Career
Regarding his statement, he said:
"The law of God is higher than any human laws. When a human law -- that is, a law enacted by human legislators -- is against the law of God, that law has no value. The adults who approved, who carried out this abortion have incurred excommunication."
President Lula da Silva and Health Minister José Gomes Temporão decried his statement.
The statement was also criticized in the Vatican newspaper by the President of the Pontifical Academy for Life.
One of the doctors concerned said the controversy had drawn needed attention to Brazil"s restrictive abortion laws. Sobrinho"s resignation was accepted when he reached the canonical age limit upon turning 75 in 2008.
His successor is Antônio Fernando Saburido, previously Bishop of Sobral.