I know a girl who says she is Catholic, but she isn’t religious (lapsed).
I also know that she has had two abortions, so this got me to thinking. Was she automatically excommunicated? Even if almost nobody knows about the abortions?
How would someone know if they were excommunicated?
To incur the excommunication, the person much meet certain criteria
a. They must be in communion with the Catholic Church. You can’t excommunicate someone who is not inside in the first place.
b. The individual must know that the penalty is excommunication. The Church has never imposed excommunication on unsuspecting souls. Just because the Church has said that excommunication is automatic, does not mean that everyone knows this or understands what an excommunication is. You folks have to remember that if you’re on this thread, it’s because you know something about Catholicism and you’re interested in knowing more. But you must be careful not to project your knowledge and your desire to understand, on others. Not everyone has the same knowledge or the same desire.
The Church is a merciful mother. She does not impose penalties on those who do not understand them. The purpose of an excommunication is medicinal. Giving someone this medicine, without their knowledge has no chance of achieving the desired effect, which is to rattle the person back to his or her senses.
c. As has already been said, the Church does not excommunicate children.
d. Finally, abortion is a very delicate subject. I know, because that’s what I do for a living. No, I do not perform abortions. I run the pro-life ministry to fathers for an entire diocese. Nine out of the 10 people whom I see are not excommunicated. The pressure to abort is almost crippling. These young people often find themselves in situations where they have no idea which side is up, because everyone around them is feeding them horrifying thoughts about how hellish their lives will be if they have this baby. At some point, these young people buckle, because there is no one there to give them any hope.
That’s why I run this ministry for the young men and not so young. If I can get to them before the mothers of their children have an abortion, I can usually alleviate the fear and hopelessness that overcomes them. Many women will back down, if the father steps up to the plate.
I wish that more Catholics would focus less on the penalties and canons around abortion and focus more on the conditions that lead to abortion. Threatening with an excommunication has very little effect when your parents are telling you that you have blown your future, when your friends are telling you that the boy who got you pregnant is sleeping with another girl, when the girl who is carrying your child is sleeping with other boys making you want to walk away, because your not sure if you’re the father.
When you’re an immigrant, unemployed, don’t have medical insurance and have several children, carrying a child can be terrifying. You need someone who understands and who promises you to be there and offer you the material and emotional assistance that you need. Which is what our ministry offers. We walk with the fathers as their brothers, from the moment that they discover that they are fathers until the child is 24 months old. If you alleviate the anxiety, the poverty, and present the other side, that there is hope for the parents and the child, then you can prevent many abortions.
The word excommunication means something to those who would never have an abortion in the first place, people like you.
Finally NEVER NEVER tell anyone that they or someone they know are excommunicated, because they had an abortion, especially not on an internet thread. Unless you ask all of the right questions, you have no way of knowing. To many people, especially younger people, who have had abortions, with no knowledge about excommunications, suddenly being told that they are outside of the Church translates into, “You’re not wanted.” The reaction is one of anger and resentment, because they don’t know how to cope with the guilt and what they perceive as rejection. This is the kind of information that must be shared by someone who knows how to do it and will follow-up with the healing process.
Post Abortion Sydrome is very serious. Telling someone, whom you don’t know, that he or she is excommunicated can be just the thing that this person needs to finish pushing them over the edge.
The best answer to this question is to say that there are times when the person is excommunicated and times when he or she is not. The thing to do is to approach either a priest who knows something about abortion or the diocesan pro-life office. Every diocese has one with very well trained people to answer this and other related questions correctly.
Fraternally,
Br. JR, OSF :christmastree1:
