Abstract
Since the time of its institution, the Catholic Church has consistently and unequivocally condemned direct, intentional termination of pregnancy at any stage or abortion as a gravely immoral and sinful act and a deplorable affront to human life and dignity. However, an incomplete understanding of Catholic theology and the interplay between various internal Church structures has led some to assert either that the Church has changed her position over time or that the morality of the question hinges on the subjective beliefs and circumstances of the individuals involved. This chapter aims to clarify the philosophical, theological, and structural distinctions that give rise to this erroneous interpretation of the Church’s teaching.
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Notes
- 1.
See Gen. 1:27, 5:1–2. (The Bible, Revised Standard Version (1971).
- 2.
Psalm 139:14.
- 3.
See Catechism of the Catholic Church (“Catechism”), 356, and Paul VI 1965b, 24.
- 4.
See Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (“CDF”) 1987, III.
- 5.
- 6.
The Church teaches that reception of the Eucharist and prayer suffice to remove less venial sins. See Catechism, 1394, 1436–37.
- 7.
The distinction was removed by Pope Pius IX in the constitution Apostolica Sedis (Noonan 1967, 115).
- 8.
Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith (1974). Haldane and Lee (2003) write that “[t]o a certain extent the gradual transition from the simple to the complex that Aquinas sought actually occurs during gametogenesis (of which, of course, he was unaware)” (272). They and other eminent Thomist scholars hold the position that Aquinas would have subscribed to the theory of immediate animation if he had access to modern scientific knowledge. See Stephen Heaney (1992, 19–48) and John Finnis (1998, 186).
- 9.
See Lk. 22:32.
- 10.
For a summary of early Church writings on contraception, see the article by John A. Hardon (1998), “The Catholic Tradition on the Morality of Contraception.”
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Wolk, L., Snead, O.C. (2021). Fearfully and Wonderfully Made: The Catholic Church’s Position on Abortion. In: Bagheri, A. (eds) Abortion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-63023-2_5
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