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Straight Answers:
Automatic Excommunication for
Those Who Procure Abortion
By Fr. William P. Saunders
HERALD Columnist
hospital. Although he said something about abortion carrying with it an excommunication, he gave me absolution. I gave it no additional thought and continued to receive the sacraments
(Communion, Reconciliation, and even remarriage within the Church.) It wasn’t until recently that I read something about the "rite" of removing an excommunication that I began to fear I had done and continue to do something wrong. Can you help by setting my mind at ease or instructing me in the way to proceed? — An ACH Reader
Since abortion is the purposeful murder of an innocent, unborn child, the Church indeed imposes the most severe penalty of excommunication for this heinous action. A person who successfully procures an abortion receives this penalty automatically (Code of Canon Law, #1398). Unlike some offenses that require the competent authority to impose the penalty of excommunication (technically termed ferendae sententiae), the penalty here is automatic (technically termed latae sententia).
Please note that this penalty is not just imposed upon the woman who has the abortion. Any Catholic accomplice in the act of procuring an abortion, even though not specifically mentioned in Canon #1398, receives the same penalty of automatic xcommunication. Here an accomplice is one who assists in such a way that the heinous act would not have been committed without his assistance. Therefore, the doctor who performs the abortion, the nurse who assists in the procedure, the boyfriend who encourages the abortion, and the parent who pays for the abortion — all are accomplices, guilty of the act, and thereby receive the just penalty. (See Code of Canon Law, #1329.2.)
Always remember that the severe penalty of excommunication exists first to prevent a heinous sin from occurring (i.e. moving a person to rethink performing an action in light of the penalty that will be imposed), and second to move a person to repentance and reconciliation. Also, for a person to be automatically xcommunicated, he must know that the penalty exists and will be imposed for a particular offense, and then choose to perform the action with full knowledge and freedom.
Nevertheless, the door to reconciliation remains open to the repentant sinner. The diocesan bishop has authority to remit the automatic excommunication imposed for an abortion. Such remission would occur in the Sacrament of Penance.
The bishop in turn may delegate this authority to priest confessors. Accordingly, in the Priests’ Faculties and Permissions promulgated by Bishop Keating (and still in effect despite his death), each priest in the Diocese of Arlington has the authority within the context of the Sacrament of Penance to remit the automatic excommunication and to grant absolution the first time a person confesses having procured or assisted with procuring an abortion.
However, in those cases when a person has already confessed on a pervious occasion for having procured or assisted with procuring an abortion but then has repeated the offense, the priest confessor must contact the Bishop who will provide a just penance. The priest confessor would then meet with the penitent, impose the penance, and grant absolution. (If the priest confessor judges that it would be too burdensome for the penitent to remain in the state of mortal sin until the Bishop acts, the Code of Canon Law stipulates that a priest confessor can remit an automatic excommunication and later inform the Bishop of the circumstances (#1357.1)) In all, the Church strives not only to uphold the truth about the sanctity of life and to prevent a person from committing such a heinous sin, but also to reconcile the sinner and to be the instrument of the Lord’s compassion and mercy.
Turning specifically to the reader in the question, I offer the following guidance: You seem to have followed the proper procedures and to have been properly reconciled to the Lord and the Church. Thank God for the grace which moved you to reconciliation. Look now for those graced opportunities when you can intervene and help someone else who may be considering having an abortion or may have had an abortion. If you continue to have any questions about this issue, please contact your parish priest.
Just another aside: This issue marks the fifth anniversary of the column Straight Answers in the Arlington Catholic Herald. Putting aside opinion and never avoiding controversial issues, the column has strived to provide solid information about our Catholic faith and what our Church teaches.
Fr. Saunders is dean of the Notre Dame Graduate
School of Christendom College and pastor of Queen of Apostles, both in
Alexandria, Virginia.
Copyright ©1998 Arlington Catholic Herald, Inc. All rights reserved.
This article was published in the Arlington
Catholic Herald,
200 N. Glebe Rd., Suite 607, Arlington, VA 22203; Vol 23, No 39;
dated Oct 1, 1998, on page 6.
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A note from the Web Master:
It is noteworthy and honorable that some folks are willing to stand up for a ban on Partial-Birth Abortion. Let us not forget that Abortion is also murder. We must understand that murder is murder no matter the method. Because one method of abortion seems to be horrible does not justify the other methods. We should be horrified and sickened by any Abortion regardless of the method. The Fifth Commandment spells it out clearly: "Thou shalt not kill." A fetus is a person, a human being with a God given soul. Imagine the pain the Lord must feel when any Abortion occurs. Please contact both of your Senators and Representative to let them know how horrified you are that Abortions are legal and to stop Partial-Birth Abortions and all other Abortions as soon as possible.
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