Kerre Woodham: A softer stance

I want to thank Justin Coombes, a young American medical student from St Louis, Missouri, for writing to me in response to my column on the hard line taken by Brazilian Archbishop Jose Cardoso Sobrinho in the case of a 9-year-old rape victim.

She became pregnant with twins and doctors, fearing for her life, granted her an abortion. The Archbishop excommunicated the doctors involved and the mother for giving her consent. Rape is bad, he said, but abortion is worse.

His stance was upheld by Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, the head of the Catholic Church's Congregation for Bishops.

However, Justin sent me links to two stories showing a more humane face of the church. Archbishop Rino Fisichella, who heads the Vatican's Pontifical Academy for Life, said the doctors didn't deserve excommunication because they saved the young girl's life. Fisichella argued for mercy and strongly criticised his brother bishops.

In another reversal, the National Conference of Bishops of Brazil decided that because the girl's mother acted "under pressure from the doctors" who had warned her daughter could die if she carried the twins to term, she could not be cast off from the church and there was no clear case for expelling the doctors either.

In his letter, Justin wrote that "as a Catholic, this is the kind of decision I fear will be placed in front of me during my medical career. In searching their souls and following their consciences, these physicians did what was best for the patient. I thought to myself as I read the article, 'How could this bishop be so brash and hateful?'

"I hoped the Vatican would come down and reverse this ... now that the Church majority has corrected the wrongful actions of the fringe few, will you have the courage to point this out in your column? Or will the damage remain unjustly tied to those who, in the end, did the right thing? I hope that you can use the strong forum that you have been given to show both sides of this tragic situation and the ultimate resolution that came to pass."

No problem, Justin. Thanks for your letter and good luck in your medical career.

* www.kerrewoodham.com