image from Mike Brummond
Today my feed was inundated with Pope Francis supposedly relaxing the rules on abortion.
Except that’s not quite accurate.
He didn’t relax the rules on ABORTION per se — it’s STILL considered a sin in the Catholic Church — always has been, always will be. We already know that most folks in mainstream media these days are too lazy to do any real research or real reporting, although since they had an idea this was going to happen back in May, you’d think they’d have done some of the legwork between then and now, but no.
[Edited to add: It always also has been a forgivable sin, because ALL sin is forgivable in the Catholic Church, given the conditions necessary for forgiveness. Priests for Life, a pro-life organization, has for a long-time talked about this here. This is misleading.]
So, for the sake of those who might stumble upon this and actually want to learn something:
What Pope Francis relaxed was the way the sin of abortion is forgiven, so that the person can once again partake of the Sacraments.
Note that Pope Francis is simply addressing the FORGIVENESS of those who PROCURED an abortion. He doesn’t say anything about ABORTIONISTS. And he makes a distinction between those who know how serious a sin abortion is when they get one, versus those that don’t or that are coerced into getting one. This is called culpability.
Despite reconsidering their position on abortion. The tide IS turning, and media is panicking.
Presenting Pope Francis’ words this way makes it appear that the Catholic Church is either changing Her teaching or realizing that She’s been wrong about abortion all along. In a sound bite world, people will read those headlines and conclude wrongly that abortion really isn’t the major evil that CMP, conservatives and pro-lifers and all those fanatic Christians/Catholics are always portraying it to be.
Except that it still is.
In so doing, those of us who respect life in all its stages from conception/fertilization to natural death can be painted as “holier than the Pope”. See the reversal here?
Woe to those who call evil good
and good evil,
who put darkness for light
and light for darkness,
who put bitter for sweet
and sweet for bitter!
– Isaiah 5:20, RSVCE
To sum up: Abortion is still a sin. Relaxing the rules on forgiveness of the sin still requires repentance. It still requires Confession. It is not automatic. It is not planning to sin and then planning to confess later since one will be forgiven anyway: that’s What Pope Francis’ Abortion Announcement Really Means
More info for those who actually want to understand:
What Pope Francis actually said (though translation is somewhat clunky): Letter of His Holiness Pope Francis According to Which an Indulgence is Granted to the Faithful on the Occasion of the Extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy
From Jimmy Akin: Holy Year Gestures on Abortion and the SSPX: 12 Things to Know and Share
From Canon Lawyer Dr. Edward Peters: Pope Francis on reconciliation for abortion (I will not pretend to understand this better than the average Catholic, though some points were clearer to me than others.)
Recent Comments