A Follow-Up on the Archbishop Who Excommunicated Doctors for Saving a Girl's Life

Back in March, the Catholic Church in Brazil made international news when Archbishop Jose Sobrinho excommunicated the mother of a girl and the doctors who performed an abortion on the 9-year-old girl who had been raped by her stepfather, a position the Vatican itself supported (with some internal dissent in Rome).

Well, while the Church will probably not be changing its stance anytime soon, Sobrinho won't have to worry about excommunicating anybody anymore - the Vatican has announced that Sobrinho is retiring. I don't have any high hope that the Vatican will apoint somebody more progressive to the post, but hey - even if the new archbishop shows a level of compassion slightly above Dick Cheney's, it will be a marked improvement.