Lynn Hilliard is one of four nurses charged following police raids on Morgentaler’s Winnipeg abortion clinic. Miss Hilliard is a Roman Catholic and has been planning a July church wedding.
Archbishop Adam Exner of Winnipeg stated that Miss Hilliard “has created a public scandal.” He said that “to be married in the church, you have to be in conformity with the teaching of the church.
“She’s obviously in flagrant opposition to what the church stands for. The only way out for her would be to renounce her job, to come back and be reconciled with the church through the Sacrament. Then, of course, she could be married in the church but she’d have to have a whole change of heart and make it publicly known.”
Roman Catholic Canon Law states that a person who participates in, or counsels, an abortion is automatically excommunicated and therefore barred from receiving the sacraments.
Miss Hilliard would be excommunicated if she is proven guilty of charges to procure an abortion. Archbishop Exner added that the case is a solemn warning to anyone involved directly or indirectly in an abortion, that the church intends to act and enforce Canon Law provisions.
