NY Post: Pope Francis finally opens door to reconciliation for women after abortions? (Media Mangle)

GetReligion ^ | May 11, 2015 | Terry Mattingly

[Mrs. Don-o]

You know you are in for a wild ride when a GetReligion reader sends you a URL from The New York Post (or The New York Daily News, for that matter) with one of those, "Yeah, consider the source, BUT" notes that basically is warning you to duck and cover. Incoming.

So here is the headline on this one: "The Catholic Church will now forgive your abortion."

The loyal reader noted: "The title is bad, but it gets worse from there. Wouldn't have wasted your time with it, but it is such awful dreck that it seemed to me a perfect crystallization of what your site is so admirably attempting to combat – sort of a 'why we fight' type of example."

At the heart of this story is a journalistic virus that seems to be affecting journalists around the world. You know the one, the "Everything Pope Francis touches is brand new" bug. As you could see from that headline, this one is an instant classic. Here's the top of the story:

Pope Francis will send an army of globe-trotting priests – his “missionaries of mercy” – to absolve women who’ve had abortions, in the latest Vatican bid to catch up with modern times.

The effort, which includes reaching out to doctors and nurses who’ve performed abortions, will commence in the Holy Year of Mercy, which Francis has declared will be celebrated between Dec. 8, 2015, and Nov. 20, 2016.

Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the head of the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, announced the bold initiative and said the church should always be in the absolution business.

Catholic readers, you can get back up into your chair now or clean the computer screen onto which you spewed your morning source of caffeine.

This story makes it sound like Catholic projects to help women who have had abortions are brand new, that this is some kind of theological innovation and even (wink, wink) that this implies the church may have moved closer to modernizing its stance (that "catch up with modern times" riff was amazing) on the sanctity of unborn life.

Really? Well, how do you read this?

Vatican officials walked a tightrope on Thursday, celebrating forgiveness but standing firm that abortion is still very much against church teachings.

“There are a number of clergy with the ability to pardon abortions already, it is not that rare,” said the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vatican spokesman.

Now, if you have been anywhere near the religion beat in the past three decades you are aware that the Catholic church has long had a ministry, founded in 1984, dedicated to working with women who have had abortions and are seeking reconciliation with the church – moving from Confession, back into the sacraments of the faith.

This ministry is called "Project Rachel" – click here to go to the national website – and there are priests and others doing this work from coast to coast. This latest Pope Francis project is interesting, and it may be valid news, but it is news because it is another effort to build support for an old concept that already has wide support.

Apparently, Post editors have also never heard of a famous New Yorker who is currently known as the Servant of God Dorothy Day, founder of the Catholic Worker movement. Momentum is building toward her recognition as a saint. One of the turning points in her remarkable life was an abortion and a vision that followed, which led her back into the church. Click here and you can see that NPR has even touched on this part of her life.

So this kind of ministry is more evidence that Pope Francis is pulling the church into the modern world? Well, I guess that is true if you accept the basic framework of this Post story. Believe it or not, the following text is from a news story, not an editorial:

Francis has made stunningly progressive remarks in his two years leading world Catholics.

He’s preached for acceptance of gays and lesbians, embraced science and even hinted that women will be taking bigger roles in the Vatican.

So there.

[Tao Yin]

That’s completely false. Being divorced does not cut you off from the sacraments. If you divorce and remarry outside of the Church, that is a different story because then you’re nothing more than shacked up in the Church’s point of view. Once again, just to make this clear: BEING DIVORCED DOES NOT CUT YOU OFF FROM THE SACRAMENTS.

Very true. Just being married outside of the church is enough to cut you off from the sacrament. Example: If a catholic man marries a protestant woman in a protestant church without permission from a catholic priest, he should be denied the Eucharist in a catholic church.

[Roman_War_Criminal]

Mrs. Don-O,
I’m not a RCC hater by any means. I love them very much as most of my family is Catholic.

I’m of the opinion that all sins are mortal, since it’s what we inherit from Adam & Eve’s fall via the Garden of Eden once we’re born.

It took a tender, loving and merciful God to come down from His Holy Throne to save us and reconcile us (those of us willing to meet Him on His terms).

God Bless You!

[Mrs. Don-o]

Our pure God, Jesus Christ, is God incarnate: true God and true Man. He became incarnate because of His love for us, in consideration of the fact that we are embodied spirits (or, if you like, enspirited bodies): we are fleshly as well as spiritual, and we learn, desire, love, receive, repent, communicate, and are communicated with, in our bodily natures.

He made us that way. He loves us that way.

Hence His oft-repeated and gracious approaches to us, in ways that engage our bodily natures: through the senses, through other people, through His own embodied Self as a friend and brother, as a Man among men.

That's what Sacraments ae all about: incarnate encounter.

[miss marmelstein]

This is asinine! A woman who repents her sin can be brought back into the church. She must do penance, of course. They seem to confuse Catholicism with some 17th century form of Puritanism.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"It took a tender, loving and merciful God to come down from His Holy Throne to save us and reconcile us (those of us willing to meet Him on His terms)."

Beautifully put, Roman.

[miss marmelstein]

I’m married outside the Catholic Church. It would never occur to me to take the Eucharist. I assume I can go into the confessional, though, to be absolved and to promise to marry properly.

[Mrs. Don-o]

"Pope Francis nor the Catholic Church is God."

True.

"Christians speak directly with God regarding forgiveness ...."

True as well.

"they do not need the Popes announcement, of all things, or the catholic church approval........ nor accept that it matters one iotta."

Not true, because the Sacraments Christ has given us are not irrelevant.

