Forgiving abortion: Pope sends out “missionaries of mercy”
by Carder
Pope Francis will send an army of globe-trotting priests — his “missionaries of mercy” — to absolve women who’ve had abortions, in the latest Vatican bid to catch up with modern times.
The effort, which includes reaching out to doctors and nurses who’ve performed abortions, will commence in the Holy Year of Mercy, which Francis has declared will be celebrated between Dec. 8, 2015, and Nov. 20, 2016.
~ The New York Post, May 8
May.13, 2015 1:00 am |
The Church |
Jill Stanek is a nurse turned speaker, columnist and blogger, a national figure in the effort to protect both preborn and postborn innocent human life.
New York Post has no clue about Catholicism, Pope Francis, or the actual purpose of the Pope’s special Missionaries of Mercy during the Year of Mercy.
– Any priest can absolve the sin of abortion.
– Any bishop can lift the automatic excommunication that is attached to abortion (Canon 1398).
– In most dioceses in the US (perhaps all), the bishops have delegated the authority to lift the excommunication to all of their priests, thus both the forgiveness of sin and removing the excommunication can be done during the same Confession.
The Pope’s special emissaries will have authority to lift excommunications that are reserved to Rome. Examples would be:
– A bishop who consecrates another bishop without authorization from Rome
– Anyone attempting to ordain a woman to the priesthood
– A priest who breaks the Seal of Confession
This only concerns Catholics. With a phone call to the Archdiocese of New York, the Post could have gotten their facts right.
But the Post does not care about facts. They just wanted to get in their dig about “the latest Vatican bid to catch up with modern times.”
Hey, Post! Pope Francis is reminding the world that people involved with abortion are in dire need of special mercy! How’s that for “modern”?
As the previous commenter said, any priest can absolve the sin of abortion in Confession.
What’s more, when you go to Confession, you have to say that you’re sorry for your sins and that you intend to avoid sinning again. In other words, the absolution follows repentance. It does not mean that the priest says, “It’s OK, that sin doesn’t count anymore. The Church is getting with modern times.”
What makes Confession so wonderful is that another person hears about all the things you wish you hadn’t done and acknowledges that they are bad, but then says God will grant you “pardon and peace” anyway.
Del said, “They just wanted to get in their dig about ‘the latest Vatican bid to catch up with modern times.'”
That’s what I got out the article too, Del … this was just a way for the Post to display their bias (and unwittingly their ignorance).
The Post’s article title, “The Catholic Church Will Now Forgive Your Abortion” implies there was no forgiveness for abortion before this initiative. Wrong. In addition, the word “repent” is no where in the article… how one can write about a Christian perspective on forgiveness and not mention repentance shows the writer was not terribly interested in presenting a well researched article.
in the latest Vatican bid to catch up with modern times.
That’s odd that they would put it this way, as abortion is – in “modern times” – not seen as something that even needs to be forgiven.
The Pope looks like he needs some sunglasses in that picture.