Can Any Priest Lift Abortion Excommunication??

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sistermouse

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I read about the Pope giving permission for all the priests at World Youth Day to lift the automatic excommunication placed on anyone involved in an abortion. I think it said the excommunication could normally only be lifted by a Bishop. So, a priest can absolve, through the Power of Jesus Christ, the sin of abortion, but then the person would need to see a Bishop to have the excommunication lifted?? Could the person, after the Confession, receive the Sacraments before seeing the Bishop??
This is very confusing!!

mouse
 
The Bishop, if he so chooses, may authorize a priest to remove the penalty of excommunication.
 
In the diocese of the United States, priests can lift the excommunication. It varies from country to country.
 
fermat said:
In the diocese of the United States, priests can lift the excommunication. It varies from country to country.
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Only if delegated by the bishop though. Which is pretty much standard-practise today.
 
sistermouse said:
I read about the Pope giving permission for all the priests at World Youth Day to lift the automatic excommunication placed on anyone involved in an abortion. I think it said the excommunication could normally only be lifted by a Bishop. So, a priest can absolve, through the Power of Jesus Christ, the sin of abortion, but then the person would need to see a Bishop to have the excommunication lifted?? Could the person, after the Confession, receive the Sacraments before seeing the Bishop??
This is very confusing!!

mouse
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There was a thread earlier about this topic here. Short answer, it varies by location. I might, ahem, recommend my own posts from the other thread, with the correction – I was wrong about it then, and you are asking about it now – that absolution cannot be granted before the excommunication is lifted. If the individual priest can do both at once, then that’s great; but if the excommunication issue must go to the bishop then absolution must be withheld until that happens, since an excommunicate is barred from all sacraments.
 
I think if you went to confession your sin(s) would be forgiven.
As I understand it, the excommunication applies to catholic public officials (politicians and the like) who openly support abortion, but I could be wrong.
 
nightranger said:
I think if you went to confession your sin(s) would be forgiven.
As I understand it, the excommunication applies to catholic public officials (politicians and the like) who openly support abortion, but I could be wrong.
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You are, indeed, wrong. From the Code of Canon Law:
Can. 1398 A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.
 
fermat said:
In the diocese of the United States, priests can lift the excommunication. It varies from country to country.
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The United States is not one diocese, there are many dioceses in the US. Although its pretty common in countries where abortion is legal and rampant, the bishops delegate the authority to their priests. But it still wouldn’t be a given.
 
ConstantineTG said:
The United States is not one diocese, there are many dioceses in the US. Although its pretty common in countries where abortion is legal and rampant, the bishops delegate the authority to their priests. But it still wouldn’t be a given.
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And the permission doesn’t travel outside of the diocese, which was why the Archbishop of Madrid (not the Pope) granted factulties to both hear confessions and to remove the excommunication incurred by procuring an abortion to all the visiting priests.

It would not matter if a priest had the authority to remove the excommunication back in his home diocese, the second he entered the Archdiocese of Madrid, he would have no authority in the matter until the archbishop gave it to him.
 
If the priest has the authority to lift the excommunication, the penitent would not need to see the Bishop, especially in the case of the automatic excommunication.

The type of excommunication connected to abortion isn’t one where your local diocese can keep a record. The doctor doesn’t call up your Diocese and tell them so they can record it in a register. It just, well, happens, and it’s on your conscience, on your soul. Therefore, once the priest has lifted it, you’re all set.

If a priest lifts an excommunication where records have been kept, he would, I assume, handle the notification of the Diocese.
 
I had not heard this news but I think it is joyous and wonderful and I hope that some youth were able to be reconciled back to the Sacraments during this joyous event.
 
Fermat may I ask what this symbol means καθολικό?
Forgive my ignorance but I do not even know what language it is written in.
 
Brendan said:
And the permission doesn’t travel outside of the diocese, which was why the Archbishop of Madrid (not the Pope) granted factulties to both hear confessions and to remove the excommunication incurred by procuring an abortion to all the visiting priests.

It would not matter if a priest had the authority to remove the excommunication back in his home diocese, the second he entered the Archdiocese of Madrid, he would have no authority in the matter until the archbishop gave it to him.
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A similar but different situation: Does it have to be the bishop or delegated priest of the place where the confession is taking place or the excommunicate’s own bishop? (In this situation suppose the priest’s got the right to remove excommunications in Madrid but the person confessing is from a different diocese?)
 
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