Judie Brown on Archbishop Fisichella

As a member of the Academy, I commented at length about those statements and joined with my fellow Academy members in protesting the statements and requesting a clarification of them from the Holy Father.

Following what I personally felt was an imprudent statement coming from Archbishop Fisichella, I wrote a letter to him requesting a clarification. Previous to that, I publicly praised the Brazilian archbishop for defending the truth of Catholic teaching and acting in accord with that teaching. In the days and weeks that followed, many Pontifical Academy members voiced similar concerns regarding the archbishop’s unfortunate remarks. To my knowledge, none of the members received an adequate response from Archbishop Fisichella. Sadly, the matter was not resolved prior to or during the February 11-13 Academy meeting and, as a result, the following statementwas issued by five Academy members.

Apparently, Archbishop Fisichella insisted the first paragraph of the letter be edited out of the published version and has further manipulated the situation to...vindicate himself!

Recently a number of letters have been sent to the Holy See, some of them from prominent figures in political and ecclesial life, explaining the confusion that has been created in various countries, especially in Latin America, following the manipulation and exploitation of an article by His Excellency Archbishop Rino Fisichella, President of the Pontifical Academy for Life, on the sad affair of the ‘Brazilian girl’.” [Emphasis added]

What is not generally known is that this is not the original wording of the opening paragraph which it was intended to publish in L’Osservatore Romano. Fisichella obtained sight of the text prior to publication and demanded that the original paragraph be changed to read as in the published version. In this way he has been permitted to disclaim, with the apparent authority of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, all responsibility for the damaging impact of his article on the defense of innocent pre-born human lives. Responsibility for this damage belongs entirely to the way others have ‘manipulated and exploited’ his article! But not content with disclaiming responsibility for the damage his article has done, Fisichella in his address to the Academy on the 11th of February claimed that the vindication extended to the content of his article. This claim is indeed grave because the clear implication of the wording of that article is that there are difficult situations in which doctors enjoy scope for the autonomous exercise of conscience in deciding whether to carry out a direct abortion. It would appear, then, that the CDF ‘Clarification’ has failed to clarify the mind of Archbishop Rino Fisichella, and, if that is the case, it raises a troubling question about just how generally effective the ‘Clarification’ has been in dispelling the false understanding of the Church’s teaching about direct abortion conveyed by the 15 March 2009 article.

Far from creating unity and genuine harmony in the Academy, Archbishop Fisichella’s address on the 11th of February had the effect of confirming in the minds of many Academicians the impression that we are being led by an ecclesiastic who does not understand what absolute respect for innocent human lives entails. This is an absurd state of affairs in a Pontifical Academy for Life but one which can be rectified only by those who are responsible for his appointment as President.

What is the hold up on manning up over there?

Coup d'état at Pontifical Academy for Life

The head of the Pontifical Academy for Life is finally facing a revolt.

Its president, Archbishop Fisichella, no longer has the trust of some of its members. All because of one of his articles published in "L'Osservatore Romano," approved by the secretariat of state. The scholar Michel Schooyans' broadside against the false "compassion" that justifies everything.....The meeting promises to be a stormy one. Some of the members of the academy are openly questioning whether Fisichella is fit to be president.

Refreshing our memories, this clown gained notoriety last year in the case of the 9 year old Brazilian forced to abort her twins.

Fisichella's article came out on March 15, 2009. And it concerned the case of an extremely young Brazilian child-mother in Recife, who was forced to abort the twins she was carrying.

In the days before the article was published, the girl's situation had ignited bitter debate, not only in Brazil, but also in other countries, especially in France.

The French newspapers had lashed out against the Church's "fanaticism" and "hardness of heart," particularly that of the archbishop of Olinda and Recife, José Cardoso Sobrinho, who had condemned the double abortion, and had made a united front in defense of the girl and of those who had "saved" her by making her have an abortion.

The accusations that the Church had no "compassion" were extremely harsh, and were also aimed at Pope Benedict XVI himself, who had just weathered furious attacks over the Williamson case of a few weeks before.

Lucetta Scaraffia, a leading commentator for "L'Osservatore Romano," was in Paris at the time, and alerted the director of the Vatican newspaper, Giovanni Maria Vian.

In agreement with his editor, secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, Vian gave Archbishop Fisichella the job of writing an article that would quiet the attacks on the Church and the pope.

Fisichella wrote it. Bertone examined it, and approved it word for word, without having it checked by the congregation for the doctrine of the faith, as is usually done at the Vatican for position statements that touch on doctrine.

On the afternoon of March 14, the article was published on the front page of "L'Osservatore Romano," bearing the date of the following day.

In it, Fisichella wrote that the case of the Brazilian girl "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."

I don't mean to be insensitive - the situation is very hard to comprehend without faith. If you have faith, you know that nothing is impossible with God.

A nine-year-old girl would have to be vigorously followed in her pregnancy and would deliver c-section, ginned up drama that life was threatened by her pregnancy is of course conjecture. Once a female ovulates it's a sign her body, through the design of God, is indeed equipped to carry a pregnancy.

Moreover, terminating a twin pregnancy at 15 weeks pregnant is a dangerous procedure in it's own right. According to Planned Parenthood, 5000 women die and 800,000 are hospitalized due to complications with their abortions.

Fischella's letter was written at the bequest and approval of another Vatican wizard, Cardinal Bertone.

The five academy members gave Benedict XVI an extensive dossier, with a large number of articles that recited in chorus that, thanks to Fisichella's article, the Church had definitively opened the door to "therapeutic abortion."

Pope Joseph Ratzinger showed amazement and displeasure. He murmured, "Something must be done... Something will be done.

But, as time marched on, and there is bupkis, the Vatican appears to have little concern over Bishops and priests whose actions aid and abet killing children. Boston Catholics can confirm the Vatican has permitted the Cardinal to create smoke and mirrors to cover up abortion contracts for the infusion of cash.

This leaves many questions about the sincerity of the Vatican announcements that they act upon threats to the welfare of children.

It pains me to say it, but the truth of the matter is, even when murder of children is involved, they do not.