The Catechism in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 295: The Wound of Abortion (2024)

Episode Date: October 21, 2024

Together, with Fr. Mike, we examine the wound of abortion. Fr. Mike emphasizes that all human life deserves protection, especially the unborn, but he also emphasizes the importance of God’s mercy. He explains that those who have procured an abortion are excommunicated, subject to the conditions established by Canon Law. However, the excommunication does not limit the scope of God’s mercy, but rather highlights the gravity of the sin. Fr. Mike concludes by highlighting that if abortion is a part of your story, you are encouraged to take the step towards confession and forgiveness, to be met with mercy and love and be welcomed home. Today’s readings are Catechism paragraphs 2270-2275. This episode has been found to be in conformity with the Catechism by the Institute on the Catechism, under the Subcommittee on the Catechism, USCCB. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/ciy Please note: The Catechism of the Catholic Church contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Catechism in a Year podcast where we encounter God's plan of sheer goodness for us, revealed in scripture and passed down through the tradition of the Catholic faith. The Catechism in a Year is brought to you by Ascension. In 365 days, we'll read through the Catechism of the Catholic Church, discovering our identity and God's family as we journey together toward a heavenly home. This is Day 295, we're reading paragraphs 2270 to 2275. As always, I am using the Ascension edition of the Catechism, which includes a Foundations

of Faith approach, but you can follow along with any recent version of the Catechism at the Catholic Church. You can also download your own Catechism in a year reading plan by visiting ascensionpress.com slash C-I-Y and you can click follow or subscribe in the podcast after daily updates and daily notifications. One quick thanks to all of you who continue to pray. I always ask that you always do it. I'm so grateful. Thank you all those also who have supported the production of this podcast with your financial gifts. We couldn't do this without your prayers, without that help. Um, just thank you so much as we launch into today, we recognize that in

paragraphs 22 70 and 2275, we're going to talk about abortion. Again, we're right in the midst, I mean, we started a couple days ago, right in the midst of the fifth commandment, you shall not kill, you shall not take an innocent human life. And we're going to talk about in paragraphs 2270 to 2275 that there are very few lives you could consider more innocent than the life of an unborn baby, an unborn person. And so as we go into this, we recognize also, kind of like I mentioned yesterday in yesterday's prayer,

that this is the story of many people who are listening. This is, or maybe it possibly could be the story of many people who are listening. We know that abortion has marked our culture, abortion has marked the lives of many, many people in our church even and so we recognize that The church gives very clear teaching when it with regard to the evil of abortion But this is also we need to keep this in mind the church gives very clear teaching also With the reality of God's mercy. We remember for 294 days leading up to today day 295 We've heard again and again of God's mercy

We've heard again and again about the fact that God desires that all of us turn to him and be saved and turn to him and receive his mercy, turn to him and allow him to love us. And so as we read through these teachings, all the teachings of course, as we read through this, yes, we recognize that here's the church

that holds the line. It holds the line of truth, holds the line of goodness, holds the line on the part of those who are innocent and defenseless, but also holds the line on those who need God's mercy and those who need God's forgiveness. So we're praying for everyone today and so as we launch into today, let's do that. In the name of the Father, in the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, Father in heaven, we give you praise and we thank you. In the name of your Son, Jesus Christ, send us your Holy Spirit. Send your Holy Spirit deep into our hearts

that we can know your truth, that we can know your goodness. Lord God, when we're in sin, please give us the miracle of the grace of conviction. Give us the miracle of the grace of conviction of our sins so that we can know where we have turned away from you, so that we can know truly where we have said no to you. But also give us the grace, secondary grace of conviction of your mercy. Help us to be convicted that you desire us to turn back to you, that you desire us to

allow your love to transform our lives. Lord God, in your name, in the name of your son Jesus Christ, I ask you to please be with every person who's listening at this moment, who's listening, who, abortion is a part of their story. Be with them right now. Be with them and remind them, yes, of the truth of the evil of abortion, but also the truth of your goodness,

also the truth of your desire for them to give you their heart. Lord God, I pray not only for truth to win, but also pray that your mercy would win. I pray right now, Lord God, in the name of your Son Jesus, that every person listening who's been wounded by abortion will allow you and your mercy, your grace to heal them.

