Exclusive Interview with Cardinal Ratzinger: the man who would become Pope



Ten years after it was first filmed, EWTN have released an encore of a historic interview that it did with the then Cardinal Ratzinger.

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The precise reason Padre Pio refused absolution to a woman who had an abortion and why he eventually granted her absolution

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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.
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The doctors' union admits that pro-life medics face discrimination and harassment

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The British Medical Association has given written evidence to members of Parliament that confirms pro-life doctors face pressure to take part in abortions, and discrimination if they do not comply.  There is a full and detailed report by Simon Caldwell, which I urge everyone to read. 
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Are you a Catholic who uses social networking sites or blogs? Then this is for you…

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Find it, underneath the text.  It’s your invitation to the Guild Meeting.

Every Catholic who blogs and/or uses the new media is very welcome to come along. One of my happiest memories, so far, of 2012, was the 18th of February, the date of our last Guild meeting, held in Blackfen.

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