Faith, Reason & the Abortion Heresy

Pope Francis Blasts Both Harris And Trump, Tells US Catholics To ‘Choose Lesser Evil’ – where the Abortion Heresy,  Not unlike the Albigensian heresy, is the Much Bigger Evil

Abortion Heresy

The Church has been attacked by those introducing false teachings, or heresies for 2000 years.

Sacred Scripture  warnerd this would happen. Paul told  Timothy, “For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own likings, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander into myths” (2 Tim. 4:3–4).

The Albigensian heresy is a belief that there are two gods, one good and one evil. One that promotes death and the other one that promotes death. The heresy was popular in Northern Italy and Southern France between the 12th and 14th centuries. Followers of this heresy were called Cathars.

The Church (CCC 2089) teaches that Incredulity is the neglect of revealed truth or the willful refusal to assent to it. “Heresy is the obstinate denial of some truth which must be believed with divine and catholic faith, or it is likewise an obstinate doubt concerning the same; apostasy is the total repudiation of the Christian faith; schism is the refusal of submission to the Roman Pontiff or of communion with the members of the Church subject to him.”

1790) that a human being must always obey the certain judgment of his conscience. If he were deliberately to act against it, he would condemn himself. Yet it can happen that moral conscience remains in ignorance and makes erroneous judgments about acts to be performed or already committed.

(CCC 1791) This ignorance can often be imputed to personal responsibility. This is the case when a man “takes little trouble to find out what is true and good, or when conscience is by degrees almost blinded through the habit of committing sin.” 59 In such cases, the person is culpable for the evil he commits.

According to Pope Francis, science says that a month after conception all of the organs of a human being are there. All of them. Abortion is to kill a human being. You may like the word, or you don’t like it, but it is to kill. … To send away a child from the womb of the mother is an assassination because there is life.

The pope’s remarks came three days after the very first debate between Harris and former President Donald
Trump. He suggested U.S. Catholics to use their conscience – not in ignorance. When Saint Thomas More’s future son-in-law objected to Thomas’ naming Martin Luther a heretic, the latter responded simply, “It’s not a likeable thing, it’s not a likeable word.” Abortion is infanticide. It’s not a likeable thing. It’s not a likeable word.

Peter J. Riga would agree that U.S. Catholics should use their conscience – not in ignorance. He says: The Church’s “teaching on abortion rests on divine revelation. They certainly can disagree with the Catholic Church on abortion, but not as Catholics. This is a hard doctrine, says Scripture, and who can abide it? (In. 6:61). “And they no longer walked with Him” (In 6:66). In an age like ours where Catholics are hounded and branded as right wing fundamentalists, as ignoramuses and as paternalistic and anti-woman for holding to a completely pro-life position on abortion; where the whole culture has become profoundly abortionist with little or no defense of the humanity of the unborn; where Catholics have to pay dearly for holding fast to this teaching (they can only with difficulty, be members of the Democratic Party or the ABA or NOW or even be elected to public office); then each Catholic must make up his/her mind where she will stand on this crucial doctrinal and moral question of our time: with the world or with Christ in his Church.”

Faith and Reason

Faith and reason are not at odd with each other. There is a false but unfortunately common perception that there is a conflict between science and religion. Arguably, the main reason is Propagandists who who want to destroy the Church – this has been going on for 2000 years. With the Christian persecutions during the Roman Empire. The Christian persecutions in China, Japan, Korea and today in Europe, India, the United States and the rest of the world. According to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom’s 2020 report, Christians in Burma, China, Eritrea, India, Iran, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Vietnam are persecuted. The report does not name the United States.
Then there’s also either ego, demagoguery, ignorance or sincere unbelief, such as Steve Jobs or Stephen Hawking.

