The Church has always taught that human life deserves respect from its very beginning and that procured abortion is a grave moral evil. In the Middle Ages, uninformed and inadequate theories about embryology led some theologians to speculate that specifically human life capable of receiving an immortal soul may not exist until a few weeks into pregnancy. While in canon law these theories led to a distinction in penalties between very early and later abortions, the Church’s moral teaching never justified or permitted abortion at any stage of development.
These mistaken biological theories became obsolete over 150 years ago when scientists discovered that a new human individual comes into being from the union of sperm and egg at fertilization. In keeping with this modern understanding, the Church has long taught that from the time of conception (fertilization), each member of the human species must be given the full respect due to a human person, beginning with respect for the fundamental right to life.
(Via American Papist)
As an aside, you've got to find it ironic that the Bishops are both repudiating the philisophical
and theological teachings of both St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas and then justify said repudiation by appeals to modern understanding and science.
Does my finding of irony mean I disagree with the Bishops, no, I'm not pro-Abortion, but it does raise some questions. Sphere: Related Content
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