If I am not mistaken, and former PI can correct me, we've had it in the Diocese of Savannah for decades. Ever since I've been ordained in 1980 we were permitted to offer absolution. I think public excommunications for any thing is a different matter of course. Only the bishop can lift that.
Pope Francis To Allow Priests To Forgive Women Who Had Abortions
Posted: 09/01/2015 06:57 AM EDT | Edited: 4 minutes ago
by the Vatican on Tuesday, Francis described the "existential and moral ordeal" faced by women who have terminated pregnancies and said he had "met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonizing and painful decision."
In church teaching, abortion is such a grave sin that those who procure or perform it incur an automatic excommunication.
It can usually only be formally forgiven by the chief confessor of a diocese -- known by the Italian term "penitenziere" -- or a Christian missionary, Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini said.
6 comments:
My diocese has granted this privilege to priests for decades. The real surprise here is the extension of absolution faculties to the schismatic priests of the SSPX.
That is the dumbest headline I have ever seen. NEWSFLASH there exists in the Church a sacrament established by Christ Himself called Confession. All any Catholic has to do is go into a Catholic Church enter the confessional and with a repentant heart confess their sins and receive penance and absolution. Again not exactly rocket science.
And is the media even picking up that women who commit abortions need to go to confession because they committed a grave SIN, I don't think they get that.
Rome does not consider them schismatic. And yes, it is a surprise.
Steven
Maybe this is screwup in our favor: women grieving their abortions, and the men who procured them, and, please Mary Queen of Heaven, the people that perform them will understand that they can go to their parish and be forgiven.
Anonymous,
In the case of abortion, canon law reserves this faculty to bishops and certain superiors. However, bishops can also delegate this faculty to other priests, which is common practice.
Anonymous:
"In the case of abortion, canon law reserves this faculty to bishops and certain superiors. However, bishops can also delegate this faculty to other priests, which is common practice."
I agree. Nothing new here,at least in the U.S.
Reparation will have to be made for such a grave sin however, as with all grave sins. It testifies to the Mercy of God that sins can be forgiven and the offense to His Justice can be repaired. It is repaired through the prayers and sufferings of the members of the Body of Christ and the suffering one undergoes in Purgatory.
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