Presenter Information

Claire KosewicFollow

Start Date

11-12-2019 9:10 AM

Description

Few issues define and divide the Catholic Church as much as the issue of abortion. From elderly women setting up dolls of partially-developed fetuses at Confirmation retreats for 13-year-olds to community-organized celebrations of the sanctity of human life, it is impossible to live in a Catholic community and not hear about the issue of abortion. In his 1968 papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), Pope Paul VI wrote, “we are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and above all, direct abortion...are to be absolutely excluded as lawful.” Yet not all practicing Roman Catholics nor Roman Catholic theologians agree with Paul VI that a doctrinal basis for the prohibition of abortion exists. In fact, the non-governmental lobbying organization Catholics for Choice believes that “Catholic tradition supports a woman’s moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health.”

This research will explore the Catholic Church’s complex relationship with the contraception debate, an issue presented as a human rights violation (the termination of a fetus violates that individual’s right to life), that paradoxically retains a disturbing paneer of the oppression of women’s rights and freedoms.

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Mentor: Mairead Sullivan

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Dec 11th, 9:10 AM

Pro-Choice Catholicism: Can a Pro-Choice Interpretation of Catholic Doctrine Exist?

Few issues define and divide the Catholic Church as much as the issue of abortion. From elderly women setting up dolls of partially-developed fetuses at Confirmation retreats for 13-year-olds to community-organized celebrations of the sanctity of human life, it is impossible to live in a Catholic community and not hear about the issue of abortion. In his 1968 papal encyclical Humanae Vitae (On Human Life), Pope Paul VI wrote, “we are obliged once more to declare that the direct interruption of the generative process already begun, and above all, direct abortion...are to be absolutely excluded as lawful.” Yet not all practicing Roman Catholics nor Roman Catholic theologians agree with Paul VI that a doctrinal basis for the prohibition of abortion exists. In fact, the non-governmental lobbying organization Catholics for Choice believes that “Catholic tradition supports a woman’s moral and legal right to follow her conscience in matters of sexuality and reproductive health.”

This research will explore the Catholic Church’s complex relationship with the contraception debate, an issue presented as a human rights violation (the termination of a fetus violates that individual’s right to life), that paradoxically retains a disturbing paneer of the oppression of women’s rights and freedoms.