It is surely
common knowledge that any Catholic who permits her unborn child to be aborted
incurs a latae sententiae excommunication[1]. This means that the Church does not need to
formally pronounce that the mother has been excommunicated for the abortion, it occurs automatically.
Excommunication
is incurred automatically when the abortion has been executed and from that point forward that Catholic may not
receive Holy Communion until such time as absolution for the sin against the
fifth commandment, and from excommunication, has been received.
There are a few
important aspects that must be noted about automatic excommunication:
(1)
The
excommunication does not only apply to the mother. It applies equally to all those Catholics who
were complicit in the abortion in anyway.
(Doctors, nurses, husband, family members and anyone else who
encouraged/supported the mother; even those who drove the mother to the
clinic.)
(2)
The
automatic excommunication of course does not apply to those Catholics who are
younger than 16 years of age and to those who did not know that they would be
excommunicated because of their actions.
(3)
The
excommunication will of course not apply to those people who were forced to
commit abortion. Therefore if a woman’s
abusive husband physically forced her to have the abortion, excommunication
would not automatically apply to her but to the husband.
Getting back to
the purpose of my post. I often get the
impression that excommunication is viewed, by some Catholics, predominantly as
a punishment. A bit like the death
penalty is intended to scare people from committing murder or punish them for
the murder. I however personally don’t
think that excommunication is truly a punishment in that sense.
In my opinion
the entire purpose of excommunication is for the Church to make a person fully
aware of the gravity of the sin that is being considered or that has already been
committed. It is certainly not a
sentence gleefully imposed by the Church to punish the offender.
The Church is
intent on saving souls. Excommunication
is surely the Church crying out to one of its children. It is the Church begging that person to
consider the seriousness of the act of abortion, hopefully before committing
the abortion. If not before, then
hopefully at some point after the abortion was performed. The act of excommunication should lead the
person to an examination of conscience and consequently a deeper understanding
of exactly what it was that was done.
Once this deep
consideration, this examination of conscience, has occurred, we hope and pray
that the person will cry out for forgiveness and approach the Church to confess
the sin against the fifth commandment, asking for absolution, both from the sin
and from excommunication. When that
happens, the true purpose of excommunication has been realised. It has restored sanctifying grace and led to
the salvation of another one of God’s children!
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