Rome - A 70-year-old Italian priest has shocked other members of the Catholic clergy by declaring openly that he had helped to arrange abortions. Father Andrea Gallo said that on four separate occasions he had directed young Albanian prostitutes to a doctor so they could terminate their pregnancies. The elderly prelate said he hoped his admission would force people "to face up to these things".
But a fellow-priest, Father Oreste Benzi, said yesterday: "He has made himself an accomplice to the killing of children."
Father Gallo said the girls he had helped were "all under-age, some little more than children; hungry, desperate and without papers". He said he was himself "unambiguously opposed to abortion", but had opted for the "lesser evil" in extreme situations.
