The special is only available to those who make the pilgrimage to Spain.
The Vatican’s World Youth Day in Madrid is offering a salvation special this year. In addition to the usual fare of processions, communions, a sermon from Pope Benedict XVI and group prayers, this year the Catholic Church is offering “special” forgiveness for anyone who confesses to having had an abortion.
As pointed out by the Guardian yesterday, abortion is usually a sin that the church punishes by excommunication.
“Normally, only certain priests have the power to lift such an excommunication, but the local diocese has decided to give all the priests taking confession at the event this power,” said the pope’s spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi.
To prepare for the onslaught of pilgrims, the church has set up 200 confession booths on Buen Retiro park that will stay up for the rest of the week.
As reported by the Huffington Post, the archdiocese in Madrid posted a statement online stating, “This (concession) is to make it easier for the faithful who attend the World Youth Day celebrations to obtain the fruits of divine grace.”
For believers who are steeped in guilt and fear of hell from having an abortion, the offer will surely offer some psychic relief. But only allowing “special concessions” to those who make the pilgrimage is unfairly exclusive. What does this mean for believers who have had abortions but can’t afford to make the trip to Madrid? Are their souls still destined for the flames of hell?
The white pop-up confession booths don’t help, either. Here in the U.S., we’ve heard heated political debates surrounding abortion rights in recent months. In an effort to staunch funding for Planned Parenthood, some Christian lawmakers have referred to the non-profit as “Big Abortion” and implied that Planned Parenthood offers lunch-time abortion specials where girls and women drop by the local branch to terminate pregnancies with the same urgency and seriousness they might feel when getting a pedicure.
For anyone who has had an abortion or is close to someone who has, this is an outrageously offensive, trivialized depiction of Planned Parenthood’s services.
Now, hearing that 200 confession booths have been erected in Madrid for special soul-saving, I can’t help but think it’s the church that is trivializing the emotional and spiritual side of abortion after burdening Catholic youths worldwide with their unrealistic version of morality.
What’s more, these “special forgiveness” rules, which appear to be a ploy to attract young people to the church, show how arbitrary that “morality” is: how can something be an excommunicable sin, except when it’s on special? How confusing is that?
World Youth Day, not Planned Parenthood, is probably as close to a real world incarnation of “Big-Abortion” as we’re likely to see.
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