Our Jesus, heal them now. In your name we pray. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, amen. Today is day 295. We're reading paragraphs 2270 to 2275. Abortion. 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. The prophet Jeremiah wrote,

Before I formed you in the womb, I knew you, and before you were born, I consecrated you. Psalm 139 states, My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth. 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 as a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law. The Didache states, You shall not kill the embryo by abortion, and shall not cause the newborn to perish. Gaudí Mezpez further states, 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. Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latte sententiae by the very commission of the offense and subject to the conditions provided by canon law.

The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy, rather she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society. The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation. The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents, nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state. They belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act

from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights, one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death. The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, The very foundations of a state based on law

are undermined. As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights. 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 illicit if it respects the life and integrity of the embryo and the human fetus and is directed toward its safeguarding 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 on the results, a diagnosis must not be the equivalent of a death sentence. One must hold as licit procedures carried out on the human embryo which respect the life and integrity of the embryo and do not involve disproportionate risks for it, but are directed toward its healing, the improvement of its condition of health, or its individual survival. It is immoral to produce human embryos intended for exploitation as disposable biological material.

Certain attempts to influence chromosomic or genetic inheritance are not therapeutic, but are aimed at producing human beings selected according to sex or other predetermined qualities. Such manipulations are contrary to the personal dignity of the human being and his integrity and identity, which are unique and unrepeatable. Right, there we have it, paragraphs 2270 to 2275. Again, very heavy topic. Well, again, when it comes to the commandments of the Lord,

any breaking of any of the commandments is serious. And whenever we talk about rebellion against the Lord, whenever we talk about any kind of sin, again, there's a weight here. And yet, again, this is one of those sins that has touched so many people's lives. And we have to understand, we recognize that in other areas of moral theology, right, in other areas of the catechism, we've talked about this. We've talked about the degree to which there can be factors that weigh on a person the factors that that bring a person to a place of distress a place of fear a place of

a great panic and and we know that those those Aspects can mitigate a person's culpability, right? I mean everyone if if we can't empathize with someone who would be in a position where they believe that abortion is their only option We can't if we can't empathize with someone who out of fear chooses abortion or out of some kind of incredible distress chooses abortion We can't empathize with that then there's something kind of broken in inside of each and every one of us So so as we talk about this in this teaching today, we recognize that that could be any one of us. I mean, that's just the story. And now you might be hearing this and saying,

no, absolutely not. And that might be because you've worked through this whole thing. Like you've worked through this so fully that you know you've resolved, no matter what the situation, no matter what the circumstance, this won't even be an option for me.

And that's beautiful. That's wonderful. At the same time, we can empathize with someone who's just afraid, right? Well, I think we all can do that. We can empathize with someone who's just afraid. And when the culture puts this forth as saying, this is your only option, this is your only way out,

abortion is the only thing you could possibly choose in order to be free, to be healthy, to be happy again. We know that's not true. And yet, there are a lot of people in our world who don't know that that's not true. And yet there are a lot of people in our, in our, in our world who don't know that that's not true. They don't know the beauty of adoption. They also don't know the, that fact that, you know, there are many people throughout the history of humanity who have been in a, in a case of a crisis pregnancy or unplanned pregnancy who have had their child,

have kept their child and have had amazing, amazing lives. This is, this could be your story someday. This could be the story of your child or your grandchild that to recognize that we all did this, hopefully we all recognize this, right? And I'm just trying to get that out right away. At the same time, the church is absolutely clear that all of human life is inviolable, right? All human life deserves dignity, respect, needs protection.

