George,

Yes the issue has developed.

At first blush I would also think that anything produced at a geographical location with a history of simplicity in law leaving nuances to be dealt with by way of common sense would allow for an exception. However your new information indicates that the Bishop interpreted correctly. In any case I would shrink from locating the rule and expressing an opinion on canon law or assuming I know the medical facts based only on media reports which are misleading in other ways or indeed the medical opinion made by an abortion activist who was hired to do the job.

It seems that abortion activist Dr Rivaldo Albuquerque and another Doctor at his clinic aborted the child and were (re?)excommunicated. Is it possible that another doctor concerned solely with the child's welfare not hired to do an abortion might give a different medical opinion? Is it a fair bet that excommunication wouldn't be Albuquerque etal's primary concern in life in their line of work? Regardless of how you might answer it would be horrible if the pregnant girl's mother became surprised and hurt reading the Archbishop's interpretation after finding out her daughter was raped. So how did the media know? Albuquerque might have wanted to seize the media opportunity but could he have done so without the informed consent of the mother? Would you differentiate between an already traumatised mother reading in the paper that she is excommunicated and the same person agreeing to allow an abortion activist go to the media hoping that she can make the Bishop and his anti-abortion stance look bad?

mjpb,
I do not want to disagree and I certainly I do not want to defend abortion activists and associated media sensationalists, but a raped nine year old pregnant with twins is newsworthy on its own, abortion or no abortion. I agree that there are extenuating circumstances regarding the bishop's public statement (which in my opinion he did not have to make so blunt, Cannon Law or not), however I also believe there are much stronger extenuating circumstances regarding this "latae sententiae" excommunication that he could at least have mentioned.

I am not familiar with Canon Law's rulings on abortions but I would think they cannot be that much different from other cases of manslaughter or murder, where many extenuating circumstances (e.g. for a war combatant) or difficult to decide situations (kill person A to save person B's life, or kill person B to save person A's life, or do nothing and cause the death of both).

I think it was the former Melbourne Archbishop Frank Little who once said - after the journalist who interviewed him about Humanae Vitae (contraceptives) did not want to accept his explanations and qualifications, and kept on pressing - something like: "If you are unable to understand any other answer only yes or no, then the answer must be no". Something like this would have been more diplomatic and - which is more important - also more charitable than Archbishop Sobrinho's reaction. And it was much harder to explain the freedom of conscience case vis-a-vis an encyclical than the exceptionality of this Brazilian case.

This seems to come close to what I have been trying to say:

>> Archbishop Rino Fisichella, president of the Pontifical Academy for Life, criticized what he called a "hasty" public declaration of the excommunication of the girl's mother and the doctors who aborted the girl's twins. The girl "in the first place should have been defended, hugged and held tenderly to help her feel that we were all on her side" he wrote in the Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, March 15. ...

(B)ecause excommunication is incurred automatically at the moment a direct abortion is carried out, "there was no need to declare with such urgency and publicity a fact that occurred automatically," he said. ... He told the young girl in his written article: "There are others who deserve excommunication and our forgiveness, not those who have allowed you to live and who will help you regain hope and trust despite the presence of evil and the wickedness of many people," <<
(http://ncronline.org/news/vatican/church-credibility-harmed-hasty-excommunication)