Comments made by Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday about potential excommunication of Catholic Mexico City legislators who voted for a law that allows pregnant women to obtain a legal abortion during the first three months' gestation have "caused a stir" in the Roman Catholic Church, Reuters reports (Pullella, Reuters, 5/10). The pope during a news conference on Wednesday on a plane trip from Rome to Sao Paulo, Brazil, when asked whether he agreed with excommunication for the lawmakers replied, "Yes, this excommunication is not something arbitrary" (Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, 5/11).

The pope also said that Mexican bishops who supported excommunication of the legislators "simply announced publicly what is contained in the law of the church, ... which expresses our appreciation for life and that human individuality, human personality is present from the first moment" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/10). According to the Reuters, the Vatican spokesperson after the news conference said that neither the Mexican bishops nor the pope had excommunicated anyone and that the pope had not threatened any excommunications (Reuters, 5/10). According to the Los Angeles Times, the comments from the spokesperson, Father Federico Lombardi, led reporters to believe that the pope meant to say the legislators had excommunicated themselves and could not receive communion.

The Vatican's official transcript of Benedict's comments, released on Thursday, did not fully correspond to his original words, the Los Angeles Times reports. (Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, 5/11). The official transcript eliminated the "Yes, this" in his initial response to whether he supported the excommunication, as well as references to the Mexican bishops. Lombardi said it is customary for the Vatican's Secretariat of State to "review and clean up" the pope's unprepared remarks prior to publication (Reuters, 5/10). The pope on Sunday in a speech to Latin American bishops in Aparecida, Brazil, said laws that permit abortion and contraception are "threatening the future of peoples" (Fisher/Rohter, New York Times, 5/14).

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"What seems to be clear is that the pope personally thinks that Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should not receive communion," John Allen, author of several books on the Catholic Church, said. He added, "This clearly emboldens bishops who have taken a hard line against Catholic pro-choice politicians, but it remains to be seen if there will be a disciplinary follow-through or whether individual bishops still decide who can receive communion." George Weigel -- senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center in Washington, D.C., and leading U.S. Catholic theologian -- said, "Catholic politicians who think they can remain part of the church after supporting abortion are putting a lie on top of the original offense against justice" (Reuters, 5/10).

NPR's "Morning Edition" on Friday reported on Benedict's speech in Sao Paulo. The segment includes excerpts of the speech and comments from audience members (McCarthy, "Morning Edition," NPR, 5/11). Audio of the segment is available online.