Remember being 9 with your Easy-Bake Oven (Mommy/MDs excommunicated)?

Allison Hantschell writes:

I had an Easy-Bake Oven, when I was 9. It made tiny cupcakes and itty-bitty cookies, and I haven’t been able to stop thinking about it since I read about the girl in Brazil.

I don’t know her name, but she’s 9 years old, living in Brazil. Brutally raped by her stepfather, multiple times over a period of years, and finally impregnated with twins.

Nine years old. And instead of playing baseball, or learning numbers, or baking tiny cupcakes and itty-bitty cookies, this little girl is at the center of a worldwide controversy over the Roman Catholic Church, its views on abortion, and, above all, the role of mercy and the incoherence of men.

Raped by a parent until precocious adolescence led to pregnancy, and the church at last took action . . . .

Update: Brazilian Govt./Catholic Church agree to disagree and cooperate on anti-AIDS/HIV effort