What is the rationale for abortion being grounds for excommunication?

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The idea behind excommunication, I think, is that some sins of a particular nature rupture formal union with the Church. In our own civil justice system, being a murderer does not make you a traitor to your country.

But it seems with abortion, the Church has deemed that it makes you a “traitor.” What is the rationale for this? It seems to arbitrarily single out abortion when you could also target rape or murder for excommunication.

I am just searching for consistency.
 
It has nothing to do with being a “traitor”. I think you misunderstand excommunication.

It has to do with the heinous nature of the offense.
 
1ke said:
It has nothing to do with being a “traitor”. I think you misunderstand excommunication.

It has to do with the heinous nature of the offense.
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If that is the case, then there is no consistency to the application of excommunications since there is no principled reason to single out abortion and not, say, murder. If excommunication is incurred merely for “heinous offenses,” then it loses all intelligibility, in my view.

This is why I think I am right in thinking that excommunication is analogous to treason in civil justice. But then, why abortion?
 
What is your understanding of excommunication? Its purpose?

Abortion as an excommunicable offense goes back to the first centuries. The Church has always recognized the particular gravity of this offense.
 
Say a victim of rape procures an abortion. The woman, and her accomplices in the abortion, incur automatic excommunication. But the rapist is not excommunicated. If excommunication is really just about “heinous offenses,” as you say, then the above situation represents a terrible injustice since the rapist’s heinous offense goes arbitrarily unpunished. This is why I think there has to be more to excommunication than you think. This is why I think the “traitor” analogy makes more sense. But, again, I am still left wondering why abortion?
 
PermanentMarker said:
Say a victim of rape procures an abortion. The woman, and her accomplices in the abortion, incur automatic excommunication. But the rapist is not excommunicated. If excommunication is really just about “heinous offenses,” as you say, then the above situation represents a terrible injustice since the rapist’s heinous offense goes arbitrarily unpunished. This is why I think there has to be more to excommunication than you think. This is why I think the “traitor” analogy makes more sense. But, again, I am still left wondering why abortion?
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Excommunication is not punitive, it is medicinal.
 
1ke said:
What is your understanding of excommunication? Its purpose?

Abortion as an excommunicable offense goes back to the first centuries. The Church has always recognized the particular gravity of this offense.
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Yes, I recognize that abortion has historically been regarded as a very grave offense, but my question is why is it grounds for excommunication in the first place? There are other grave offenses besides abortion, so if excommunication turns on whether or not an offense is grave or heinous or whatever, it seems to be arbitrary in singling out abortion. Take the example I provided in my previous post.

Recognizing this inconsistency, I tend to think that excommunication is not only reserved for grave offenses, but offenses of such nature that they formally rupture communion. Examples of such offenses would be apostasy or heresy. Otherwise, if we are to say that excommunication is merely incurred for some grave sins and not others, then we open ourselves up to some very absurd scenarios. The “Hitler wasn’t excommunicated” jeer then becomes more serious.
 
1ke said:
Excommunication is not punitive, it is medicinal.
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Is that all you have to say to the example? Granted, I should not have used the word “unpunished,” but my example does not turn on that equivocation.
 
I’m not sure about this, but it might have to do with the fact that we need to draw attention to the seriousness of abortion. E.g. everyone knows and understands that murder is a heinous crime, but clearly most people do not understand the seriousness of abortion (just given the current political debate surrounding it). By attaching excommunication to this sin, the Church may be highlighting to its followers how deeply serious and grave it is.
 
Abortion is a grevious sin against God,who is the author of all life,regardless of the circumstances through which that life was conceived.God gives life and only He can take it away.Having said that,if one has procured an abortion,and then comes to God through the sacrament of reconciliation,with a contrite heart,that mortal sin is absolved and said person is now back in God’s grace and in communion with the Church.
 
I have given birth to 4 children and lost two to miscarriage; and I have known many women who have had abortions and I can tell you with absolute certainty that there is nothing remotely conceivably more violating of a woman body and soul than that heinous act so calmly termed abortion.

To compare it to rape is offensive beyond words.

God made us (mothers) to love our babies and made our babies to love us; we feel this love right from conception but when it’s our first, that feeling of “other” inside us can be terrifying. (By my second, I was able to recognize that love growing inside me for what it was).

The women I know who have had abortions spend the rest of their lives looking at other children that might be the age of their baby that they allowed to be killed. The many who have confided in me are truly haunted and tormented by their decisions. I have met only one who claimed that she “felt nothing” or was “content” with her decision; in a way this violates even more.

The baby is given no pain killer before it is chopped up into little bits while it is residing in the most sacrosanct place in the world: the womb. The most innocent of innocents is horribly, painfully murdered in that place we used to be able to call “safest”. We can no longer say: safe as in the womb; or comfortable as in the womb.

Abortion is an attack on society as a whole. It eliminates all the children that would have been able to go to the childless. It eliminates all of the children that would have grown into functioning adults. It creates this false idea that “the poor” need to be exterminated; among countless other false theologies that are rammed down our throats in the public school system. I, myself was very “pro-choice” until I actually had a baby growing inside me. We change as women when we become “mother” (even those who cannot give birth, but adopt). To remove from the picture the very reason for that change; violates our whole being body and soul on a level that is incomprehensible.

I’m not belittling rape. It is a crime of greater magnitude than our justice system allows; but to compare rape to abortion is *not *like comparing apples to oranges; it’s like comparing apples to ecosystems in its magnitude and complexity.

The hypocrisy you are intuiting regarding rape and abortion should more be directed at our justice system. That is: why do we (as a society) think it is a “good thing” to kill the most innocent person in the perpetration of a rape, yet not the rapist himself?

