This week I am going to showcase some of the internet-accessible reading I have done since last week’s dialogue on abortion from the entries Thoughts on Abortion and Abortion: a Catholic Overview. Read the rest of this entry »

In the discussion following the post “Thoughts on Abortion”, questions were raised regarding “confession and repentance in the Roman Catholic Church.” I hope in this post to give a brief, general overview of the Catholic understanding of these issues, and to answer some of the questions raised in the discussions of the previous post.

To get an overview in the Church’s own language, I recommend reading the sections concerning grace and justification of the Catechism, paragraphs 1987 through 2029. I refer to these sections because understanding the Catholic conception of grace is necessary to understand the Catholic conception of sin.

Why does man need salvation?

Catholics believe man’s destiny is eternal life, to live in unity with God. This, in particular, is what distinguishes us from the animals, who share biological and sensible life with us, but do not have free will and rational, immortal souls. The nature of this life with God himself is participation in God’s own life – this is our definition of grace (CCC #1997). Read the rest of this entry »

[Ed. Note: This is valuable and welcome submission was contributed by one of our astute Catholic readers, who comments under the monicker "Bear". It helps set the record straight on some of the unintentional inaccuracies made in the previous entry, Thoughts on Abortion and provides some much needed explanation of the Roman Catholic Church's current teachings as well.]

I. TEACHING ON ABORTION

Firstly, Catholicism considers abortion to be evil because it is the direct, intentional killing of a human person. The Catechism states in paragraph 2270:

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.

It goes on to affirm from there that this has been the constant teaching of the Church from the beginning. Sources indicating this include the Bible itself, the Didache, and various non-canonical epistles and other writings from the early Church. Read the rest of this entry »

[ed. note: I have updated this entry in respons well after Catholic reviewers commented. I have replace a problematic reference source with a more credible one and rephrased premature conclusions.]

Abortion is often a huge issue between our two faiths, as Catholics sometimes argue that Mormonism is too liberal in granting exceptions. Furthermore, some Catholics have criticized a perceived moral flip-flopping in LDS doctrine on whether to allow exceptions or not. This blog essay will be concerned mostly with the latter, but a few points will be made towards helping us understand each faith’s current position as well as some coverage of perceived doctrinal development in Catholicism. Please see a Catholic blogger’s response covering some of the issues raised here to balance and correct some of the perceptions given here. Read the rest of this entry »

Blogging

I am resuming this feature after a few weeks of an inactive lull. I am learning that blogs some blogs stay viable by keeping the articles fresh and geared towards short attention spans. Read the rest of this entry »