Women who have ab*rtion must be consoled, not punished, says Pope

Abortion is a “terrible’’ drama but women who go through it must
find mercy rather than castigation, Pope Francis said on
Monday.

“To really understand the drama of abortion you have to be in a
confessional, (it is) terrible,’’ Francis told journalists on a
return flight from a six-day visit to Panama.

“In the confessional, you have to offer consolation, not
punishment,’’ he added.

If a woman is tormented by an abortion decision, she should
“talk’’’ to her unborn child and “sing the lullaby (she) could not
sing to him,’’ because the child “is in Heaven,’’ the pope
said.

“There you find a path of reconciliation between the mother and
the (aborted) child. Because God has already forgiven. God always
forgives,’’ Francis said.

During the Panama trip, the pope led a mass in which a young man
denounced abortion as an act of “terrible cruelty,’’ and prayed for
abortion laws around the world “to be erased forever.’’

Francis is widely considered more liberal than his predecessors,
and has said the Catholic Church should focus less on enforcing
doctrine, and more on reaching out to those who stray from it.

For example, he has made it easier for women to seek a pardon
for abortion, giving all priests rather than just bishops the right
to hear such cases and issue absolution.

However, Francis has not changed fundamental church teachings on
family planning.

In October, he said women who opt for abortion are like people
who hire “a hit man to solve a problem.”

(dpa/NAN)