Life Begins At Conception?

[Paladin D]

[b]Ironmonk[/b], cool off with the personal attacks.

[ironmonk]

[quote name='Good Friday' date='Sep 3 2004, 01:22 PM'] Although I've put this in the Debate Table, I don't intend it for debate . . . it's really more of a question.

Does the church or does it not definitively teach that life begins at conception? I've always thought that it did, but now I'm not so sure. It appears that life beginning at conception has only been taught since 1869, so I would like someone to explain to me why . . .

1. In the fifth century, St. Augustine taught that the penance for abortion was that of sexual sin and not murder (St. Augustine, [i]De nuptiis et concupiscentia[/i])?

2. The Irish Canons placed the penalty of abortion at 3 1/2 years and the penalty for illicit sex at seven years (John T. McNeill and Helena M. Gamer, [i]Medieval Handbooks of Penance[/i], pgs. 119-120)?

3. In 1140 Gratian's code of canon law taught that "abortion was homicide only when the fetus was formed" -- which is not at conception (John T. Noonan, ed., [i]The Morality of Abortion: Legal and Historical Perspectives[/i], pg. 20)?

4. The Council of Vienne confirmed St. Thomas Aquinas' teaching that hominization (the point at which an unborn becomes a human person) is delayed and is not at conception (Joseph F. Dunceel, S.J., "Immediate Animation and Delayed Hominization," [i]Theological Studies[/i], vols. 1 & 2, pgs. 86-88)?

5. Pope Sixtus V, in his bull [i]Effraenatam[/i], was the first to apply the penalty for homicide, excommunication, to abortion in 1588 ([i]Codicis iuris fontes[/i], ed. P. Gasparri, vol. 1, pg. 308)?

6. Pope Gregory XIV overturned that penalty in [i]Sedes Apostolica[/i], which advised church officials, "where no homicide or no animated fetus is involved, not to punish more strictly than the sacred canons or civil legislation does" and why this pronouncement lasted until 1869 (Ibid., pgs. 330-331)?

7. The first implicit endorsement of immediate hominization came from Pope Pius IX in 1869 in [i]Apostolicae Sedis[/i] when he reinstated the excommunication penalty? [/quote]
The Catholic Church's teaching on abortion has remained the same for 2,000 years.

The oldest catechism of the church, the Didache, written about 90 A.D., declares "You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish.''

Ref: [url="http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm"]http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/0714.htm[/url]

The Second Vatican Council and most recent Catechism of the Catholic Church states the same teaching.

Throughout 2,000 years, the Catholic Church has taught consistently that abortion is a crime against our own humanity as well as a grave moral disorder.

Ref: [url="http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sect2chpt2art5.htm#2270"]http://www.usccb.org/catechism/text/pt3sec...t2art5.htm#2270[/url]



There was no personal attack, I simply made an observation.


God Bless,
ironmonk

[phatcatholic]

the question has been aswered, Good Friday knows where to post questions, this thread is done