Church in the World

Abortion clinic landlord ?excommunicated?

Austria

An Austrian bishop has declared a leading businessman in Vienna to be excommunicated for allowing an abortion clinic to open in his shopping centre.

The Clinic for Sexual Medicine, run by a team of urologists, gynaecologists and psychotherapists, opened in the "Lugner-City Shopping Mall" in Vienna on 1 February. Bishop Andreas Laun, an auxiliary in Salzburg, immediately declared the owner of the mall, Richard Lugner, excommunicated. Mr Lugner, a prominent Austrian businessman who once ran for president, had "excommunicated himself", Bishop Laun declared, because he had allowed abortions to be performed in his mall and, according to canon law, "any Catholic who participates in the execution of an abortion is automatically excommunicated from the Catholic Church", he said.

But Austria's leading canon lawyer, Fr Bruno Primetshofer, contradicted the bishop, stressing that only the person performing the abortion and the woman concerned were affected. The head of the Austrian Bishops' Conference, Cardinal Christoph Schönborn, refused to comment on the excommunication. Abortion was murder and against the fifth commandment, he said.

Abortion up to the twelfth week of pregnancy is not punishable by law in Austria. Approximately 30,000 to 40,000 abortions are performed annually in the country of 8 million people.

The head of the clinic, Brigitte Mooshammer-Peters, said that the controversy had made the clinic known in the whole of the German-speaking world. "We could never have afforded such huge publicity," she said. "The telephones never stop ringing."

Mr Lugner first threatened to sue Bishop Laun, but has now offered him a gesture of reconciliation and suggested they go on a pilgrimage to the famous Austrian Marian shrine of Mariazell together.