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Pope_Noah_I
Guest
Does the mere action of being pro-choice automatically get you excommunicated from the Church?
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Fidelis
Guest
Could you be more specific? What would you consider this “mere action” to consist of?
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ABostonCatholic
Guest
No, but you’re no longer in full communion. If you obstinately deny the church’s teachings, you are schismatic, and as a result you should not receive communion, be a lector, etc. If you are pro-choice but you are trying to understand and accept the church’s teaching, I do not think you are considered schismatic, and you may still receive communion. I seem to remember reading that in a Catholic Online article last fall.
May I be corrected if I am wrong.
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ryankeith77
Guest
I would say that the person who is pro-choice and is “catholic” probably does not understand the fullness of what the Gospel really means. The Church is pro-life because of God’s love- all of the Church’s teachings are consistent and weaved into one another. Respect for life, for example, cannot be isolated as just “a” teaching of the Church; the Church has this stance because it is consistent with every other teaching of Christianity.
Furthermore, check out the Catechism, paragraphs 2270ish, as well as 2284. The former speaks about abortion and the latter about scandal- which in this case, could be interpreted as being a supporter of abortion.
Finally, you CAN trust the Church’s teachings. Jesus said so. To not trust the Church’s teachings is to flat out call Jesus a liar. “…and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell WILL NOT COME AGAINST IT”.
Abortion, in my opinion, is another Holocaust. Experiments are done to them, they are frozen, killed, manipulated…and it’s legal. It’s sick.
Furthermore, check out the Catechism, paragraphs 2270ish, as well as 2284. The former speaks about abortion and the latter about scandal- which in this case, could be interpreted as being a supporter of abortion.
Finally, you CAN trust the Church’s teachings. Jesus said so. To not trust the Church’s teachings is to flat out call Jesus a liar. “…and on this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of Hell WILL NOT COME AGAINST IT”.
Abortion, in my opinion, is another Holocaust. Experiments are done to them, they are frozen, killed, manipulated…and it’s legal. It’s sick.
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ryankeith77
Guest
Sorry- I just looked at your question again. Your question asks, “Does the mere ACTION of BEING pro-choice…”
To me, that doesn’t make sense. To be pro-choice means one doesn’t trust the Church, so that could be grave matter in itself.
Furthermore, if one does participate in helping somebody get an abortion, or basically does not defend somebody’s life when their mother wants to get rid of them, he/she is committing a sin. The sin is either committed by supporting them in their “personal” decision, or the sin is committed through lack of action, like when one ignores the situation completely because it is the woman’s “personal” decision.
To me, that doesn’t make sense. To be pro-choice means one doesn’t trust the Church, so that could be grave matter in itself.
Furthermore, if one does participate in helping somebody get an abortion, or basically does not defend somebody’s life when their mother wants to get rid of them, he/she is committing a sin. The sin is either committed by supporting them in their “personal” decision, or the sin is committed through lack of action, like when one ignores the situation completely because it is the woman’s “personal” decision.
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John_Hiner
Guest
Laudatur Iesus Christus.
This is an important point.
“God is love.” “I give you a new commandment: love one another as I have loved you.”
If one under estimates human beings so badly as to think that they can be killed for the convenience of their parents, then how can one love them as Christ does? If one so misunderstands motherhood as to think that a mother can serve her own interests and desires, even at the cost of the murder of her children, then how can one love as Christ loves?
The very mental act of viewing the world in a way that makes abortion reasonable destroys one’s ability to obey the New Commandment or to be an image of the Living God.
The lose of communion with Christ is not a matter of law or imposed judgment; the word itself condemns.
Pax Christi vobiscum.
John Hiner
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Joe_Kelley
Guest
Those who ar pro-choice should beware what the choice entails. Moses first set it forth in Deuteronomy 30:15-20 when he set forth the choice for the Children of Israel:
One may choose life or choose death; it’s their option.
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Malcolm_McLean
Guest
No. You’d have to assist with an abortion or encourage abortions in some material way.
There is a grey area when the person is a politician and considers himself to be genuinely “pro-choice” as opposed to “pro-abortion”. The State isn’t required to ban all immoral actions. However it is required to defend life. Hence the decision to excommunicate such people is rather controversial, but it is pragmatic. In practise we know that legal abortion leads to an incredibly high abortion rate.
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kleary
Guest
YES. This is an excommunication that does not require a decree from the Roman Pontiff. Malcolm is wrong and needs to supply documentation and proof to defend his position, like any “reformer” would need to do.
This is because I know the Church teaches that anyone in support of abortion rights is excommunicated ipso facto- no need of declaration from the Roman Pontiff.
Ken
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Joe_Kelley
Guest
Do you have a source for that?
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mchium
Guest
I’ve provided some documentation below. It’s not a “Vatican document” (rather a Reuters article reporting on this recent issue), but we really don’t need a document or ‘encyclical’. This is not rocket science. Our real documentation is canon law, common sense, and a conscience formed to the moral law.
Wed May 9, 2007 8:46AM EDT REUTERS
The Pope was asked whether he supported Mexican Church leaders threatening to excommunicate leftist parliamentarians who last month voted to legalize abortion in Mexico City.
“Yes, this excommunication was not an arbitrary one but is allowed by Canon (church) law which says that the killing of an innocent child is incompatible with receiving communion, which is receiving the body of Christ,” he said.
Under Church law, someone who knowingly does or backs something which the Church considers a grave sin, such as abortion, inflicts what is known as “automatic excommunication” on themselves.
Some Catholics say they personally would not have an abortion but feel obliged to support a woman’s right to choose.
But the Church, which teaches that life begins at the moment of conception and that abortion is murder, says Catholics cannot have it both ways.
“The Church says life is beautiful, it is not something to doubt but it is a gift even when it is lived in difficult circumstances. It is always a gift,” the Pope said.
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1ke
Guest
Not enough information to answer your question.
What do you mean by the “action of being pro-choice”? Please clarify, what does it mean to “be” pro-choice?
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m134e5
Guest
The above post that quotes the Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI, says that it does- but even if it didn’t, it is definitely a mortal sin- and hell is hell, whether you got there because you committed a mortal sin that results in excommunication and didn’t come back, or one that doesn’t- but still didn’t repent before you died.
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Joe_Kelley
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mchium
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thistle
Guest
You cannot be a faithful Catholic and be pro-choice. Being pro-choice, even by belief alone without action, means you are in favour of murder.
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jwedgie09
Guest
Being Pro-Life is very important. If you are pro choice (which there really isn’t a choice) you cannot recieve the holy communion at mass. Abortion kills a life. Why would one want to support that? The number of congressmen and reps. in this country who say they are Catholic but yet they still vote for abortion rights makes me sick.
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jmcrae
Guest
If you have actively participated in killing a child, whether you are the mother of the child, the doctor who performed the killing, or someone who paid for the procedure, drove the mother to the clinic, or advised the mother to kill her child (or put pressure on her to kill the child by threatening her in some way because of her pregnancy) then you are automatically excommunicated.
If you openly teach in a Catholic Church, in RCIA, from the pulpit, or in Catechism classes that it is okay to kill unborn children, or if you proclaim yourself to be a Catholic and you enact legislation that permits the killing of unborn children, or if you march in a rally that is protesting in favour of killing children, or if you otherwise engage publicly from the point of view that killing children is a proper means of population control, then you will most likely be excommunicated by your Bishop.
But if you have the private opinion that killing children is a good thing to do, without sharing it with others, and without enabling anyone to kill their child, then you are not excommunicated, but you do have some studying to do.
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DailyBread
Guest
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