Eighteen House Democrats, led by Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.), on Monday in a statement responded to comments made by Pope Benedict XVI on Wednesday about potential excommunication of Roman Catholic Mexico City legislators who voted for a law that allows pregnant women to obtain a legal abortion during the first three months' gestation, The Hill reports (Kaplan, The Hill, 5/15). The pope during a news conference on Wednesday on a flight from Rome to Sao Paulo, Brazil, when asked whether he agreed with excommunication for the lawmakers replied, "Yes, this excommunication is not something arbitrary."

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." A 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. 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 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. 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" (Kaiser Daily Women's Health Policy Report, 5/14).

Statement, Reaction
The Democratic lawmakers in the statement said, "We are concerned with the pope's recent statement warning Catholic elected officials that they risk excommunication and would not receive communion for their pro-choice views." They added, "Advancing respect for life and for the dignity of every human being is, as our church has taught us, our own life's mission." The suggested penalty "offend(s) the very nature of the American experiment and do(es) a great disservice to the centuries of good work the church has done," the statement said.

According to The Hill, the statement "mirrors" a Catholic "statement of principles" released last year that 55 Democrats -- including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) -- signed. The statement of principles says that the lawmakers agreed with the Catholic Church's "undesirability of abortion" and that each member "is committed to reducing the number of unwanted pregnancies and creating an environment with policies that encourage pregnancies to be carried to term." Reps. Bart Stupak (D-Mich.) and Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), who oppose abortion rights, also signed the statement of principles.

Mary Ann Walsh, spokesperson for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, said the decision to withhold sacraments is made by individual bishops. Jon O'Brien, executive director of Catholics for a Free Choice, said, the pope "is still putting dogma ahead of the lived reality of the Catholic laity; ... it will only push Catholic politicians further form the institutional church" (The Hill, 5/15).