Absolutely it must be held. Participation in murder is a sin that cries out to heaven and damns the sinner for all eternity. The Orthodox do not think murder is sin?
Is it, in light of Martino’s ordering of importance, more important than maintaining a belief in the propriety of the veneration of icons or that Panagia is the Theotokos and not the Christotokos?
How do we know unless we ask him? The Pastoral letter that you are quoting is silent on this.
“The Pastoral letter that you are quoting is silent on this.”
Not at all. The letter is quite clear that all other considerations pale in the face of anti-abortionism.
“”“No, the taking of innocent human life is so heinous, so horribly evil, and so absolutely opposite to the law of Almighty God that abortion must take precedence over every other issue. I repeat. It is the single most important issue confronting not only Catholics, but the entire electorate.””
Is this simply heretical hyperbole excusable because of the the nature of abortion?
Which dogma states that? It seems to me that the Roman Catholic Church equates Ecumenical Councils (binding, infallible and inspired) on the same level as the Magisterium. If it is not a dogma then it is not binding. If it is a dogma, which Council made it a dogma necessary for salvation and equal to, if not higher than the belief in Trinity, Christology and Theotokos?
Participation in murder is a sin that cries out to heaven and damns the sinner for all eternity. The Orthodox do not think murder is sin?
But that's not what the Catechism says.
"2271 Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable"
This is then patently false because, as mentioned earlier, the issue of ensoulment did not qualify all abortions as murder. Therefore every produced abortion could not have possibly been treated as murder. Even St. Augustine states that one cannot kill that which is not alive.