Musings from the playground in my mind.
It's a well-known fact that the Catholic church is against abortion. Period. There is no negotiating on that stance. I don't care who you are, what your race or gender. If you're Catholic, you're against abortion. As such, all Catholic institutions are against abortion. St. Norbert College, a Catholic college where I worked for 17 years, is against abortion, as are all Catholic colleges. My local Catholic parish is against abortion. All Catholic priests are against abortion. I think you get the point.
We are all also sinners. But our God is a merciful God, and as Catholics, we are able to repent of our sins and receive the sacraments. However, and here's the important part, if we don't repent, if we are not sorry for our sins, then we should not present ourselves to receive the sacraments. For example, if I were to publicly state that abortions are okay, or if I were an elected official and I use my office to protect the right to kill unborn children, or if I'm simply a private citizen and I promote the killing of unborn children, then I would not be allowed to receive Holy Eucharist. Furthermore, if a political candidate makes the ability to kill people part of his platform, then everyone who votes for him is guilty of a mortal sin. There is no other issue, political, religious, or otherwise, that is more important than life.
Interesting side note: read my article from Feb 2021 about when my local city council voted on an abortion issue; and I was an alderman, so I voted.
Like me, Catholics everywhere are offering what seems like "opinions" on this. So, it's important to note where this comes from. Here's the text of Canon 915:
I copied and pasted the above text from the Vatican website. So, there are a few fancy words in there; what exactly does it mean? Focus on the red words. If you're living in grave sin, you can't receive holy communion. And if you think I've quoted it wrong, use the link above to read the full text for yourself.
So, on to the next logical question, "is abortion an example of grave sin?" I would argue that life is indeed the most important gift we have. Without life, no other right, privilege, law, rule, etc matters. I'm always amazed at people who fight for a woman's right to choose, but at the same time will not fight for a woman's right to live. A woman cannot have any rights if you first kill her in the womb. So yes, it's obvious, taking a life (by abortion, murder, etc) is indeed the most grave of sins.
It is for this reason that when Fr. James Altman asked, "how many Catholics voted for Barack Obama for President," the answer is simple. None. Because if you did vote for Obama, you're not Catholic. This is our faith. This is the faith of our church.
This video is Fr. Billy Kosco, speaking of his experience at Auschwitz, comparing those issues of Nazi concentration camps to the issue of abortion.
