CNN is reporting:
"Pope Francis has extended the powers of Catholic priests to forgive abortions, making the announcement in an apostolic letter released Monday.
It continues a special dispensation granted last year for the duration of the Year of Mercy, which finished Sunday.
'I wish to restate as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life. In the same way, however, I can and must state that there is no sin that God's mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled with the Father,' the letter states."
From EWTN: Abortion and excommunication
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http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost_letters/documents/papa-francesco-lettera-ap_20161120_misericordia-et-misera.html
From the EWTN article:
One complicating factor for anyone in this situation is that intentionally withholding mortal sin (abortion) or knowledge of one's excommunication invalidates ALL the absolutions for other sins given since the time of the intentionally overlooked sin. Culpably withholding mortal sin or an excommunication means that even after the priest says the words of absolution because of dishonesty on the penitent's part, the sin has not been absolved. Absolution is not magic, it depends upon sincere repentance from all known mortal sins and a firm purpose of amendment. Such sins would need to be confessed again, as part of an integral (complete and honest) confession.
- enforcement of sodomic marriage
- enforcement of islamic and pagan practices
- illegalization of preaching the Catholic Truth
- criminalizing protest against immorality
- denying the Sacred Mass
these are just a few attrocities that Bergoglio can try to absolve.
And with regard to excommunication, here's what Doctor Dietrich von Hildebrand had to say:
we must take account of the disuse into which the anathema has fallen in recent times. The reluctance to use this indespensible tool of the Church's authority is a consequence of the unfortunate irenicism popular today amongst Catholics; and that irenicism, I believe, is in turn the consequence of a basic confusion between charity and communion.
Communion and community presuppose a common end, a union in truth. Christian communion presupposes a union in His holy Church. Charity, on the contrary, does not presuppose common acceptance of the true Faith. The obligation of charity extends to every human being, even to the enemies of God. It actually demands more of us than communion does. It requires an ardent love for Christ, so that our heart is melted by Christ; but it presupposes nothing on the part of the neighbor to whom our charity is directed. Communion, on the other hand, presupposes far less on our part than charity does, but a great deal more on the part of the one with whom we enter into communion. Religious communion presupposes that the other person shares our faith.
It is because of this confusion between charity and communion that the anathema is considered hard and uncharitable. The anathema excludes the one who professes heresies from the communion of the Church, if he does not reatract his errors. But for precisely this reason it is an act of the greatest charity toward all the faithful, comparable to preventing a dangerous disease from infecting innumerable people.. By isolating the bearer of infection, we protect the bodily health of others; by the anathema, we protect their spiritual health. And did not Christ say that we should not fear those who kill the body, but fear him who has the power to cast into Hell?
And more: a rupture of communion with the heretic in no way implies that our obligation of charity towards him ceases. No, the Church prays also for heretics; the true Catholic who knows a heretic personally prays ardently for him and would never cease to impart all kinds of help to him. But he should not have any communion with him. Thus St. John, the great Apostle of charity, said: "If any man say, I love God, and hateth hia brother; he is a liar." But he also said: "If any man come to you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into the house..."
Hand in hand with this confusion between charity and communion there has been a diluting and softening of charity in the minds of so-called liberals or progressives. They confuse that victorious and holy charity of which St. Paul speaks in Chapter XIII of his first letter to the Corinthians with a mere humanitarian benevolence. They no longer see that charity can live in our hearts only as the fruit of our love of Christ.
Let's not forget about those who willingly persecute Christians across the globe. Perhaps they are in need of absolvement as well.
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