When Christ said to His disciples, " Whose sins you shall forgive, they are forgiven them; and whose sins you shall retain, they are retained" on the evening of His resurrection, He was instituting a merciful way for people to know through person-to-person communication (actual, audible confession and absolution) that their sins have been forgiven. By whom? By God.

This sacrament is rooted in the mission God gave to Christ in his capacity as the Son of man on earth to go and forgive sins (cf. Matt. 9:6). Thus, the crowds who witnessed this new power "glorified God, who had given such authority to men" (Matt. 9:8; note the plural "men"). After his resurrection, Jesus passed on His mission to forgive sins to His ministers.

I am grateful for the sacrament of Confession. It touches my heart. Thank you, Jesus.

[Mrs. Don-o]

A lot of people whop confidently opine about Catholicism actually don’t know what they’re talking about.

[Dr. Sivana]

But don't you get divorced, by God! You are cut off from the sacraments for life if you do...unless you pay the mordida, that is!

As you know, civil divorce is tolerated, but not divorce and attempted remarriage.

I have a family member who tried to "pay the mordida" to get his valid marriage declared null. The church's response was "No dice, pal".

Even Sheila Rauch Kennedy eventually received justice, getting the Kennedy annulment overturned. Corrupt, ignorant or incompetant tribunals does not mean there is anything wrong with the underlying code.

[Tax-chick]

I’m sorry, I don’t understand what you’re saying. Pope Francis is God? I also don’t understand how this is responsive to my post.

[Mrs. Don-o]

I'm not a canonist, and I know that a big chunk of Canon Law is concerned with marriage.

However, I do know that if a Catholic wishes to marry a nn-Catholic Christian, he can obtain a dispensation for the marriage. If they wish to be married in front of a non-Catholic minister, they also need a dispensation. I don't think it's ordinarily hard or time-consuming to get such a dispensation.

But if the Catholic doesn't bother getting a dispensation, it's taken as a rejection of the Catholic sacrament and is rather more serious, akin to a rejection of the Church. And in this case,the marriage would not be considered valid for that reason

This can be remedied, I think, by Confession and also having the marriage re-witnessed in the Church.

Am I correct here?

[If You Want It Fixed - Fix It]

God has forgiven abortions via confession to a priest since the first day of the Church!!!

Stupid journalists know nothing! All sins are forgivable, it’s repentance that is the sinner’s challenge.

Mortal sins “kill” your soul immediately upon death, venial sins add the burden to your soul like mud attaches to your shoes, pulling you down daily and making mortal sins harder to fight.

[caww]

We would disagree here...as in the past...I will stand that forgiveness is not dependent on Pope Francis nor the catholic church to approve or deny. ...or for that matter the sacrament ritual catholics practice.

Forgiveness is entirely and fully of and in and by Jesus Christ alone...and available to all who come to Him...everyone who will.

[Tao Yin]

But if the Catholic doesn't bother getting a dispensation, it's taken as a rejection of the Catholic sacrament and is rather more serious, akin to a rejection of the Church. And in this case,the marriage would not be considered valid for that reason

This can be remedied, I think, by Confession and also having the marriage re-witnessed in the Church.

Am I correct here?

Yes, I believe you are correct.

I recently had cause to investigate this matter. My protestant cousin-in-law married a catholic. They were married in a protestant church. I was asked to be a sponsor for their child, baptized in a protestant church.

I was really confused by the father's strong statement that "I'm catholic", but his lack of attention to anything catholic. He doesn't attend mass. Didn't receive a dispensation. Allowed his daughter to be baptized protestant. Yet he still defines himself as catholic...

I really need to have a talk with him. I am a strong believer that a family should share a common faith. Since he is a catholic in name only, and since he asked me to be a sponsor for his child and I promised to see the child raised in the evangelical lutheran church, I'm going to ask him to consider joining the synod of his wife and child. A family should share a faith.

On a related note, a few years ago I had a similar conversation with a protestant friend married to a catholic wife. I told him a family should share a common faith. He took the conversation to heart. He investigated the catholic church and converted to catholic. His family attend mass regularly and his children are the better for it.

The funny thing is that now my ex-protestant friend now tells me that I'm in rebellion from the true church. I have to laugh when he starts a sentence with "You protestants..."

[Mrs. Don-o]

Sounds like quite a tangle.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Curious.

You don't think Christ has the authority to say, "Whose sins YOU shall forgive, they are forgiven them"?

[Mrs. Don-o]

Journalists often say stuff about the Church tat isn't true.

A sports reporter who rattled on about touchdowns in a basketball game would be sacked in a new York minute. A Journalist who doesn't know an Apostle from an Epistle can make a long career of misreporting church-related events. And this often entails ignorance, not of one church, but of all churches.

[caww]

Curious.....
You don’t think Christ has the authority to say, “Whose sins YOU shall forgive, they are forgiven them”?”....

I didn’t say one way or another in my post. What I did say is clear. That forgiveness is found in Jesus Christ alone...not in a Pope nor in a church.

[Mrs. Don-o]

It is not a good assumption that a Sacrament like Confession in the Catholic Church usurps or replaces Jesus Christ in any sense whatsoever. If a person did make a Sacramental Confession without having truly repented before God and asking His forgiveness, the Sacrament would be ineffective and meaningless, and in fact it would constitute a sacrilege.

I never disagreed with forgiveness coming from Jesus Christ. I'm just curious about whether you think Jesus had or has the authority to share His mission and ministry with His faithful in the church.

1 Cor 12:28
God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.

[JimRed]

"The Catholic Church will now forgive your abortion."

The Catholic Church cannot forgive ANYTHING; only GOD can do so. And He has promised to do so for anyone who believes that He sent Jesus to die in our place.

For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life". - John 3:16