Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, the head of the Pontifical Council for the Family, told the Vatican publication Famiglia Christiana that researchers who destroy human embryos, and politicians who approve laws allowing such destruction, will be excommunicated. Cardinal Lopez Trujillo also criticized countries that had passed such laws, saying they had “thrown out fundamental laws of nature.”

With respect to excommunication, the Cardinal appears to be referring to the excommunication latae sententiae already prescribed in Canon Law for those who procure or assist in procuring an abortion. But it will be interesting to see what Benedict XVI says on July 8-9 when he visits the World Meeting with Familes in Spain, a country that under its current Socialist leadership has already thrown several “fundamental laws of nature” and appears eager to throw out some more. ~Tom Piatak