Pope Francis rocked the Catholic world again on Tuesday by announcing that contrite women who have had an abortion can seek forgiveness from all priests during the church’s upcoming “Year of Mercy.”
Traditionally, people involved in the procurement of abortion, condemned as a grave sin by the church, are considered automatically excommunicated, and only a bishop can lift the ban. Under the new, temporary policy, Francis is essentially suspending bishops’ power to prohibit priests from offering forgiveness and giving clergy full authority to absolve abortions in the name of God and the church.
The pontiff’s announcement comes just weeks before he is scheduled to visit the United States, and lands amid a fierce debate over the funding and morality of Planned Parenthood, one of the nation’s largest providers of abortion.
According to CNN, Vatican officials say Francis will likely try to transcend the culture wars when he visits Washington, New York and Philadelphia later this month, but his church here remains bitterly divided over the morality of abortion.
According to a new poll conducted by the Public Religion Research Institute, 51 per cent of American Catholics believe abortion should be legal in all cases, while 45 per cent say it should be illegal in all cases. In the hours after Francis’ announcement, Catholics on both sides of the debate were seeking to spin the popular pontiff’s remarks.
The Pope’s new policy, which does not change church doctrine, technically applies only to Year of Mercy, a centuries-old Catholic practice during which believers may receive special indulgences for their sins.
“The tragedy of abortion is experienced by some with a superficial awareness, as if not realizing the extreme harm that such an act entails,” Francis said in a statement Tuesday. “Many others, on the other hand, although experiencing this moment as a defeat, believe that they have no other option.”
“I think in particular of all the women who have resorted to abortion,” the Pope continued. “I am well aware of the pressure that has led them to this decision.”
The church’s mercy year begins on December 8 and runs through November 20, 2016. Vatican officials say it is possible the pontiff will allow the abortion policy to continue in perpetuity.
The move showcases a new phase in Francis’ papacy, which began in March of 2013. During the first two years, he changed the church’s tone by welcoming people on the margins, including gays and lesbians, divorced Catholics, the elderly, the poor and the sick.
This summer, for example, Francis said the church should take special care to embrace divorced Catholics. “No closed doors!” he told a crowd gathered for his weekly audience in Rome in August.
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