Question about abortion

[Reval]

If a non-Catholic has had an abortion, will she be forgiven and can she become Catholic if there is true repentance?

 

[strngrnrth]

I did.

 

[CapIV]

She may. Before taking her first Eucharist, she will go to first reconciliation and confess the sin.

 

[1ke]

Yes, she can become Catholic. And, yes, she can be forgiven.

If this person is unbaptized, baptism washes away all sins. If she is already baptized, she will go to Confession prior to receiving the Sacraments of Eucharist and Confirmation and will have the opportunity to receive sacramental absolution.

 

[rpp]

Yes. Normally, if anyone, not just the mother, is involved in a procurred abortion, they have committed a grave evil.

Many years ago and prior to my conversion, I advised several female friends to have an abortion (I was not the father). Two of them did, which makes me complicit in the deaths of those children.

When I came into the Catholic Church, I came to realize that abortion is wrong under absolutely every circumstance. I confessed these sins at my first general confession and received absolution. Of course my contrition was honest as I would never do anything like this again.

God can forgive any sin. It is living with ourselves after our realization of what we have done where we really need God’s grace to bring us peace.

 

[RachelsAlumni]

If a non-Catholic has had an abortion, will she be forgiven and can she become Catholic if there is true repentance?

Yes. I was under the mistaken impression for nearly 20 years that abortion was an unforgiveable sin; that I could never return to the Sacraments.

After nearly a 30 year absence I was called back to the Church, converted, but had resigned myself to never being able to receive the sacraments. Then I went online to my diocesan website to find a parish to attend, while browsing I decided to also look for some women’s bible study group and came across Rachel’s Hope After Abortion Healing and Reconciliation for Catholic Women (or Catholic friendly). I read that over and over again ‘Healing & Reconciliation’. Then I called Rosemary and asked her “are you sure there’s forgiveness for abortion?” Then I made her give me the name of a priest who knew he was supposed to forgive me.

A month later I attended the Rachel’s Hope retreat.

I can’t recommend strongly enough attending such a retreat for a woman who has had an abortion (they also have retreats for men). It has helped me so much in coming to accept God’s mercy and forgiveness. Accepting that forgiveness is/was the toughest part and I needed the help of the retreat to make that step. The support of the other women at the retreat, the information about PTSD in post-abortive women, scriptures on forgiveness, learning to forgive myself and the others involved in the abortion, accepting my child’s forgiveness, and finally God’s forgiveness were just life changing for me.

It was a process, one I still go through, even though it’s been almost 7 years since I attended the retreat. I now have the resources at hand to deal with the ongoing grief and regret so that I don’t fall into despair over it when anniversary reactions hit me.

 

[Robbinson]

God can forgive any sin. It is living with ourselves after our realization of what we have done where we really need God’s grace to bring us peace.

This is beautiful and true, I hope to remember this.

Blessings,

Brian

 

[Verisimilitude]

If a non-Catholic has had an abortion, will she be forgiven and can she become Catholic if there is true repentance?

I would think true repentance for any sin is the mark of forgivness and she only need to go through the process others have described to confirm it.

 

[ALLGIRLS]

If a non-Catholic has had an abortion, will she be forgiven and can she become Catholic if there is true repentance?

Why do so many people assume that the sin of abortion cannot be forgiven and that people who’ve committed it can’t join the Church? I’ve seen this asked here and other places several times before Is it that the Church doesn’t do a good enough job publicizing things like Rachel’s Vinyard or explaining the Sacrament of Reconciliation (considering we get bashed on a regular basis for “confessing our sins to “just” a man”, I assumed everyone knows we have this wonderful gift)? What can we do to correct this widely held misconception?

In Christ,

Ellen

 

[RachelsAlumni]

Why do so many people assume that the sin of abortion cannot be forgiven and that people who’ve committed it can’t join the Church? I’ve seen this asked here and other places several times before Is it that the Church doesn’t do a good enough job publicizing things like Rachel’s Vinyard or explaining the Sacrament of Reconciliation (considering we get bashed on a regular basis for “confessing our sins to “just” a man”, I assumed everyone knows we have this wonderful gift)? What can we do to correct this widely held misconception?

In Christ,

Ellen

Ellen,

In my case it was a couple of things:

I had strayed from the Church. I married outside the Church and joined a new age cult. I had been in the cult for about 10 years when I had an abortion. I didn’t tell my Catholic family, but whenever I would go to visit them I would hear them talking about the issue saying things like “women who have abortions should have their limbs ripped from their bodies” and my own mother said, “women who have abortions will burn in hell!” never realizing they were condemning me. They never offered that God can even forgive such a thing as this.

I should have known better having been raised Catholic, but I had a child’s understanding of the faith when I left and never had to really deal with the more serious adult issues. Even though I knew about the Sacrament of Reconciliation I didn’t know that ALL sins contritely repented of are forgiven especially such a heinous sin as abortion. So since my family was my only contact with the Catholic church their attitudes reflected to me the teachings of the Church. In my absence I didn’t read Catholic things, never spoke with a priest or religious.

Add to that my own self-hatred, my own guilt and complete inability to forgive myself for what I had done that it made sense to me that even God would not forgive me. It’s the oldest lie from the accuser, the oldest trick of the devil, to say God can’t or won’t forgive your sin.

Because of this I strongly believe that the attitudes we hold in our hearts as Catholics do represent the Church to the people in our lives. We are the light to the world, the salt of the earth. We must take care what attitudes we hold and how we express ourselves to those around us.

That’s why I think billboards such as the one Rachel’s Hope puts up about God’s forgiveness are so important in getting the message out there. More important than that, though, is that the faithful must realize that when they are writing and speaking about abortion they have to remember that there may be people reading or listening who have taken part in an abortion, people who are living a life separated from God, excommunicated from the Church in their hearts and souls and who are self-condemning and deeply in the grips of the accuser. We need to have compassion for them and proclaim God’s merciful love for sinners.

Matthew 9:13 “But go and learn what this means: ‘I desire compassion and not sacrifice,’ for I did not come to call the righteous, but sinners.”