1. How can the sin of abortion be forgiven?
Not by the absolution of a Pius X priest, not even by the absolution of a Catholic priest, not even by the absolution of a Catholic bishop, not even by the absolution of a Pope.
The sin of abortion and any sin for that matter can only be forgiven through the repentance of the sinner. With that repentance, the absolution is not even needed. In the monastic life, which is essentially a life of repentance, the monks confessed to one another, i.e. to non-priests. In confession, it is more important to manifest one’s sin rather than that the other one is a priest. This practice is confirmed by St. Thomas of Aquinas in his thesis on contrition. The absolution of a priest is a help. But the salvation of a soul will depend on the act of repentance. The majority of men will die without the absolution of a priest. They will have to depend on their repentance. Christ’s words to the adulterous woman was; ‘Go and sin no more,’ i.e. repent. He did not say ‘Go to confession.’
2. A Synodal Disaster.
The Bishop’s Synod of 2012 was an ominous sign of things to come. Summoned by Pope Benedict to discuss the “New” Evangelization that was initiated by Pope John Paul II, he instructed the Committee to discuss the crux of the program, which is ‘repentance.’ The Bishop-secretary of the Synod, Bishop Eterovic, in his ‘Instrumentum Laboris’ intentionally omitted that important first step in the process of evangelization. Not because he did not believe in it. He believed that repentance was an important Catholic Doctrine, but he believed, also, that in a Bishop’s Synod everyone would know about it and everyone would have already done it. So why discuss something known and accepted by all. Eterovic did not know that his assumption was wrong.
Though occasionally mentioned during the Synod, the topic was never discussed nor defined. From that time on, the topic of repentance was never again mentioned within the Catholic Church. And yet this is the first step of evangelization without which the entire program of evangelization would become Protestant.
Though this omission was noticed by Pope Benedict and by the International Theological Commission, and the Synod was notified of this, nothing was done to correct the great error. From this time on, that important first step in the salvation of soul and the evangelization of peoples would never be mentioned again.
3. For a Pope to give the faculty to absolve sins of abortion to priests and bishops without showing its relationship with the concept of repentance, was an empty gesture.
Without repentance not a single sin can be forgiven. Not even by a Pope with Tiara and crozier.
4. Let us see how the sin of abortion can be forgiven;….. and all sins for that matter, as taught from Scriptures and from Tradition. There are three steps; all of which are God’s acts; first, God calls. Second, God justifies. Third, God predestines. The first step is God must call the sinner to repentance, without which he cannot move. This is called vocation; as when God called Abraham or Moses. This will be repeated in the New Testament when Christ called Peter, Andrew, James and John. The Old Testament spirituality is the preparation for such a call. Thus Abraham and Peter were disposed for the call. Not everybody is called.
The person guilty of abortion must personally be called by God while she is putting into practice the spirituality of the Old Testament. Otherwise, she won’t be called and she will not be able to proceed to the next steps.
Secondly; when the call is answered, as Abraham and the first apostles did, by leaving all things………. then the person is justified; i.e. her sins are forgiven through the reception of graces together with the virtues of Faith, Hope and Charity.
Thirdly; being justified, the soul is predestined for heaven.
5. The forgiveness of sins falls under the second step; justification.
We have seen God’s part in ‘calling’, justifying and predestinating the souls. Now, let us see what the reaction of the soul should be during the second period of justification.
For the forgiveness of sins a person must do the following while cooperation with God’s graces. First, she must know her sins, both mortal and venial. Secondly, she must have attrition or contrition for each sins. Thirdly, she must confess those sins. Fourthly, she must make satisfaction for those sins. These steps are familiar to us all from the catechism and from the Summa of St. Thomas of Aquinas.
First step; we must know our sins; both mortal and venial. The list can be found in Divine Revelation. Fornication, adultery, sodomy, homosexuality, murder, abortion…etc are mortal sins. Falling asleep in the middle of the rosary is a venial sin. We should know what are our mortal sin because all these steps must be done on each and every mortal sin.
The second step is attrition or contrition. Attrition is defined as imperfect contrition while contrition is defined as perfect contrition. Attrition in the ‘Act of Contrition’ goes; ‘because I dread the lost of heaven and the pains of hell.’ Then it continues with Contrition which goes; ‘but most of all because they have offended Thee My God who art all good and deserving of all my love.’ Let us go ahead, first, then we will return and show what follows after attrition and what follows after contrition.
Attrition is an imperfect act based on servile fear. By itself, it cannot forgive sins.. One has to go and manifest her sins to a man of God. .
The third step, therefore, is confession of sins to a man of God, if possible. And this is followed by……
the fourth step which is restitution for sins committed.
Let us stop here and clarify a few points for a while. Contrition is the crux, the center of repentance around which the whole process of justification encircles. This is the part the Bishop’s Synod of 2012 omitted; and this is the part of the Gospel Truth that is nowhere to be found in present Catholic teaching.
Let us define attrition and contrition and, then, show the difference between the two. The main source of sin is pride; and pride is described as hard heartedness in man. Humility is the opposite. In Scriptures it is defined as a ‘broken spirit.’ Pride is a hard stone, humility is pride broken into bits. Pride is insisting on one’s own will like adulterers insisting on receiving Holy Communion without first repenting. Humility is breaking one’s insistent on one’s own will and submission to God’s Will through repentance. Repentance is the process of being humble by denying one’s will and obeying God’s Will. When this process is done imperfectly because it is motivated by servile fear it is called attrition. Because it is imperfect, one has to proceed to the next two steps; namely, confession, i.e. to manifest one’s sins to a man of God and satisfaction, i.e. make restitution for evil done. And these three steps, attrition, confession and restitution must be done for every mortal sin committed. To forget or skip these three steps on one mortal sin will make the whole process of repentance ineffective.
