The Church Shows Up To the Party

Well, I mean, there were always sorta hanging around, but now that Ecuador is ready to approve a draft constitution next month, the Ecuadorian Catholic Church is flexing its muscle, calling the new constitution "abortist." Still, when you look at how involved the Catholic Church is in the Philippines (or, for some people, how it should be involved, which speaks to its clout in politics), the Ecuadorian church seems a little lazy.

What is more interesting to me in that article is that the Vice President went out of his way to reassure people that the new Constitution actually supports the Catholic view of life -- "I invite those who don't understand to defer [fuck, how do you translate "acudir"?] to a science book. Conception begins from the moment in which the sperm fertilizes the egg, and if the Constitution declares that from that moment it will protect life, there's no turning back." For the Church's part, they want the thing to say something far more explicit, since they believe without specific anti-abortion language, the door is still left open.

Again, this Ecuadorian "Revolucion Ciudadana" is significantly different from Chavez's "Revolucion Bolivariana": when this issue came up a few months ago, it was Correa himself that tempered (or gave in to the Church, depending on who you ask) the calls for pushing the document in directions that would completely piss off the church (gay marriage, abortion). Also, if I can find the opinion piece, the opposition nailed him for being a flip-flopper. Now, for what I can tell, the Church is just being the Church. But for what it's worth, this document picks its fights fairly well.