Missionaries Of Mercy

Pope Francis is talking again. Why does anyone pay attention?

Pope to Ease Way for Forgiving 'Sin of Abortion' in Holy Year:

Pope Francis has decreed that priests may absolve women of the "sin of a procured abortion" during the Holy Year next year, The Washington Post reported.

Ordinarily, only bishops or the Pope himself can absolve people of the sin of abortion, which leads to excommunication from the Catholic Church. The move will empower priests to pardon women for having an abortion, while the Vatican will be sending out "missionaries of mercy" across the world.

"The missionaries of mercy are priests sent out by the Holy Father at the beginning of Lent. The Pope is sending them out [to dioceses and parishes] as a tangible sign of how a priest should be a man of pardon, close to everyone," Archbishop Rino Fisichella, the president of the Pontifical Council for the New Evangelization and the Pope's point man on the organization of Holy Year, according to The Irish Times.

Fisichella said that the absolution would be extended not only to women who had gotten an abortion, but also to doctors and health workers who had performed it.

The move would be significant given that the United Nations has previously condemned the church for excommunicating the mother and doctor of a 9-year-old girl who had an abortion in Brazil in 2009 after she was raped by her stepfather and became pregnant with twins, the Daily Mail reported.

Is this supposed to be some kind of progress? Catholics still consider abortion a sin. What has changed here? Before the pope made this statement Catholic women who considered abortion a sin probably went to confession, and they probably were surprised that their priest could not absolve them. Will there now be a run on Catholic confessionals of Catholic women thinking "Oh goodie, now I can be saved"?

If there is anything that should be considered sacred, it is the human female body. Without it the human race would cease to exist. None of us, including the pope, would be here. Yes, the pope's parents had sex! Why does the male Catholic hierarchy insist on treating women like crap?

Catholics believe some strange things. What of all the Catholic women who have had an abortion, but died before Pope Francis changed the rules of absolution? Are they in hell? What of all the women who have had an abortion and are not Catholic? Are they all going to hell?

Is a sin still a sin if you can be absolved of it? The Catholic Church has their opinion of this, and it doesn't make much sense to me. A person could be the most evil person on Earth during his lifetime and be absolved of sin just before he dies and go to heaven. Another person could live a saintly existence yet not believe in the Catholic God, and he goes to hell. I can't understand that.

Some think that Pope Francis cares about climate change. I'm with those who think that he does not. If he really cared about climate change he would support population control, which means he would support birth control and abortion. He cares more about dogma than he cares about the Earth. The Earth is often referred to as Mother Earth. Perhaps this is why the Pope doesn't think it deserves any real respect.

After the "Holy Year" do things go back to the way they were before?

Why are the missionaries of mercy all men?

Why does anyone think that an unmarried celibate man is an authority on women's reproductive health?