Pope Francis has extended the faculties of all priests to absolve the sin of abortion beyond the conclusion of the church's Year of Mercy, which concluded on Sunday.
In September of last year he announced that, as part of the celebration of the Holy Year of Mercy, he would permit priests to absolve women of the sin of abortion.
While the announcement did not change Catholic teaching on abortion, it highlighted his belief that the church must enable believers to experience “a true moment of encounter with the mercy of God”.
Up to then, under Catholic teaching, a woman who procured an abortion was de facto excommunicated from the church.
Given that excommunication is the most severe ecclesiastical penalty imposed by the church, only the pope himself or a local bishop, or a priest authorised by either the pope or the bishop, could absolve that excommunication.
In a lengthy Apostolic Letter, Misericordia et Misera, (Mercy and Misery) issued on Monday to mark the close of the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis said: “I want to insist as firmly as I can that abortion is a grave sin, because it puts an end to an innocent life.”
But, he continued: “I can and I 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.”
Though the Jubilee Year was closed, he said: “the doors of mercy of our heart continues to remain open.”
“May every priest, therefore, be a guide, support and comfort to penitents on this journey of special reconciliation” for faithful who had abortions, he wrote.
He explained his rationale, saying: “Lest any obstacle arise between the request for reconciliation and God’s forgiveness, I henceforth grant to all priests, in virtue of their ministry, the faculty to absolve those who have committed the sin of procured abortion.”
Other matters he announced included extending indefinitely the faculties of priests of the Society of St Pius X to hear confessions and grant absolution.
A restoration of the Sacrament of Reconciliation to a “central place in Christian life” was necessary, he said.
He called for an annual day dedicated to making the Scriptures better known and more widely diffused and that the church dedicate the second to last Sunday of the liturgical year as a World Day of the Poor.
Additional reporting: Agencies
