American Notes Roman

Shortly before her daughter's confirmation last May, Mary Ann Sorrentino, executive director of Rhode Island Planned Parenthood, was told by her pastor not to participate. The reason: she had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. When Sorrentino, 42, questioned the action, she was reminded that two Planned Parenthood clinics performed abortions in the state and that canon law decrees automatic excommunication for receiving an abortion or helping another to receive one. News of the action came out only last week when a local cable-television program aired a segment on abortion. During the show, Sorrentino heard a priest describe her as "Public Enemy No. 1 of all babies being killed in the womb in Rhode Island."

Reacting to the news, Planned Parenthood President Faye Wattleton said in New York that Sorrentino's was the first case of an individual being excommunicated "simply because he or she works for Planned Parenthood." While Sorrentino's nine-year stewardship of the state group continues, she insists her religious faith remains unshaken. On "human-rights issues," she told a news conference, "many of us as Catholics consider ourselves in conflict" with the church.