Pope Francis shook
up the Catholic world -- again -- on Tuesday by announcing that priests around
the world will be authorized to forgive the "sin of abortion" when
the church begins a "Year of Mercy" this December.
"The
forgiveness of God cannot be denied to one who has repented," the Pope
said, adding that he has met "many women" scarred by the
"agonizing and painful" decision to have an abortion.
Francis'
announcement will give all priests full authority to absolve Catholics contrite
about their role in a procedure that the church considers a grave "moral
evil." In the United States, many priests already have that power, but
Vatican officials portrayed Tuesday's announcement as "a
widening of the church's mercy."
"What's new
is that Pope Francis, at least for the Year of Mercy, is universalizing this
permission," said the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and
editor-at-large at America magazine in New York. "Just as notable is his
pastoral, compassionate and understanding tone towards women who have had
abortions."
The Pope's policy
does not change church doctrine and applies only to the Year of Mercy, a
centuries-old Catholic practice during which believers may receive special
indulgences for their sins. The mercy year begins on December 8 and runs
through November 20, 2016. Vatican
officials said it is possible the pontiff will allow the abortion policy to
continue in perpetuity.
In his short
statement, the Pope said he sympathizes with "women who have resorted to
abortion," believing that they have no other option. "I am well aware
of the pressure that has led them to this decision."
The Catechism of
the Catholic Church says that person who procures an abortion incurs automatic excommunication, a
penalty that often only a bishop can lift. Some experts in the Catholic canon
law expressed confusion about the practical effects of the Pope's announcement.
Edward Peters, a canon lawyer at Sacred Heart Major
Seminary in Detroit, said Francis' statement seems to assume that
the "sin" of abortion and the "crime" of abortion are
treated equally under church law.
But Peters said
priests have been empowered to forgive the sin, which most often applies to
women who have an abortion, since 1983, when the code of canon law was revised.
It's the
canonical crime of abortion, which Peters said more aptly applies to abortion
providers, that would incur automatic excommunication and require a bishop's
intervention.
In an explanatory article, a consultant to the
Vatican Press Office agreed that, under current church law "in many
cases" an abortion "may be absolved as would any other serious
sin."
Encouraging
mercy
What's truly new about Tuesday's
announcement, continued the Rev. Thomas Rosica, is the "great pastoral
approach and concern of Pope Francis."
As such, the
move seems to showcase a developing phase in Francis' papacy, which began in
March 2013. During the first two years, he changed the church's tone by
welcoming people on the margins, including gays and lesbians, divorced
Catholics, the elderly, the poor and the sick.
This summer, for
example, Francis said the church should take special care to embrace divorced
Catholics. "No closed doors!" he told a crowd gathered for his weekly
audience in Rome in August.
With the
abortion announcement, Francis seems to be signaling a "third way" to
govern the church around thorny issues. He's not changing long-standing church
practices, but he's moving beyond rhetoric.
In particular,
he's empowering Catholic clergy to be more merciful, and at times more flexible
in the enforcement of church rules. This year, when top bishops hold a large
meeting on challenges to modern families, the pontiff may seek to take a
similar approach to divorced and remarried Catholics.
Abortion remains a
grave matter
"It's another signal that the Pope wants a church of
encounter that journeys with people," said John Gehring, Catholic program
director at Faith in Public Life. "He recognizes the church is anchored in
the Gospel when mercy trumps finger-wagging judgment."
The pontiff's
announcement comes just weeks before he is scheduled to visit the United
States, where he will land amid a fierce debate over the funding and morality of Planned
Parenthood, a health services nonprofit that's one of the nation's largest
providers of abortions.
Vatican
officials say Francis will try to transcend the culture wars when he visits
Washington, New York and Philadelphia this month, but his church here remains
bitterly divided over the morality of abortion.
According to a
new poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, 51% of
American Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while
45% say it should be illegal in all or most cases. In the hours after Francis'
announcement, Catholics on both sides of the debate were seeking to spin the
popular pontiff's remarks.
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