The following are reprints from "Aleteia", and www.chiesa, two websites. They concern the verbal outpourings of a Bishop Fisichella. As regards the Catholic's duty of obedience to a Bishop, his nonsense puts such a Catholic, assuming he is of adequate intelligence in an awkward position. When the Bishop, whover he is, talks sense, sense dictates that we agree with him. When he talks Fisichellian rubbish, he is not to be listened to.
That being true, who needs Bishops who only intermittently talk sense?
Fisichella's article was entitled "On the side of the Brazilian girl," and took a position on the case of a Brazilian girl who was already fertile at the age of nine, was raped repeatedly by her young stepfather, became pregnant with twins, and was given an abortion in the fourth month of gestation.
Her case, Fisichella writes, "made the pages of the newspapers only because the archbishop of Olinda and Recife was quick to declare the excommunication of the doctors who helped her to interrupt the pregnancy." Instead, "before thinking of excommunication," the girl "should first of all have been defended, embraced, comforted" with that "humanity of which we churchmen should be expert proclaimers and teachers." But "that's not what happened."
And he continued:
"Because of her extremely young age and precarious health conditions, the life [of the girl] was in serious danger from her pregnancy. What should be done in these cases? It is a difficult decision for the doctor, and for the moral law itself. Decisions like these [...] have to be made every day [...] and the doctor's conscience is left alone to decide what is the best thing to do."
At the end of the article, Fisichella addressed the girl directly: "We are on your side. [...] There are others who deserve excommunication and our forgiveness, not those who allowed you to live."
THE RESPONSE OF THE ARCHBISHOP OF RECIFE
The article immediately prompted contrary reactions: on the one hand, the applause of those who support free access to abortion, and on the other, the objections of those who defend the life of every unborn child, without exceptions.
The archdiocese of Olinda and Recife, directly impacted by the remarks, reacted on March 16 with a set of "Clarifications" that ended as follows, referring to Archbishop Fisichella:
"The author believed he could speak about a situation he did not know, and, what is worse, he did not even take the trouble of first speaking to his brother in the episcopate, and, for his imprudent attitude, he is causing great scandal among the Catholic faithful in Brazil."
"L'Osservatore Romano" published nothing of this response from the Brazilian archdiocese, nor any of the similar reactions.
A few weeks later, in an interview with Jeanne Smits of the French newspaper "Présent," the archbishop of Olinda and Recife, José Cardoso Sobrinho, again asserted his right to reply, to no effect:
"It seems to me important that L’Osservatore Romano should publish my response. This is what we are trying to obtain, as we have been from the start. We sent the archdiocese’s response to Mgr Fisichella’s article to Rome. It’s a natural right to be allowed to respond if someone has been publishing false information, for who knows which motive: the readers of the Osservatore should also be in a position to know the other point of view."
In the same interview, Archbishop Cardoso recalled that he had received many expressions of solidarity from a great number of bishops in Brazil and all over the world. He reiterated that the girl's life had not been in danger at all, and that in any case the Church's teaching has never allowed abortion in such cases. He emphasized that the doctors who gave the girl an abortion showed no signs of being stricken by any reservations of conscience: they were militantly pro-abortion, and said they were "proud" of what they had done.
THE PROTESTS GATHER STEAM, BUT THE VATICAN DOESN'T BUDGE
In addition to the protest of the archbishop of Olinda and Recife, the Vatican has received many other protests and requests for correction. Some of them have been made public by their respective authors. One of these is Professor Joseph Seifert, founder and rector of the International Academy of Philosophy in Liechtenstein and a member of the pontifical academy for life, headed by Fisichella:
"I feel it to be my duty to express my ardent hope that the highest teaching authorities of the Church may express quickly and clearly the authentic Church teaching on the intrinsic evil of any abortion and correct publicly and unambiguously the mentioned statements."
Others have cited an unequivocal passage from the famous speech by Pius XII to obstetrical nurses in 1951: "to save the life of the mother is a very noble act; but the direct killing of the child as a means to such an end is illicit."
But so far, none of this has appeared in "L'Osservatore Romano." The newspaper of the Holy See has touched upon the issue just once in passing, on April 4, in the account of a meeting held in Rome by the Catholic union of the Italian press, on the topic: "Conscience on the front page."
The participants at the meeting included Archbishop Fisichella and a famous secular journalist, Lucia Annunziata, a former president of the Italian state television network. At one point - the writer for the Vatican newspaper reported - Lucia Annunziata credited the Church with "a transparency never seen before," and gave the following as proof:
"I am referring to the pope's letter to the bishops of the entire world, and, for example, to the statement by Archbishop Fisichella himself on the matter of the Brazilian girl, published by L'Osservatore Romano."
After this, silence again fell over the case at the Vatican. In Rome, the only voice to be raised in support of the archbishop of Olinda and Recife - but before the disputed article was published - has been that of Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, prefect of the congregation for bishops.
Not even the congregation for the doctrine of the faith has been called to make a statement on Fisichella's article, neither before nor after its publication, although this is the practice in such delicate matters. The decision to publish it, like that of responding to the reactions with silence, has been the exclusive domain of the secretariat of state.Regarding what constitutes “physical violence” against the Pope, Archbishop Fisichella told journalists at Friday’s briefing: “I would say that we need to understand well ‘physical violence,’ because sometimes words, too, are rocks and stones, and therefore I believe some of these sins, too, are far more widespread than we might think.”
From Aleteia
The President of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella, said the upcoming Jubilee of Mercy is needed even more after the terrorist attacks in Paris.
In an interview with the Italian magazine, Famiglia Cristiana, Archbishop Fisichella said all three monotheistic religions agree that God is merciful.
“It is one more reason to work together - and to help each other in this task - to explain to the world that religions do not exist to be imprisoned by hate, but they are to spread compassion, and to work against fear as a way of life in all nations,” he said.
(Tell that to your local ayatollah)
