We reported in Dec 2009 and January 2010 on the recently approved wide-ranging abortion law approved by the Spanish Government.
The final act needed for the new legislation to enter into force was the signature of the Spanish King Juan Carlos
Rev. Thomas J. Euteneuer, president of Human Life International, said
"The world is watching to see whether Spain's Head of State, Juan Carlos de Borbón, will abdicate his moral leadership of the nation and sign the death warrants of millions more Spanish babies who will be killed by abortion," he told LifeNews.com. "He has already been complicit, by his signature, in the deaths of millions in the first abortion law he signed in 1985."
Monsignor Ignacio Barreiro in a new statement says that by signing the act the Spanish King automatically excommunicated himself from the Catholic Church
The full text of Monsignor Barreiro's article is reprinted below
We are very much disappointed to hear of the Spanish Head of State's signature of this terrible law that expands in a significant way the amount of children that can be killed by abortion. Yet, because he has signed other legislation in the past that undermines the moral law and Catholic teaching, this sad decision does not come as a surprise.
We reiterate that regardless of his constitutional status, Juan Carlos de Borbón absolutely retains the basic human right to follow his properly formed conscience. It should be evident to any person of good will, that positive law cannot remove this fundamental freedom for any human person, much less for a person that should be the moral guide of his nation. We have to remember that the legitimacy of a King is grounded in the way in which he follows the Law of God. Other European royalty have recently demonstrated both the awareness of this basic moral precept and the courage to abstain from endorsing unjust laws. So while Spanish positive law may require his endorsement, both natural and divine law require that he reject the endorsement of any immoral legislation, especially that which will result in the deaths of untold numbers of unborn human beings.
We have to remember that in 2005 when the current Head of State sanctioned a law authorizing same sex marriage this office presented this same line of argumentation to the Spanish authorities.
Further, we believe that Juan Carlos de Borbón has incurred a laetae sententiae excommunication, as his action directly resulted in the enactment of this gravely immoral expansion of abortion. (We draw this conclusion logically from the clear teaching of the Church as articulated by Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, the current Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, Canon 915: The Discipline Regarding the Denial of Holy Communion to Those Obstinately Persevering in Manifest Grave Sin, Periodica De Re Canonica, vol. 96 (2007) pp. 3-58.)
In the wake of last year's Recife Affair, wherein the mere appearance of vacillation on the Church's unchangeable teaching on abortion was used by pro-abortion extremists to forward their cause, it is more important than ever for the Church to clearly articulate the consequences of such capitulation by public figures with regard to abortion.
Last but not least we ask for prayers for the conversion of the current Head of State of Spain. May he return to the Faith that was practised by many of his ancestors in better centuries, before the entry in Spain of liberal ideology.
