.