Pope misrepresented

You reproduce (Waikato Times, September 3) a report from The Times of London about Pope Francis which, in its headline and in its implications, is just so dishonest.

Admittedly, Pope Francis’s naivete gives dishonest reporters plenty of opportunity, but that doesn’t excuse the dishonesty.

The sin of abortion is so grievous that it per se incurs excommunication from the Catholic Church, the only sin against ‘‘morality’’ that does. Homicide, rape, for example, do not.

So, the absolution ordinarily available to a penitent in the Catholic sacrament of Confession via a priest is not ordinarily available to those guilty of the heinous sin of abortion.

A priest requires authority from his bishop to give absolution to such penitents.

Pope Francis recently declared a ‘‘Year of Mercy’’. As an element of that, he has now given to all priests, during this Year of Mercy, the authority to dispense absolution to genuinely repentant abortion sinners, without the priests needing to seek episcopal approval.

So, despite the headline, the Pope has not ‘‘ordered absolution on abortions’’, and he has not ‘‘stopped short of saying that abortion is no longer a sin’’. The Pope is, in fact, acknowledging the wickedness of abortion, while demonstrating the mercy of God.

Despite the yearnings of the feminist, left-wing, mainstream media, not this Pope nor any other will ever declare that contraception, sodomy, abortion, are not serious sins.

Leo Leitch Benneydale