How do people confess abortion?

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Kima

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Hi.

Do people still have to confess abortion to their bishop or has that changed?
Not my issue, just wondering 🙂

Thanks in advance.
 
I think in the U.S. or at least in some dioceses priests have permission from the bishop to absolve the sin of abortion. In some dioceses the priest does not and you would have to go to the bishop. But if someone was not sure they could just confess it to a priest and he would guide them as to what they need to do
 
I think it is different. Although it is considered killing WHO you killed can change the nature of the sin. Killing someone out of hatred is different than killing an unborn baby out of fear or some other motive. Killing an unborn baby is different than killing a newborn baby. It is easier to rationalize the killing of an unborn baby that has not developed enough to survive life outside of the womb than killing a baby outside of the womb. Of course both are killing an innocent person and are grave
 
Pope Francis allowed any priest to absolve abortion during the Year of Mercy. He then extended that permission indefinitely. (In the United States, this permission had been in place for many years prior as well).

One never had to directly confess to the bishop, however. It was a two step process, where one confessed to the priest, and the priest sought permission from the bishop to absolve the penitent at a later appointment. This could all be done anonymously.
 
This would have to be one of the toughest things to confess.
But we cannot receive absolution for our sins unless we confess them and sincerely profess our sorrow for having committed the sin.
God bless those who have had to confess this sin. 🙏🙏🙏
 
I confessed to my parish priest.
It took several confessions over a few years to work through the various degrees of sin, from the objectively grave matter of abortion, to the selfish disregard for the mother, and then the various spiritual defects as they came to light.
And then ongoing repentance and making reparation.

One of my confessors who is a wise holy priest did a somewhat controversial thing by baptising the child in the confessional.
He had me pick a first and middle name for the child. This finally drove the reality of what I had done into my heart. John Thomas would be 32 years this year.
 
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Just to be clear, since no one else has said this explicitly yet, canon law imposes the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae for procuring a direct abortion. Absolving the excommunication used to be reserved to the bishop, which is why confessing abortion was different from confession any other deliberate killing.
 
As Asinner noted, the difference is abortion has the penalty of excommunication whereas other homicides do not. Usually, a particular sin that isn’t otherwise related to ecclesiastical order receives an ecclesiastical penalty when either (1) there is no civil penalty where there should be (in this case, abortion is often civilly legal, whereas other homicides are punished by civil law) or (2) where a crime is commonly done in secret and unlikely to be punished even where a civil law provides for it (which historically was the case with abortion).
 
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In the US, abortion is so common that this permission was granted to parish priests years ago. The Pope extended it to all priests worldwide in the Year of Mercy.
 
Asinner said:
Just to be clear, since no one else has said this explicitly yet, canon law imposes the penalty of excommunication latae sententiae for procuring a direct abortion. Absolving the excommunication used to be reserved to the bishop, which is why confessing abortion was different from confession any other deliberate killing.
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True but as far as I understand it, excommunication is incurred only if you’re aware it’s an excommunicable offense and go through with it anyway.
 
In many dioceses priests have the permission to absolve the sin of abortion. I think that’s becoming more widespread now.
 
I admit I don’t know for sure. I have some speculations as to why. I think @Genesis315 gave a good response to that question.
 
Cecilia_Dympna said:
Why did abortion get excommunication but other killings didn’t?
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My guess is that the Pope wanted to make clear that this was a very bad wrong, as people who would not generally kill another human being or kill a newborn baby often see abortion as acceptable, and there is little societal stigma to abortion vs. a huge stigma if you kill a newborn baby or any other person.

I would also guess that there might have been concern that women would use abortion as birth control and have multiple abortions.
 
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Tis_Bearself said:
I would also guess that there might have been concern that women would use abortion as birth control and have multiple abortions.
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Unfortunately, I know someone who did this. 5 or 6 abortion’s before she had her only child. She had been told she couldn’t have anymore kids due to the abortions. 😦
 
Sadly, there were women doing this even before it was legal, if they had the means and the access to doctors (Hollywood actresses, wealthy women and such).
 
I thought Pope allowed those guilty of abortion to confess to priests indefinitely.
 
Because it was believed that abortion killed a child before they could be baptised, thus preventing the innocent child from going to heaven? I think that’s why abortion was punished with excommunication in the 16th century.
 
Sbee0 said:
True but as far as I understand it, excommunication is incurred only if you’re aware it’s an excommunicable offense and go through with it anyway.
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Hmm…

I haven’t looked at the question for a while, but what you wrote seems to be more the definition of what a mortal sin is, not what the penalty of excommunication is. There are conditions – even though it’s imposed latae sententiae (sometimes translated as “automatically”), that doesn’t mean it’s imposed in all cases.
 
Gorgias said:
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Sbee0:
True but as far as I understand it, excommunication is incurred only if you’re aware it’s an excommunicable offense and go through with it anyway.
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Hmm…

I haven’t looked at the question for a while, but what you wrote seems to be more the definition of what a mortal sin is, not what the penalty of excommunication is. There are conditions – even though it’s imposed latae sententiae (sometimes translated as “automatically”), that doesn’t mean it’s imposed in all cases.
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True for mortal sin but I believe also true for excommunicable crimes too. I remember having a similar conversation here last year and that’s what I was told.

Someone who gets an abortion deliberately and knowing it’s wrong but is not aware that it is an excommunicable crime has committed mortal sin but I don’t think they necessarily are excommunicated latae sententiae
 
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