Author: Pete Vere

Please PrayHi folks, my best

Please Pray

Hi folks, my best friend as a child is now in a coma and not expected to last the night. Please keep him in prayer.

Excommunication and AbortionGiven all the

Excommunication and Abortion

Given all the events of the past month, I’ve been doing a lot reflection on the Church’s law concerning those who procure an abortion. I have to be honest. The more I listen to all parties in this debate, the less comfortable I am with the canon that automatically excommunicates any individual who procures an abortion. To explain, in my experience, most of the women who put to death their child in the womb are acting under some sort of emotional, mental and/or psychological duress. The abortion only compounds the problem, and thus what they need in most cases is our help and compassion in coming to grips with the trauma they’ve inflicted on themselves as the reality of having ended the life of their child in the womb sets in. I don’t think canonical censures against these women are helpful or do much to combat the problem.

On the other hand, I don’t reject all use of canonical censures to fight this intrinsic evil. Rather, we need to aim canonical censures where they are due. In my opinion, the Church should toughen and enforce canonical censures (if not excommunication, at least interdict) against so-called “Catholic” politicians, doctors, pregnancy counselors, nurses and lawyers who continue to support and protect the abortion industry for either political or financial gain. This is where, in my humble opinion, canonical censures could have a real effect in bring to an end the culture of death.

Domestic Violence and Choice”Why did

Domestic Violence and Choice

“Why did you have the abortion?” I ask.

The woman sitting across me then breaks down in tears, if she’s not crying already, and tells me a lurid story of domestic violence and extreme physical abuse suffered at the hands of her former husband who did not want the child. I then reach over, stop the tape, and offer the woman a kleenex.

I’ve lost track of how many times this scenario has played out in my office at any diocesan marriage tribunal where I have worked — probably at least half of cases involving an abortion, if my memory serves correctly. And while there are many types of situations to which I’ve hardened over the years, this ain’t one of them. It still breaks my heart when I discover a woman was beaten by her former spouse into killing the couple’s child in the womb. And yet, the feminists would have you believe that abortion is about women having control over their own reproductive systems. They would have you believe that abortion is about choice.

Not in my experience. It never ceases to amaze me how many of these women claim that they were simply dropped off at the abortion clinic, bruised and bloodied, sometimes even with broken bones, after just suffering a terrible beating. And yet, no questions are raised, nobody calls the police, the abortion just proceeds on the spot. Why do we never hear a peep about domestic violence and spousal abuse from the pro-abortion and so-called “choice” crowd when it comes to forced abortion? Strange. It seems that choice and freedom from coercion, often reinforced by violence, doesn’t apply when a woman’s decision is to keep the baby.