Brazilian court orders priest to pay thousands for impeding abortion

A Brazilian Catholic priest has been ordered to pay 60,000 Brazilian Reals (US $18,537) for preventing an abortion. 

In 2005, Fr. Luiz Carlos Lodi da Cruz had successfully petitioned a court to prohibit the abortion of a child who had been deemed "inviable" due to deformities in gestation. The Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled last week that the priest is liable for "moral damages."

The tribunal stated that Cruz had acted recklessly and caused suffering to the parents of the child. The priest said that he has no regrets and thanked God for having the opportunity to save the child from abortion.

"To be condemned on account of Christ and with Christ ... is an honor for me. I don't deserve it, but I am grateful," the priest said, as reported by Life Site News.

He added that the child "was condemned to death by a judicial sentence, a sentence that was illegal and an abuse of power, and the judge recognized that."

"That's why I, who at that time was a law student, decided to ask for habeas corpus in favor of the child, so that the abortion wouldn't be carried out," Cruz said.

The abortion had been approved on the request of the parents after it was discovered that the baby had a deformity known as "Body Stalk Anomaly," which causes the protrusion of the intestines and other abdominal organs outside the body. Children suffering from the condition often die inside the womb or shortly after birth. However, there are recorded cases of children surviving for months and even years.

Cruz said that an erroneous newspaper article led him to believe that the abortion was carried out even though his petition was granted by the court. He said that he would have visited the family and offered spiritual advice if he had known about the survival of the baby.

The child died eight days after the mother went home. Cruz learned that the girl was named "Geovana" but was never baptized. He was later sued by the parents claiming that he had caused suffering to the mother. Two local courts have previously ruled against the parents but the Brazilian Supreme Tribunal of Justice ruled in their favor.

Cruz, the president of Pro-Life of Anapolis, was also ordered to pay the equivalent of $3,000 in 2005 for referring to an anthropologist as "pro-abortion." The court also told him to stop using the term to describe supporters of abortion.