CNA Staff, Nov 1, 2020 / 08:00 am
A Brazilian court has ruled that "Catholics for the Right to Decide" must remove the term "Catholic" from its name, as the organization's goals are incompatible with the values of the Catholic Church. The organization is an outgrowth of the U.S.-based Catholics for Choice, which advocates for pro-abortion policies.
"In defending of the right to decide on abortion, which the Church clearly and severely condemns, there is a clear distortion and incompatibility of the name used in relation to the aims and specific actions of the association, which directly attack morality and good customs, in addition to harming the public good and interests," said a decision from Judge Jose Carlos Ferreira In a Sao Paolo lawsuit.
The suit was filed by the Don Bosco Center for Faith and Culture Association, which argued that the use of the term "Catholic" by the pro-choice group is fradulent, since "under the pretext of defending the 'reproductive rights of women,'" it is actually promoting the "murder of babies in the womb."
A lower court had dismissed the complaint as unfounded and said that only an ecclesiastical authority had standing to bring such a complaint.