The Views Of The Catholic Church On Abortion

Many have asked what are the views of the Catholic Church on abortion.  Well the Catholic Church has consistently pronounced abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century author of the Didache, all the way to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (” The Gospel of Life”), have preserved that the Bible forbids abortion, simply as it forbids murder. This article will definitely deliver some examples of this constant witness from the literatures of the Daddies of the Church.

As the early Christian writer Tertullian pointed out, the regulation of Moses got meticulous penalties for inducing an abortion. Hebrew: “therefore that her youngster comes out” If there is major injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot”.

This applies the lex talionis or “regulation of retribution” to abortion. The lex talionis forms the just physical punishment for an injury (eye for eye, tooth for tooth, life for life, compared to the much greater retributions that had actually been frequent in the past, such as life for eye, life for tooth, lives of the offender’s loved ones for one life).

Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person – among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life. Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you. My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth.
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The lex talionis would definitely presently have been installed on a lady who was damaged in a fight. The distinguishing point in this passage is that an expectant lady is harmed “so that her child comes out”; the youngster is the concentration of the lex talionis in this passage. Aborted babies have to have justice, also.

This is due to the fact that they, like older young children, have personalities, also though marred by first sin. David advises us, “Certainly I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mom conceived me” (Ps. 51:5, NIV). Since sinfulness is a sacred instead of a physical problem, David ought to have had a spiritual attributes from the free time of fertilization.

The identical is revealed in James 2:26, which tells us that “the body without the spirit is lifeless”: The heart is the life-principle of the body. Because from the free time of fertilization the baby’s body is alive (as revealed by the reality that it is expanding), the baby’s body ought to actually have its spirit.

The teachings of the Catholic Church on abortion are quite clear. Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
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Thus, in 1995, Pope John Paul II proclaimed that the teachings of the Catholic Church on abortion “is unchanged and also unchangeable. For that reason, by the authority which Christ gave upon Peter and also his successors … I announce that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, constantly makes up a grave moral condition, since it is the deliberate hurting of an innocent human. This doctrine is based upon the organic legislation and also upon the developed word of God, is transmitted by the Church’s custom as well as shown by the ordinary and universal magisterium. No situation, no objective, no legislation whatsoever could ever before make licit an act which is fundamentally illicit, since it is contrary to the law of God which is written in every human heart, knowable by cause itself, as well as broadcast by the Church” (Evangelium Vitae 62).

Since it must be treated from conception as a person, the embryo must be defended in its integrity, cared for, and healed, as far as possible, like any other human being. Prenatal diagnosis is morally licit, “if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safe guarding or healing as an individual…. It is gravely opposed to the moral law when this is done with the thought of possibly inducing an abortion, depending upon the results: a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence.”
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The early Church Fathers said. “Luckily, abortion, like all sins, is forgivable; and absolution is as close as the nearest confessional.”

The view of the Catholic Church on abortion has actually been constant in condemning abortion as a grave evil. Christian writers from the first-century writer of the Didache to Pope John Paul II in his encyclical Evangelium Vitae (” The Gospel of Life”) have certainly maintained that the Bible prohibits abortion, just as it forbids murder. Hence, in 1995 Pope John Paul II announced that the Church’s instruction on abortion “is unchanged and unchangeable. By the authorization which Christ conferred upon Peter as well as his successors … I announce that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a way, constantly makes up a grave moral affliction, considering that it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being.