Isn’t it ironic, doncha think? While I was surfing the web, searching for info on what the various churches teach about abortion and other pro-life issues, I stumbled across this page: Historical abortion beliefs of the Christian church. (That’s not the title showing on the page, but it’s in the title bar in the browser.) And, of course, they trot out the fact that at one time there were those in the Catholic Church who speculated as to exactly when the soul might begin to inhabit the body. But they weren’t trying to decide whether or not that would affect whether or not abortion is a sin, but only the gravity of the sin which it was certainly considered to be.

What’s so ironic about that, you say? Well, nothing. About that. What was ironic, though, was that the whole time I was reading about how the Catholic Church has consistently taught down through the centuries that abortion is a sin (and a grave one at that), the article page displayed a banner advertising abortion up to 24 weeks. The abortion pill is available from the abortionist, too. (At least they’re honest about it being an abortion pill, gotta give ’em that.)

As to the reason I’m researching what the churches teach about pro-life issues, it all goes back to some (okay, many!) conversations I’ve had with my dad, who insists that a fetus is just a bunch of cells because he doesn’t know when the soul enters into it. Good Lord, I say, if you don’t know, then all the more reason to err on the side of caution! And when I pointed out to him that his church used to be pro-life, he simply shrugs his shoulders and says, Oh, well.

Argh! That indifference is incomprehensible to me. Absolutely incomprehensible. I just don’t get it. I’ve prayed for him. Evidently I need to pray a whole lot harder and a whole lot longer and add a whole lot of mortification along with it. Oy.

(In case you’re wondering just exactly what the Church does teach on pro-life issues, here’s a link to the page on the Fifth Commandment in the Catechism from the Vatican website. I think it’s abundantly clear that the Catholic Church says No! to abortion, euthanasia and other crimes against life. Maybe they’re not considered crimes by the secular society of the moment, but they’ve always been crimes in the eyes of Christians. And they are still crimes in the eyes of the Catholic Church.)