- Feb 5, 2002
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It could very well come as a stunner that a bishop would see the need to speak out in defense of a doctrine that at first glance is beyond dispute, within the Church: the inviolability of every new human life from its conception. The bishop is Domenico Sorrentino (in the photo), age 74, head of the dioceses of Assisi, Nocera Umbra, Gualdo Tadino, and Foligno, former secretary of the Vatican’s congregation for divine worship. He has done so with a two-page article in the historic Catholic magazine of the birthplace of Saint Francis, “Rocca,” in its latest issue dated February 1.
Yet there is a reason, and of no small account. Because a few months before, in this same magazine, another highly esteemed bishop, Luigi Bettazzi, age 99, the last Italian bishop still alive to have taken part in Vatican Council II, resolutely contested none other than that doctrine, arguing that one is a “human person” only “after the fourth/fifth month” of pregnancy, and therefore prior to this stage abortion is not murder and not even a sin, if carried out for good reasons.
It was in “Rocca” of August 15 that Bettazzi upheld this disruptive thesis. And in mid-November, still in the same magazine, an accomplished moral theologian, Giannino Piana, also stepped in to give him a helping hand. Settimo Cielo reported the story on November 23 in this post:
> Free to Abort Up to the Fifth Month. A Bishop and a Theologian Explain Why
To Bettazzi and Piana, the bishop of Assisi objects and explains that the reasons they have adopted are unacceptable. Of course, he admits, Catholic doctrine “recognizes development,” but not “in the opposite direction” as they have gone, meaning backwards, digging up again as they do “the medieval theory of the delayed animation of the fetus.” Because modern scientific discoveries have by now verified that “from conception one is dealing with a quite individuated human being, with his own genetic makeup that characterizes him throughout his life,” immediately an “other” with respect to the mother.
Continued below.
magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it
Yet there is a reason, and of no small account. Because a few months before, in this same magazine, another highly esteemed bishop, Luigi Bettazzi, age 99, the last Italian bishop still alive to have taken part in Vatican Council II, resolutely contested none other than that doctrine, arguing that one is a “human person” only “after the fourth/fifth month” of pregnancy, and therefore prior to this stage abortion is not murder and not even a sin, if carried out for good reasons.
It was in “Rocca” of August 15 that Bettazzi upheld this disruptive thesis. And in mid-November, still in the same magazine, an accomplished moral theologian, Giannino Piana, also stepped in to give him a helping hand. Settimo Cielo reported the story on November 23 in this post:
> Free to Abort Up to the Fifth Month. A Bishop and a Theologian Explain Why
To Bettazzi and Piana, the bishop of Assisi objects and explains that the reasons they have adopted are unacceptable. Of course, he admits, Catholic doctrine “recognizes development,” but not “in the opposite direction” as they have gone, meaning backwards, digging up again as they do “the medieval theory of the delayed animation of the fetus.” Because modern scientific discoveries have by now verified that “from conception one is dealing with a quite individuated human being, with his own genetic makeup that characterizes him throughout his life,” immediately an “other” with respect to the mother.
Continued below.
Even Abortion Freedom Has Become a Matter of Contention. Two Bishops in a Duel
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