'Is it right to hire a hitman to solve a problem?' asks Pope Francis; post-abortion healiing

 

Pope Francis on 15 September 2021

From the official English translation of the Pope’s words in Italian [emphases added in quotations below]:

Abortion is more than a problem, abortion is a murder.  Abortion... without mincing words: whoever has an abortion, kills. Take any book on embryology, from those who study students at Faculties of Medicine and see that, in the third week of pregnancy – in the third week, and often before the mother is aware of it – the fetus already has all the organs; all, even the DNA. And wouldn't it be a person? It's a human life… period! And this human life must be respected. This principle is so clear… To those who cannot understand it, I would ask two questions: Is it fair to kill a human life to solve a problem? Scientifically, it's a human life. Second question: Is it fair to hire a hit man to solve a problem?

The first sentence above in the original Italian reads:

Il problema dell’aborto. L’aborto è più di un problema, l’aborto è un omicidio.

The Italian word omicidio means both ‘murder’ and ‘homicide’, the latter a legal term used in some English-using jurisdictions.

Laudato si’

120. Since everything is interrelated, concern for the protection of nature is also incompatible with the justification of abortion. How can we genuinely teach the importance of concern for other vulnerable beings, however troublesome or inconvenient they may be, if we fail to protect a human embryo, even when its presence is uncomfortable and creates difficulties? ‘If personal and social sensitivity towards the acceptance of the new life is lost, then other forms of acceptance that are valuable for society also wither away’.

Catechism of the Catholic Church

2271 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.

The Catechism deals with the question of abortion from No 2270 to No 2275.

Healing for persons affected by abortion

Rachel's Vineyard

Rachel’s Vineyard is a healing ministry to persons affected by abortion, women and men. It offers healing weekend retreats in many places. It is a Catholic initiative but open to persons of all faiths or of none who are seeking healing in this area.

I have been involved in some of the retreats in Ireland and know how powerful they are.

From the website of Rachel's Vineyard, Ireland:

These weekends offer a supportive, confidential, and emotionally safe environment where women and men can express, release and reconcile painful post-abortion emotions and begin the process of restoration, renewal and healing.

Married couples, mothers, fathers, grand-parents, and anyone affected by abortion have come to Rachel’s Vineyard in search of peace and inner healing.

The weekend is a lot of work, but those who are willing to journey through their grief, will experience the power of resurrection in their own lives. They will find meaning in what has happened, and allow God to transform the experience into something that gives hope, liberation and peace.

Rachel's Vineyard retreats are held at private locations.

Flight into Egypt

Blessed Fra Angelico [Web Gallery of Art]

I came that they may have life and have it abundantly (John 10:10).