I could expound further, but I’ve probably lost most of the quick readers as it is.

-Carol
 
Abortion seems to me to be strongly dependent on social support. On its most ancient level, you likely require an advisor to tell you what poison to take and the involvement of a male to get to that point.

Perhaps the Church is, in a very small way admittedly, trying to add a positive social support to a very social problem.
 
Pug said:
Abortion seems to me to be strongly dependent on social support. On its most ancient level, you likely require an advisor to tell you what poison to take and the involvement of a male to get to that point.

Perhaps the Church is, in a very small way admittedly, trying to add a positive social support to a very social problem.
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Excommunication is not small.

The Church is not doing the excommunication: the person procuring and/or assisting with the abortion is excommunicating themselves. The Church is merely helping the people involved understand that they have gone that extra step beyond merely horrific.

They have torn *themselves *away from holiness.
The Church is merely stating the obvious.

They may return with a true repentance and confession.
 
InspiritCarol said:
Excommunication is not small.

The Church is not doing the excommunication: the person procuring and/or assisting with the abortion is excommunicating themselves. The Church is merely helping the people involved understand that they have gone that extra step beyond merely horrific.

They have torn themselves away from holiness.
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I meant it is small in that making a canon about it in the CIC is only known in a few, small circles, since very few people know the CIC exists. I know few Catholics who have a clue that abortion is latae sententiae excommunication, nor would they have any idea what latae sententiae means, nor how it differs from not being able to go up to communion on account of an ordinary mortal sin.

What the Church has done is put a canon in the CIC. I didn’t mean we are talking something other than latae sententiae here.
 
Pug said:
I meant it is small in that making a canon about it in the CIC is only known in a few, small circles, since very few people know the CIC exists. I know few Catholics who have a clue that abortion is latae sententiae excommunication, nor would they have any idea what latae sententiae means, nor how it differs from not being able to go up to communion on account of an ordinary mortal sin.

What the Church has done is put a canon in the CIC. I didn’t mean we are talking something other than latae sententiae here.
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Ah. *Good *points. Thanks for the clarification.
 
PermanentMarker said:
This is why I think I am right in thinking that excommunication is analogous to treason in civil justice.
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Heresy is directly analogous to treason in civil justice, not excommunication. Excommunication is a penalty, not a charge.
 
I am bumping this thread to let everyone know that I am still seeking for an answer to my question. When I find an answer, I will be sure to make another post in this thread.

In short, I would like to know why abortion is an excommunicable offense. If there is not any principled explanation, it would seem that the Church is making an arbitrary moral stand. Why abortion and not murder? Why abortion and not _____? In other words, our critics are right to note the inconsistency in excommunicating a woman who procured an abortion and not her rapist. Or the doctor who aborted the unborn child and not the fiend who abused and murdered a young boy. Without a principled explanation, we open ourselves up to these outrageous inconsistencies.

I am suret that there is an explanation, I just need to find it.
 
PermanentMarker said:
I am bumping this thread to let everyone know that I am still seeking for an answer to my question. When I find an answer, I will be sure to make another post in this thread.

In short, I would like to know why abortion is an excommunicable offense. If there is not any principled explanation, it would seem that the Church is making an arbitrary moral stand. Why abortion and not murder? Why abortion and not _____? In other words, our critics are right to note the inconsistency in excommunicating a woman who procured an abortion and not her rapist. Or the doctor who aborted the unborn child and not the fiend who abused and murdered a young boy. Without a principled explanation, we open ourselves up to these outrageous inconsistencies.

I am suret that there is an explanation, I just need to find it.
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Part of the answer can be found this excerpt from the Catholic Encylopedia on “Excommunication”. I would suggest you read the whole article as it seems that you are operating with some severe misconcepts of what is “excommunication”.
Latæ and Ferendæ Sententiæ
Excommunication, especially a jure, is either latæ or ferendæ sententiæ. The first is incurred as soon as the offence is committed and by reason of the offence itself (eo ipso) without intervention of any ecclesiastical judge; it is recognized in the terms used by the legislator, for instance: “the culprit will be excommunicated at once, by the fact itself statim, ipso facto]”.
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Excommunication for abortion is latae sententiae.

In answer to why abortion and not any other murder. Who is more innocent than a child in the womb?
 
davidv said:
In answer to why abortion and not any other murder. Who is more innocent than a child in the womb?
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That seems hardly an adequate basis for singling out abortion out of many moral evils. I could agree that a child in the womb is purely innocent, but that fact alone does not contain a principle which rules out other moral evils worthy of excommunication.

This is why there must be some misunderstanding on our part as to the nature of excommunication itself. It cannot be the case that excommunication is about taking a moral stand. Otherwise, it is morbidly arbitrary and all the blustering blowhards who criticize the Catholic Church for not excommunicating Adolf Hitler suddenly have a point. For if ever a moral stand needed to be made… you get my point.

I always thought of excommunication as analogous to treason in civil law. Being a serial rapist or murderer does not remove you from the body of the Americans, but committing treason does. Similarly, evil acts do not necessarily remove you from the body of Christians, but being an apostate or heretic does. But abortion throws a wrench into that analogy.
 
It seems to me that it is because of the gravity of the offense. Abortion is different from murder in that some murders might be justified (self-defense, just wars, etc) whereas abortion is never justifiable.

“Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. “A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae,” (Code of Canon Law, can. 1398), “by the very commission of the offense” (Code of Canon Law, can. 1314) and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law (cf. Code of Canon Law, can. 1323-1324). The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.”

vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20090711_aborto-procurato_en.html
 
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