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Deputy Vatican spokesman Father Ciro Benedettini said that "for now" the change would apply only during the Holy Year.
Usually only a bishop, missionary or the chief confessor of a diocese, known by the Italian term "penitenziere," can formally forgive an abortion, Benedettini said.
The pope's letter did not mention people who perform abortions.
St. Augustine (354-430 CE) reversed centuries of Christian teaching in Western Europe, by returning to the Aristotelian Pagan concept of "delayed ensoulment." He wrote 7 that a human soul cannot live in an unformed body. Thus, early in pregnancy, an abortion is not murder because no soul is destroyed (or, more accurately, only a vegetable or animal soul is terminated). He wrote extensively on sexual matters, teaching that the original sin of Adam and Eve are passed to each successive generation through the pleasure generated during sexual intercourse. This passed into the church's canon law. Only abortion of a more fully developed "fetus animatus" (animated fetus) was punished as murder.
St. Jerome (circa 340 - 420) wrote in a letter to Aglasia:
"The seed gradually takes shape in the uterus, and it [abortion] does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and their limbs"
Starting in the 7th century CE, a series of penitentials were written in the West. These listed an array of sins, with the penance that a person must observe as punishment for the sin. Certain "sins" which prevented conception had particularly heavy penalties. These included:
* practicing a particularly ineffective form of birth control, coitus interruptus (withdrawal of the penis prior to ejaculation)
* engaging in oral sex or anal sex
* becoming sterile by artificial means, such as by consuming sterilizing poisons.
Abortion, on the other hand, required a less serious penance. Theodore, who organized the English church, assembled a penitential about 700 CE. Oral intercourse required from 7 years to a lifetime of penance; an abortion required only 120 days.
17th TO 19th Century CE (Abortion becomes murder again):
In the 17th century, the concept of "simultaneous animation" gained acceptance within the medical and church communities in Western Europe. 9 This is the belief that an embryo acquires a soul at conception, not at 40, 80. or 116 days into gestation as the church had been teaching.
Leo XIII (1878-1903):
* He issued a decree in 1884 that prohibited craniotomies. This is an unusual form of abortion used late in pregnancy and is occasionally needed to save the life of the pregnant woman.
* He issued a second decree in 1886 that prohibited all procedures that directly killed the fetus, even if done to save the woman's life. The tolerant approach to abortion which had prevailed in the Roman Catholic Church for previous centuries ended. The church required excommunication for abortions at any stage of pregnancy.
He wrote extensively on sexual matters, teaching that the original sin of Adam and Eve are passed to each successive generation through the pleasure generated during sexual intercourse.
originally posted by: Kuroodo
It makes sense honestly.
Aren't Christian and catholic religions usually about forgiving?
Initially, I was against this idea. I even gave it a "faith-palm".
originally posted by: windword
Initially, I was against this idea. I even gave it a "faith-palm".
I'm curious, what were you against? Were you opposed to women being allowed back into the good graces of the Church, or opposed to a "special" type of forgiveness for these women?
originally posted by: Woodcarver
originally posted by: ketsuko
Only God can forgive. It is not the Pope's place to presume he or his priesthood has any part in that process.
So i guess you don't forgive people? Cuz that just sounds silly.