Bringing murderers to the Gospel through a process of accompaniment
October 13, 2016 § 13 Comments
Apparently the Polish Episcopal Conference sabotaged the passage of anti-abortion legislation because the legislation treated abortion as if it were a form of murder:
… the Polish Episcopal Conference issued a surprising document, in which it opposed the pro-life reform, because it mandated the punishing of all those persons responsible for conducting an abortion, including women who allow their children to be killed.
…
Despite having the means to simply expunge this section of the Bill and continue to work on it without the penal consequences for women who decide to kill their children, they refrained from doing this. This reflected the position of the Polish Bishops who on the same day decided to reject the Bill in its entirety.
Like Donald Trump the authors of the law made the mistake of taking pro lifers seriously in the contention that abortion is a kind of murder, when in fact the mainstream pro life position in the Current Year[tm] is merely a variation of pro choice. The mainstream pro life position is that the provision of abortion should be restricted and heavily regulated, but women who procure abortions should never face any sort of legal penalty for doing so. Abortion victimizes the perpetrator and is the fault of abusive men; it isn’t a choice made by women who are responsible for their own choices.
The assertion that when a pregnant woman procures an abortion her act should never be treated as a crime simply is the pro choice position. How much and what kind of regulation one thinks there ought to be within the pro choice framework is just variation on the theme: we’ve established what we are and are just haggling over the price.
My own understanding is that abortion is in fact a species of murder and should be legally treated as such. I call my position ‘anti abortion’ to distinguish it from the various pro choice legal doctrines (including the ‘pro life’ variant of pro choice).
Under just positive law, murderers can receive all the spiritual accompaniment and mercy that they need in their cells.
Zippy Catholic 
Can. 1398 A person who procures a completed abortion incurs a latae sententiae excommunication.
At least the Church understands.
[…] Source: Zippy Catholic […]
No – I can certify that no one among the authors had delusions about the actual stance of the pro-lifers in Poland (or anywhere else). Since the beginnings, the authors of the law were working against the majority of pro-life organisations and without any significant help of Polish bishops.
Of course, the Ordo Iuris lawyers aimed to convince the bishops and so-called pro-lifers – they maintained that the proposal fulfills bishop postulate of not punishing women because the law allowed the judges not to penalize women if circumstances suggest so, they published polls, they adjusted language to include “saving women” – all obviously in vain. However, they were very principled regarding punishing the murderesses – at an early stage the majority of pro life organisations withdrew their support over that issue.
The most “radical” of the bishops (mainly those that preside over the episcopal conference) said that although they support outright ban of (assisted) abortion, they will never support punishing women because “Church already solves this issues in the sacrament of reconciliation”, in clear contradiction of “Donum Vitae”. Other bishops are even weaker and were supporting maintenance of current so-called “abortion compromise”. I am curious if the bishops consulted their stance with Rome.
The sole exception I know of is archbishop Andrew Dzięga, who said clearly that “every Catholic not only can, but is obliged to support that project”, and that penalisation of women is a necessary feature of that law.
Poland is, as far as I know, the most (or one of the most) Catholic and orthodox country in the world, judging by declarations, mass participation, usage of sacrament of penance, etc. How dramatic must be the situation elsewhere!
The pro-life movement is corrupted, sadly. It is not pro-life. We will need men more courageous than these to protect our progeny from slaughter, that is for sure. I feel let down by the Polish government who should have passed the bill anyway. They fell for astroturfed Soros protests.
Gee Mark, but abortion is useful for keeping the invaders’ numbers down.
Click to access OJPM_2016061708580294.pdf
Mark,
I hate to bring the bad news, but the government didn’t fall for the protests, they merely treated them as an excuse. The protests amassed in total 17,000 people, whereas protests against some earlier actions of Law and Justice (conserning understood-by-few reforms of Polish equivalent of Supreme Court) gathered 100,000 or more of Soros-sponsored astroturfers and the Government couldn’t care less then.
It is a common knowledge in Poland that the chief members of Law and Justice Party (reigning party) deeply support current abortion compromise (perhaps except for eugenic abortion) and Jarosław Kaczyński, the Party Leader, explicitly stated that both punishing women and even banning abortions in the cases of rape and danger to mother’s life is against his conscience. The second argument, enjoyed by right-liberals in Poland, was that it would cause backslash in future in the form of abortion on demand.
Things were however entirely different for regular Law and Justice’s members of Parliament, who are much more pro-life and most supported the total abortion ban. The law would have passed, as Jarosław Kaczyński wouldn’t dare to stop his party members (he did this in 2007, and this resulted in a split of his party). Most likely, this was the strategy of Ordo Iuris lawyers.
However, the Polish Episcopate has influences on politics in Poland that bishops anywhere else could only dream about (perhaps twice as much as Eastern Orthodox in second in line Greece). With their support, the law would easily pass and could pass even in case of their silence. It couldn’t stand when the bishops approved of rejecting it.
This was the main reason why the majority of the Parliament voted for the law and a week later rejected it in second voting, without discussion, debates or amendments.
I “Like’d” this post, but like is the wrong sentiment.
A celebration of Old Poland might cheer us up:
Zippy, you’re a metal guy, what do you think of Sabotan? They are kind of silly but I do quite enjoy them.
PB, thank you for the video! I haven’t heard Sabaton before and this song is pretty good. But then I found “Burn your crosses”… and I was deeply disappointed, so to say.
BTW, regarding Old Poland (Serenissima Res Publica Poloniae, Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth) – it was perhaps one of the first countries rotten by liberalism, to the point of complete annexation by neighbouring states within the period of a few decades.
Ah. I hadn’t even heard of that one before. Too bad. One of their earlier, lousier songs from what I understand.
PB:
I enjoyed it, a little proggy with a djenty foundation and the voice reminds me a bit of the guy from Disturbed. I’m not especially fond of the high pitched synth sound – kind of Dragonforce without the insane pacing that limits how long you can listen without tuning out or having a heart attack.
Of course even Maiden uses guitar synths these days, and Bruce “you can’t play heavy metal on synthesizers” Dickenson’s 18 minute tribute to the end of the airship era is based on a haunting piano melody with string accompaniment.
https://g.co/kgs/MYEDC8
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