Reclaiming Our Children: A Blog About Healing After Abortion

Clarity on the Popes letter by Fr Peter Pilsner who works with us in the Entering Canaan Ministry.

Thank you Father!

The lack of clarity on this topic is very disturbing. It does not lend itself to a sound bite. To be clear, priests do not need special permission from the Pope to forgive the SIN of abortion. They need permission from their bishop to LIFT THE AUTOMATIC EXCOMMUNICATION for abortion. Then, after the excommunication is lifted, they can forgive the sin. Two points are important here. First, NOT all women who have abortions are in fact excommunicated. Canon 1324 lists conditions under which a person's freedom is impaired, and who therefore are not subject to ANY automatic excommunication. For example, if a woman sincerely did not know that there was a penalty of excommunication for abortion, she is not excommunicated, and the priest can absolve her sin right away. Most women in my experience are completely unaware that the excommunication exist. Second, since the time I have been ordained, Cardinal O'Connor and his successors have given to all the priests of the Archdiocese power to lift the excommunication for abortion, if it is in fact present. Other dioceses I know have done the same. The point is this, any woman who has confessed the sin of abortion to a priest and received absolution from him HAS BEEN FORGIVEN. If he was in a different diocese from New York, and needed to get permission from his bishop to lift the excommunication, he would have told her, she would have known. Again, no woman who has been to confession for abortion and received absolution should have any fear that she was not really forgiven. http://news.yahoo.com/pope-allow-priests-forgive-abortion-d…