Small Mercy

In a week when the conviction of Cardinal George Pell shows the cassock-lifting school rather letting the side down, the Vatican's compassionate heart will no doubt be gladdened by the good news from the Pope's own country, where the authorities' eagerness to appease the coathanger industry has forced an eleven-year-old girl to give birth by Caesarian section. The resulting little miracle is unlikely to survive, the Creator in His infinite wisdom and mercy having somehow omitted to make proper arrangements for such a circumstance when designing the daughters of Eve; which has spawned a new rallying cry of "Save both lives" from those pious souls who believe that medical science should try to accomplish what God would not. On the bright side, the girl's rapist does not appear to have been a member of the priestly hierarchy, and his indiscretion was by definition heterosexual; which means that the Church in this instance has been spared the spiritual burden of blaming it all on the gays.