The 21st-century ‘saint’ you’ve never heard of
Fr John Lee Tae-soek was once so scared of lepers that he hid from them, but he became their champion...check out the full article that I wrote for The Catholic Herald here.
The precise reason Padre Pio refused absolution to a woman who had an abortion and why he eventually granted her absolution
Throughout my adult life I've been surrounded by young female friends who tell me that they view me as a Latin Mass Catholic who takes sin and the sin of abortion in particular too seriously. They wear rictus smiles and claim it's not really so dire a sin when a woman employs a doctor to slaughter the little one inside her because she wants to prioritise her career or doesn't want a child with her current boyfriend. Or they reiterate the reason that I heard from the lips of hundreds of women when I was with them during their crisis pregnancies: that they can have a baby and provide for one, but they do not feel ready.
In response I have often tried to defend the Church's teachings on the gravity of abortion as a mortal sin by reminding my coffee companions and colleagues that Padre Pio took the sin of abortion so deathly seriously that he was known to have refused absolution if a penitent confessed to having had an abortion.
While this has led to the smiles melting fro…
In response I have often tried to defend the Church's teachings on the gravity of abortion as a mortal sin by reminding my coffee companions and colleagues that Padre Pio took the sin of abortion so deathly seriously that he was known to have refused absolution if a penitent confessed to having had an abortion.
While this has led to the smiles melting fro…
Thanks for an interesting and inspiring article.
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