Rome (AsiaNews) – Controversy still surrounds Pope Benedict XVI’s statement yesterday that excommunication “was not arbitrary, but rather [. . .] permitted by Canon Law which says that putting the innocent to death is not compatible with receiving communion, which is to receive the body of Christ.” In short, Catholic authorities did what Canon Law required.

On the plane taking him to Brazil, the Pope also talked about the “Church’s great struggle for life, which John Paul II made into a fundamental point of his pontificate,” writing “an entire encyclical about it.” For Benedict XVI, “we go forward with the prophecy that life is a gift, not a threat. At the root of these laws, on the one hand, there is a certain selfishness; on the other, there is doubt about the value of life, a doubt about the future.” Instead, “even under difficult human conditions, life is always a gift.”

For his part, Vatican Press Office Director Federico Lombardi clarified the statement the Pope made yesterday to reporters. He noted that the “Mexican bishops had not announced the excommunication of anyone”. “And if the bishops haven't excommunicated anyone, it's not that the pope wants to do so,” Father Lombardi said.

“Legislative action in favour of abortion is incompatible with participation in the Eucharist as written in the post-synodal exhortation Sacrosantum Caritatis,” he explained. “Politicians who vote that way exclude themselves from communion.”

“Are they therefore excommunicated?” reporters asked. “No!” Fr Lombardi answered. “They have excluded themselves from communion.”