Attrition is in the natural level; that is why it is imperfect. If the soul prays for graces from God and she receives them, then attrition, fortified by grace becomes contrition. This is a supernatural act that is possible only with the help of God. This is commonly referred to as Perfect Act of Contrition. With contrition, confession to a confessor and restitution is not necessary; as in the case of St. Peter when he denied Christ three times. His contrition was so perfect that he was immediately forgiven and immediately restored to his former spirituality. Even higher. The reason attrition is followed by Confession and Restitution is to attempt to transform attrition into contrition.
Contrition, fortified with grace is the crux of Repentance. It is what makes man deserving of the forgiveness of his sins. It is man’s part, in union with grace in the process of justification. This grace is given to very few. Now, let us go deeper into an important element of contrition.
6. ‘My sins are always before me.’ Psalm 50 (or 51)
In attrition, a soul is sorry for her sins, confesses her sins and makes satisfaction for her sins. These steps enables her to ‘keep his sins always before her eyes,’ i.e. she is always conscious of all her mortal sin in her mind. While in contrition, the soul is always conscious of all her mortal sins before her mind without the need to confess her sins and make restitution. When we say ‘always before his mind’ we mean he is conscious of all his mortal sins from the time of his contrition up to the end of his life. Thus the words of the Psalm ‘And my sins are always before me.’ It is easy to do this permanently with contrition. It will be more difficult for those with attrition. Why should we keep our sins always before us? Because as long as you keep your sins always before you, God will continuously forgive your sins. St. John Chrysostom wrote; ‘whatever sins you are conscious of, God will forget.’
When you become unconscious of your sins, then St. Thomas wrote, God will with draw His forgiveness of your sins. As St. John Chrysostom wrote; whatever sins you forget, God will remember.
In contrition, because God’s grace is there, one is able to keep his sins always before the eyes of his mind and as long as he can do this God forgives his sins. And the constant awareness of his sins does not depress him because this thought are accompanied by his knowing that God had forgiven him gives him joy of spirit. Sts. Peter and Paul always had their sins against Christ focused before the eyes of their minds until their death, living up to the Psalm’s words “My sins are always before me.” This is contrition that justifies the soul without the need for step two, which is confession to a priest, and step three, restitution. With contrition all venial sins are equally forgiven.
Attrition or contrition should be done on one and every mortal sin committed. It cannot be done on all mortal sins together. It should be for each and every mortal sin.
7. Pope Benedict wanted the 2012 Bishop’s Synod to lay out the steps on how a sin is forgiven. Step by step if possible. The Secretary of the Synod says; ‘ we do that everyday.’ Then he forgets to program it for discussion. When he was reminded after the Synod by the ITC Pontifical Commission he was embarrassed because he could not answer the Pope. He re-plans it for discussion for the next Synod in 2014. But sacrilegious Communion and same sex was instead discussed. So the less exciting topic of repentance and contrition were permanently set aside until both topics were permanently abolished because everybody is going to heaven.
8. Well, for the sake of history, how can a sin of abortion be forgiven.
First, the sinner must first find out all her mortal sins. Aside from abortion, there will surely be fornication, adultery, idolatry, stealing, etc…enough to discourage her from continuing enumerating them. But she perseveres and completes the list.
Second, then she makes an act of attrition. That is an act based on servile fear and the only act she can do in her natural state. Knowing that her sin consist in doing her own will, she tries to break to pieces her own selfish will and force her self to submit to God’s Will. She needs God’s grace to do this. This is the way she can acquire a contrite and broken heart as Psalm 50 states. This way her servile fear is elevated to an act of Charity wherein she develops filial hope to receive forgiveness from a loving God rather than just having servile fear. Here, her attrition is changed to contrition which is essentially an act of Charity.
Third step, Having reached Charity and, therefore, having had perfect contrition, St. Thomas of Aquinas states that she does not have to confess to a Pius X priest nor to Pope Francis because all her past sins would have been forgiven, just like St. Peter on Good Friday. Her confirming sign is that by an act of grace, as the Psalm says; ‘Her sins are always before her mind.’ St. Thomas writes that any one who keeps her sins always before her mind will certainly receive the forgiveness from God. And St. John Chrysostom adds; t anyone who forgets her sin, God will withdraw His forgiveness from her. Her sins will remain in her soul. So she must keep her sins always before her mind from the time she was contrite up to the end of her life. This is called unceasing prayer or contemplative prayer that makes the sinner worthy to have all her past sins forgiven.
One begins with attrition. Then confesses their sins and makes restitution in order to transform attrition into perfect contrition.
Notice that the three above steps consist of both human and supernatural Acts. Unless God acts and the soul cooperates absolutely no sinner, guilty of abortion, can have her sins forgiven. In fact, as can be clearly seen, these steps that lead to the forgiveness of the sin of abortion is so difficult to teach. And yet we are left only with the announcement that Pius X priests can absolve sins of abortion. Giving us the wrong impression that any one who have been guilty of abortion can just go to any priest, be absolved and she can receive Holy Communion. Yes, as easy as saying ‘Jesus is Lord’ and being saved. But it just does not work that way.