Full title: Pope Francis Allows Priests to Begin Pardoning Women and Doctors Who’ve Performed Abortions, Changing Catholic Practice
This isn’t making sense to me. Will check other sources.
Of course it could be forgiven, but as it is very grave, it was required the sinner go to a bishop or the Pope. Some sins are reserved for the Pope alone to hear the confession and offer absolution.
All that has changed is that while active abortion and its related sins are still very grave, a penitent no longer has to go to a bishop.
This goes hand in hand with Year of Mercy. The Pope is trying to encourage people to get right with God, and is trying to remove any obstacle to a person seeking forgiveness.
Here is a good explanation from Wikipedia (Apostolic Penitentiary): “Normally confessions of sins are handled at the local level by priests and their bishops and are not heard by the tribunal. The work of the Apolostic Penitentiary involves sins, such as defiling the Eucharist, which are reserved to the Holy See. ... Other sins that are handled by the Penitentiary include a priest breaking the seal of the confessional by revealing the nature of the sin and the person who sought penance, or a priest who has sex with someone and then offered forgiveness for the act. These sins bring automatic excommunication from the Church. Once the excommunication is lifted, then absolution can be granted. A fourth type of case that comes to the tribunal involves a man who has contributed towards facilitating an abortion, such as by paying for it, or directly so by performing one, who then seeks to become a priest or deacon.”
Isn’t this the church that never changes ??