But the rules have changed. Now you can become a full member of the church again without appealing to a bishop. My aunt had an abortion and she wanted to be forgiven, but she was so torn up about it that I don’t think she even tried before the past Year of Mercy. So it is a change. Not a big one, or a great one, but a…

You’ve made an overreaching argument backed only by your personal animus towards the church.

Just to be pedantic, he didn’t say that; he said Catholics who want forgiveness for one can have it. It’s a big deal for Catholic women who may feel guilty - whether because it’s a sin or because it can be psychologically taxing - to find relief.

CATHOLIC women who BELIEVE they’ve committed a sin and ASK for absolution via the confession booth.

I find the idea that you can’t let a woman make her own choice about what to believe for herself, without telling her you find those beliefs offensive, to be...offensive.

It’s not inclusive to you, no.

Hindus and Buddhists don’t like it either.

I honestly read this as the Pope saying “if you’ve had an abortion, you don’t need to walk around feeling like you’re carrying an unforgivable sin for the rest of your life.” Back when I went to confession as a kid, I’d never go into detail about my sins, and I guess I assumed that most women wouldn’t confess their…

i agree. look, in my atheist jew life this has zero impact on me and is eye roll worthy......but to practicing catholics who believe in the pope and his power? it is progress

In theory, you’d be right—in their worldview, the Pope is second from the top of the pyramid, with God at the top. In practice, the Pope has to worry about dissent not only within the church’s cardinals and bishops, but also from internal schism with the general public. It’s funny, if only because leftist dissent is…

And holy crap, I didn’t even think about how this might trickle down into catholic run hospitals! This could make a big fucking difference.

I agree. Like, I get that it would be ideal if he were to come out and say “abortion isn’t murder and so it’s not a sin, also let’s let women do whatever they want with their bodies” but if he did that: 1) A fuck ton of Catholics wouldn’t buy it, 2) He’d lose support and people would ask him to resign.

To a Catholic woman it is a sign of hope in their faith, that their decisions will not keep them from Heaven in their own religion. To the rest of the world, it is seen as Pope Francis demonizing abortion and pointing it out as a sign of shame for women.

The difference there is that I’m sure Hillary Clinton wants nothing to do with Trump’s pardon, but this is something actually useful for some Catholic women. The Pope is addressing them, not women like us who don’t think abortion is a sin in the first place.

From their perspective that a fetus is equal to a human, this is nice. I think if anything we should be making fun of that perspective, instead of their attempts to resolve it with social views that aren’t a couple thousand years old.

Right, well, you’re not a Catholic then, I assume. I bailed out of the church for a lot of reasons — the treatment of women was actually a bigger deciding factor in that decision than my actual atheism. But I cannot see this as anything but a positive. There are a LOT of practicing Catholic women who will be helped by…

In Catholic terms, it is.

I second this sentiment. For those of us who don’t think the way Catholics/Christians/Evangelicals do, this is ridiculous and even offensive. HOWEVER, I know a lot of these people in my life (I was born into a Catholic family, but it was never really my thing, ya know?) and I’ve learned that you simply cannot argue or…

This will also likely save lives, because Catholic women who have been inculcated with the idea that abortion is wrong may be more willing to pursue abortions in situations that threaten their health and life.

I personally think there are multiple time periods, but I don’t think MiB is William. MiB said Maeve breaking her programming to defender her child was the first time he saw something like that. Meanwhile, William is already seeing Dolores do things outside her programming.