Durban - A step in the right direction. That is how South African clergy and theologians have responded to a decision by Pope Francis to extend permission to Catholic priests worldwide to absolve women who have undergone abortions.
Clergymen believe that Pope Francis' latest reformist step, which includes health workers, ushered in a new wave of thinking for the Catholic Church.
While emphasising that it was a grave sin to “end an innocent life”, Pope Francis this week extended the special permission he had granted to serving priests during the just-ended Holy Year of Mercy to absolve the sin of abortion.
In a 10-page letter, Pope Francis said: “There is no sin that God’s mercy cannot reach and wipe away when it finds a repentant heart seeking to be reconciled.”
Ntate Mothoagae, a theologian at the University of South Africa, said the pope’s decision was part of his wider agenda of changing centuries-held attitudes of the church.
“With this, Pope Francis has made it clear that the church has to move away from exclusivity to inclusivity. Essentially, what he is saying is that the church has to get itself dirty and that the bishops and the clergy must move towards smelling like sheep and not mere herders,” he said.
Mothoage said Pope Francis would go down in history as a reformist who radically changed centuries of church dogma.
He said the Catholic Church had for centuries viewed abortion as a “mortal sin” that, if committed, would send a person to hell.
“One gets the sense from his letter that this is a man who experienced hardship as a young priest and later as a cardinal. You get it from the way he writes; he wants to renew the church from clericalism towards a church for the people.
“He does not want the church to judge people and women for abortion as there may have been many instances that forced people to do what they did. He is saying, and this is very important, that Christ would have shown mercy,” Mothoage said.
Father Christopher Hlengwa, of the Our Lady of Grace Catholic Church in uMlazi, said those who had sinned and asked for forgiveness must be forgiven.
He said this year was the year for forgiveness in the Catholic Church and said Pope Francis's call was in line with the theme.
Asked how women who had had abortions were received at the church, he said: “That is not easy to say because that is the business of the person who has done that and only they know they have done it. We must forgive them when they come forward, because no matter what you have done, when you have sinned and you come forward and plead for forgiveness, we must forgive.”
Father Brett Williams, chancellor of the Archdiocese of Durban, said the announcement by the pope was an extension to a privilege that had been made for the Jubilee Year, which ended at the weekend.
But Williams said the Catholic Church in Durban and in South Africa had been receptive to forgiving women who aborted and confessed their sins in private confessions.
“We have always had the faculty to forgive. Cardinal (Wilfred) Napier has always given us that right and I have been a priest for 11 years and we have been allowed to (forgive),” he said.
Williams said the move by Pope Francis was to help those who were suffering.
“The matter (of abortions) does come up in confessions, it is a sin that is confessed. It is confessed every now and again. This move is positive, the church is trying to help people where they are so they can deal with the challenges of their lives,” he said.
Williams said the challenges with abortion and forgiveness were mostly in Europe where it was not common practice to accept forgiveness of women during confessions.
He said it was not possible to quantify how widespread abortion confessions were and said the church respected that.
However, Debbie Harrison, the services and training manager at Gender Links, which advocates for equality and justice, said that while the new church thinking was a step in the right direction, it did not go far enough.
“From a Gender Links' perspective, we have fought very hard for women to have the right to, among others, the termination of pregnancies - women are legally entitled to that.
“From a woman’s perspective, especially one who may come from the Catholic Church, we do understand that this has posed enormous internal conflict and if a woman can make peace with her religion, that is okay,” she said.
Harrison said the decision to terminate pregnancies by women was difficult, but society had to respect their choices.
“It is not physically or psychologically good for women to have a number of terminations as it poses other problems for the future, but it is a distressing process and women must be offered other alternatives for prevention of pregnancies,” she said.
“Women must be able to make their own choices; from the perspective of a woman and as a feminist, it is a step in the right direction, but not far enough,” she said.
Daily News