Can abortion be forgiven?
Adoration tonight, 7 pm, SAA Church. All are invited to adore Jesus in the Eucharist, even for just a few minutes.
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An anonymous blogger recently asked*, "What does mortal sin (from not going to Mass to having an abortion) do to a person's soul? It seems that this creates a HUGE seperation from God so Satan must kick in and the sould MUST be affected some how. I am asking this because someone very close to me had an abortion and she will not confess it to a priest. She is tormented over it. I told her that I would ask you on this site if it is a sin which can be forgiven. She does not believe it can be forgiven. Thank you."
Anon, thank you very much for your extremely important question and comments. First and foremost, the sin of abortion can be forgiven in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. The Church has made it much more expedient in recent years for women like your friend to receive absolution and begin the healing process. It used to be that the bishop was the only one who could absolve an abortion; now, priests like me have the faculty to forgive and absolve that sin.
Next, I would ask you to pass on a very significant passage from the Gospel to your friend: "Amen, I say to you, all sins and all blasphemies that people utter will be forgiven them. But whoever blasphemes against the holy Spirit will never have forgiveness, but is guilty of an everlasting sin" (Mk 3:28-29). Your friend should take consolation with this statement of all Lord that all sins can be forgiven.
But, she also needs to be careful with what He says next about blasphemy against the Holy Spirit. Blasphemy against the Holy Spirit occurs with "anyone who deliberately refuses to accept his mercy by repenting, rejects the forgiveness of his sins and the salvation offered by the Holy Spirit" (Catechism, #1864). Basically, this is when someone either doesn't believe a) that God will forgive him/her or b) that He has the power to forgive certain sins.
I don't write this to make her feel any more guilty than she already does; that is the last thing I would want with her or anyone. My intention is to answer your question, but also to strongly encourage her to trust in the Mercy of Christ. He will forgive her of her sin just like he forgave the woman caught in adultery (see Jn 8). It is only in Christ that your friend's healing can take place. He has ordained men like me to be ministers of His Mercy. If she comes to Christ through a priest like me, she will receive the mercy, compassion, love, and forgiveness of her Heavenly Father.
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* Mortal sin "destroys charity in the heart of man by a grave violation of God's law; it turns man away from God" (CCC, #1855). The soul in mortal sin is in total darkness, and experiences death. It has no life within it (see Jn 6:53). The word mortal means deadly; "there is such a thing as deadly sin" (1 Jn 5:16).
posted by Fr Greg @ 9:49 AM
16 comments
16 Comments:
Hope you won your basketball game Fr. Greg! I prayed for the men in black at adoration tonight.
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I don't enjoy deleting anyone's comments, but I have to remove any comments that have links to other (blog) sites either in the comment or in their name/profile.
Them the rules!
Over 3,500 terminations per day, 1.3 MILLION per year in the United States alone.
50 or 60 MILLION per year World Wide.
I am a pro-lifer who has no religious convictions at all . I didn't need the fear of god or anything else to come to my decision, just a good sence of what is right and wrong.
You see we were all once a fetus. Is it beyond the realm of possibilities that when your mother first learned she was carrying you, she may have considered her options? What if she had decided to terminate? Would that have been OK?
You would not exist, if you have children they would not exist, and your (husband or wife) would be married to someone else. You would have been deprived of all your experiences and memories. In this day and age with terminations being so readily available and so many being carried out, if you make it to full term
you can consider yourself lucky. Lucky you had a mother that made the choice of life for you. Don't you think they all deserve the same basic human right, LIFE?
I'm all for contraception, prevention is certainly better than termination.
Did you know you can get an implant that is safe, 99.9% effective, and lasts for three years? Just think girls not even a show for three years, wouldn't that be great? I think too many people rely too heavily on the last option (abortion), I think if abortions weren't so readily available people would manage their reproductive system far better resulting in a fraction of the number of unwanted pregnancies.
World wide there are over 50 MILLION aborted pregnancies each year. In America 3,500 terminations carried out every day, that's over 1.3 million every year, 50% of all cases claimed that birth control had been used, 48% admitted they took no precaution, and 2% had a medical reason. That's a stagering 98% that may have been prevented had an effective birth control been used. Don't get me wrong, I suspect the percentages in Australia would be much the same.
Just a lot of unnessessary killing.
At the point of conception is when life began for you. This was the start of your existance. Your own personal big bang. Three weeks after conception heart started to beat. First brain waves recorded at six weeks after conception. Seen sucking thumb at seven weeks after conception.
I am convinced that in the not too distant future, people will look back at many of the practices of today with disbelief and horror.
NO LINKS.............
How can a baby be aborted if it hasn't been implanted in the uterine wall in the first place ?
My understanding is if abortion is not legalized that will not stop ladies from having abortions but they will still have them in unsafe areas and have terrible reprecussions because of that. I am totally for not having sex outside of marriage but unfortunately that is not the reality. Society and values have changed so much.
Father Greg
Thanks for answering my question about abortion and forgiveness. Also my friend is so sorry that she did this. She cries about it all the time. I kind of hope that she does not read some comments by other bloggers. My friend already knows that what she did is very wrong. She just wanted to know if God would forgive her. She is 16 and she thinks God hates her. Please pray that she will listen to your words and come to reconciliation.
thank you.
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Father I just wanted you to know that I wasn't attacking the girl and I'm sorry if it appeared that I was, tell her that God in his wisdom would recognise the confusion and understand why someone would think it's ok when the government of the land deems it
leagal. That could confuse anyone.
And she should forgive herself as he already has.
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