And so here the catechism has made it incredibly clear. Now this is not a new teaching. In fact, I mentioned in paragraph 2271, I said the Didache, it's also known as the book called The Teaching of the Apostles, which goes back to I think to the second century. And the Didache even talks about this, the first Christians, this was commonplace

for all the first Christians. It says this, you shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish. So from the very beginning, some of my people say things, kind of some silly things, like, well, where is that in the Bible? Or this is a recent invention by the Catholic Church or something along those lines.

And nothing could be further from the truth. We recognize that some of the early extra biblical writings, including here at the Didache, directly state this is, Christians don't do this. Basically saying that those who follow after Jesus don't do this. And so paragraph 2272 highlights formal cooperation and abortion constitutes a grave offense. Now, it goes on to say that the church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life and so not only does a person need to be reconciled to the Lord and through the church through sacramental means through confession but also there is a canonical

penalty of being by the very fact what's called latte sentencia excommunication by the very fact of procuring an abortion a person is excommunicated now Why is this? Whoa? Why does the church attach this canonical penalty to? Abortion that's not attached to necessarily every sin and the reason why it says here The church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy Rather she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society, that we recognize that this has, I guess you'd say, you can call it the scourge of abortion.

The reality of the evil of abortion has destroyed millions of lives and it's actually transformed our, I would say, I would maintain, I think this is true. It's transformed our culture We we have become a culture of death We've become a culture that has I mean even those who survive it's wounded the people who survive We recognize that abortion again abortion as it we always say abortion as two victims There's the one who's dead and the one who's wounded the child itself and the mom But also abortion has other victims including including society at large, has been wounded because of the reality of abortion. Because of that, because it's so significant,

because it doesn't end with the child, doesn't end with the woundedness of the mother, it actually wounds our entire culture, that's one of the reasons why the church has attached this canonical penalty. Again, not to limit the scope of God's mercy, but simply highlight the reality of the injurious nature of of this sin now keep this in mind a

Person, please if this is part of your story, please go to confession There have been there have been so many people who've been part of the Bible in a year story that community There are so many people here in this catechism in the air Well, they've written to me and they've said this sin the sin of abortion is something I've I withheld from confession for years this sin is that thing that kept me from confession for years and that they've said I've gone and my life is so transformed so if this is you right now if this is you you're hearing this and just I hate this day I dreaded this day please know you are not alone.

This community, Bible in the air, Catechism in the air, has people who have known this, have been convicted by the need to go to confession, have done it and have experienced the most incredible freedom, the most incredible peace, the most incredible welcome back, the most incredible reconciliation, the most incredible love, because that, again, we know what mercy is, right?

Mercy is the love that we need the most but we deserve the least. And so if this is part of your story, please do not let the wound get in the way of the healing. Don't let the sin get in the way of God's love for you. God loves you so much. We need to declare this. We need to declare the truth of the sin, but we also need to declare the truth of God's love for you. God loves you so much. We need to declare this. We need to declare the truth of the sin, but we also need to declare the truth of God's love for you. So please keep that in mind. Never forget it. And actually, not just don't forget it.

Please act on it. If you or someone you love, someone you know, is in this place of woundedness, again, every abortion, one dead and one wounded if Someone you know or yourself is in that place of woundedness know that you're invited this This day today to go to confession that you can you have the you're invited to go to confession as soon as you as you can Just knowing knowing that you can have confidence in the Lord's love for you the Lord's mercy for you that he wants as I said three times now, he wants to bring you home. He wants to heal that wound. You've been wounded by this. You don't have to stay wounded. And I just invite all of us, if this is part of your story, please take that step. And if this is not part of your story, please pray for each other. Pray for every person in this community who hears these words right now and is just is hesitant and is fearful

and just says, but, but is it true? Is it true that I could come back home? Is it true that I could go to confession within the next couple of days within this week and that I would be met with mercy? I'd be met with love and I'd be actually, is it true that I could actually be healed? Please pray for each other. Please, because we know that without God's grace, none of us will move. So please pray for each other. I am praying for you. Please pray for me. My name is Father Mike.

I cannot wait to see you tomorrow. God bless.