The Catholic
Church Position about abortion
The early councils of the
Church, consisting of gatherings of local bishops, enacted legislation against
abortion.
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The Council of
Elvira, (305 A.D.) is generally thought of as the
first council to do so. This Spanish council held that a woman who aborted a
child, even though it may have been conceived in adultery, was not to be given
communion even at the end of her life
(1).
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The Council of
Ancyra (314 A.D.), the first Eastern council to
legislate against abortion, states, in canon 21 that "women who prostitute
themselves, and who kill the children thus begotten, or who try to destroy
them in their womb, are by ancient law excommunicated to the end of their
lives. We, however, have lessened their punishment and condemn them to the
various appointed degrees of penance for ten years"
(2). The Council of
Ancyra stipulated a lesser period of penance but clearly extended punishment
to the killing of any child in the womb (not only adulterine
offspring). This councilor rule was apparently recognized and ratified, at
least in a general sense, by the Ecumenical
Council of Chalcedon (450 A.D.)
(3)
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The Council of Lerida
Spain (524 A.D.) affixed penalties
to persons who tried to kill the unborn child in the womb of the mother.
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Pope John Paul II speaks
to Academy for Life - February 27, 2002
The current
Ecclesiastical sanction against abortion
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.The Second Vatican Council,
in a passage which retains all its relevance today, forcefully condemned a
number of crimes and attacks against human life. Thirty years later, taking up
the words of the Council and with the same forcefulness I repeat that
condemnation in the name of the whole Church, certain that I am interpreting the
genuine sentiment of every upright conscience: "Whatever is opposed to life
itself, such as any type of murder, genocide, abortion, euthanasia, or willful
self-destruction, whatever violates the integrity of the human person, such as
mutilation, torments inflicted on body or mind, attempts to coerce the will
itself; whatever insults human dignity, such as subhuman living conditions,
arbitrary imprisonment, deportation, slavery, prostitution, the selling of women
and children; as well as disgraceful working conditions, where people are
treated as mere instruments of gain rather than as free and responsible persons;
all these things and others like them are infamies indeed.
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ENCYCLICAL OF POPE PAUL VI ON "THE REGULATION OF BIRTH" JULY 25, 1968
HUMANAE VITAE "We are obliged once more to declare that the
direct interruption of the generative process already begun and, above all, all
direct abortion, even for therapeutic reasons, are to be absolutely excluded as
lawful means of regulating the number of children
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/encyclicals/documents/hf_p-vi_enc_25071968_humanae-vitae_en.html
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PASTORAL VISIT TO POLAND
HOMILY OF THE HOLY
FATHER
AT THE SHRINE OF SAINT JOSEPH (Kalisz, 4 June 1997)
That is why it is so painful to see
what is happening today in so many places around the world: life is being
deliberately destroyed by war, by violence, by abortion. And we have been
created by God for greater things - to love and be loved
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19031994_population-develop_en.html
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MESSAGE TO UN
POPULATION FUND DIRECTOR
Indeed, there is a tendency to promote an internationally
recognized right to access to abortion on demand, without any restriction,
with no regard to the rights of the unborn, in a manner which goes beyond
what even now is unfortunately accepted by the laws of some nations.
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/letters/1999/documents/hf_jp-ii_let_19031994_population-develop_en.html
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"DECLARATION
ON PROCURED ABORTION" Congregation
for the Doctrine of the Faith
November 18, 1974
...In the Didache it is clearly said: "You shall not
kill by abortion the fruit of the womb and you shall not murder the infant
already born."...
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/quaestiodeabortu.htm
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Let us defend life!
In his weekly Angelus message on Sunday, 22 March 1981, the Holy Father
called attention to the recent message of the Permanent Council of the Italian
Episcopal Conference concerning the sanctity of life.
"It is the special task of
the Church and of our episcopal ministry to reaffirm above all that procured
abortion is death, it is the killing of an innocent creature".
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/81-03-22popeabortion.html
"You shall not kill" "You shall not kill"
"You shall not kill" "You shall not kill"
"You shall not kill" "You shall not kill"
http://www.priestsforlife.org/magisterium/EVText.htm (full
text)
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/john_paul_ii/encyclicals/documents/hf_jp-ii_enc_25031995_evangelium-vitae_en.html
1
. Canon 63 of the council states: "If a
woman shall have conceived in adultery while her husband was absent, and
afterwards shall have killed the conceptus (child conceived); she shall not be
given communion even at death, because she did this twofold wicked deed."
Council of Elvira, -. 63; J. D. Mansi, SACRORUM CONCILIORUM NOVA ET AMPLISSIMA
COLLECTIO, (Mansi), 2,16.
2. Council of
Ancyra, c. 21, Mansi, 2, 520.
3. Council of
Chalcedon, c. 1, CONCILIORUM OECUMENICORUM DECRETA, Alberigo, Joannou, Leonardi,
Prodi, editors, (Friburg: Herder, 1962), p. 63.