Letters

Abortion (letter)

Fr Austin Kenny CP

Contents - Mar 2005 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Pray for John Paul II ... - Peter Westmore Vocations: Australian diocesan seminary numbers continue to increase - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World Cinema: Hollywood's Kinsey whitewash - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Moral divisions among the Christian Churches threaten ecumenism - Archbishop Barry Hickey Dissent: Notes from a theology unit at Australian Catholic University Church's future lies with orthodoxy, not dissent - Fr Paul Stuart Culture: Secularism, not religion, is threatened with extinction - David Quinn Events: Holy Week Celebrations - Classical Roman Rite A young Catholic's encounter with Latin at Chavagnes International College - Alexander Morrison Adult Education: Sydney Centre for Thomistic Studies continues a great teacher's legacy - Audrey English Letters: Priestly celibacy (letter) - Barbara Chigwidden Letters: Overseas priests and racism - Fr Peter Joseph Letters: Reporting abuses is not spying (letter) - Fr Edward P. Evans Letters: Mangled hymns (letter) - Michael Apthorp Letters: Orthodox young priest (letter) - John David Letters: Abortion (letter) - Fr Austin Kenny CP Letters: Leadership needed (letter) - Tom King Letters: AIDS prevention (letter) - Dr Arnold Jago Letters: Bible and Church (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Layman saint Bob Santamaria (letter) - J.W. McMahon Letters: Convert (letter) - Jeff Harvie Letters: Information sought on Kathleen Cecilia Butler (letter) - John G. Brown Letters: Latin Mass (letter) - Alan Freckelton Obituary: The passing of a holy, many-talented Jesuit - Fr Victor Ian Falconer SJ - Michael O'Callaghan Books: DOLLFUSS: An Austrian Patriot, by Fr Johannes Messner - Alice von Hildebrand Books: THE CASTLE OF HEAVENLY BLISS - Michael Gilchrist (reviewer) Books: Books to read in 2005 Reflection: The Holy Trinity and the Church: the truth will set you free - Fr John O'Neill

On 2 February 2005, the question of the termination of life was again raised in the Federal Parliament. During a subsequent interview on the ABC radio news, a scientist stated: "No one has the right to terminate life" and that "life begins at conception." He added that we all have freedom over the life of our own body, but not the right to terminate life either of ourselves or others.

I am prompted to write this letter because the pro-abortion lobby is saying that a woman has the right over her own body, including her unborn child. Nobody has this right - a newly conceived child is another human being.

The world should be made aware that the Church has taught for centuries that any man or woman who terminates life through an abortion commits a grave sin and incurs immediate excommunication from the Church (Catechism, 2272).

But the Church also teaches that both the sin and the excommunication can be forgiven through the Sacrament of Penance.

FR AUSTIN KENNY CP
Port Augusta, SA

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 18 No 2 (March 2005), p. 14