The Church teaches (CCC 159) that; “Though faith is above reason, there can never be any real discrepancy between faith and reason. The question is explored in much more detail in Bishop Robert Barron’s review of Augustine’s City of God. On the City of God Against the Pagans, often called The City of God, is a book of Christian philosophy written in Latin by Augustine of Hippo in the early 5th century AD. The book was in response to allegations that Christianity brought about the decline of Rome and is considered one of Augustine’s most important works, standing alongside The Confessions, The Enchiridion, On Christian Doctrine, and On the Trinity. As a work of one of the most influential Church Fathers, The City of God is a cornerstone of Western thought, expounding on many questions of theology, such as the suffering of the righteous, the existence of evil, the conflict between free will and divine omniscience, and the doctrine of original sin.

“Faith is not contrary, but rather complementary to
reason. To be sure, this idea is not entirely original with Augustine. In fact, we can get a hint of it already in Plato’s Phaedo, in the words of Simmias before introducing a major objection to Socrates’ argument for the immortality of the soul: “I feel myself (and I dare
say that you have the same feeling) how hard or rather impossible is the attainment of certainty about questions such as these in the present life. And yet I should deem him a coward who did not prove what is said about them to the uttermost, or whose heart failed him before he had examined them on every side. For he should persevere until he has achieved one of two things: either he should discover, or be taught the truth about them;

or, if this be impossible, I would have him take the best and most irrefragable of human theories and let this be the raft upon which he sails through life – not without risk, as I admit, if he cannot find some word of God which will more surely and safely carry him.”

Many lay Catholics have made significant contributions to the development of science and mathematics from the Middle Ages to today. These scientists include Galileo Galilei, René Descartes, Louis Pasteur, Blaise Pascal, André-Marie Ampère, Charles-Augustin de Coulomb, Pierre de Fermat, Antoine Laurent Lavoisier, Alessandro Volta, Augustin-Louis Cauchy, Pierre Duhem, Jean-Baptiste Dumas, Alois Alzheimer, Georgius Agricola and Christian Doppler.p

There is also Catholic clergy throughout history have made contributions to science. These churchmen-scientists include Nicolaus Copernicus, Gregor Mendel, Georges Lemaître, Albertus Magnus, Roger Bacon, Pierre Gassendi, Roger Joseph Boscovich, Marin Mersenne, Bernard Bolzano, Francesco Maria Grimaldi, Nicole Oresme, Jean Buridan, Robert Grosseteste, Christopher Clavius, Nicolas Steno, Athanasius Kircher, Giovanni Battista Riccioli, and William of Ockham. The Catholic Church has also produced many lay scientists and mathematicians.

And plenty of documentation on faith an science, such as Feast of St. Dominic (August 80m⁰: Patron Saint of Scientists and the Symbiotic Relationship between Faith and Science, The Paris 2024 Ceremony, Mimetic Art & Saint Alphonsus Liguori, Moralist and Doctor of the Church, Free Markets, Creativity, Art, Fake Art and Genuine Art, Christianity is Counter-intuitive, in Harmony with Faith & Reason, Steve Jobs Was Wrong: Death, AI & the Algorithm of Life, AI as the New Tower of Babel aka Google’s Gemini, Magis Center for Reason and Faith, The Catholic Laborator, BioLogos Foundation, God and Science, Stacy Trasancos Blog, God of Evolution, Quantum Theology Blog, Wikipedia List of Christian Thinkers in Science, Wikipedia List of Jesuit Scientists, Wikipedia List of Quaker Scientists.

How to Respond to Heresy

We are called to (1) Identify false ideas.

“If you don’t read the newspapers, you are uniformed. If you do read them, you are misinformed.” -Mark Twain

 and (2) Publicly expose those who are either living by or teaching others these ideas – just like Focus on the Family’s Jim Daly calling out ABC’s moderators.  

1 Timothy 1:18-20
This command I entrust to you, Timothy, my son, in accordance with the prophecies previously made concerning you, that by them you may fight the good fight, keeping faith and a good conscience, which some have rejected and suffered shipwreck in regard to their faith. Among these are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered over to Satan, so that they may be taught not to blaspheme.

Combating the Abortion Heresy requires following the model of Saint Dominic, Patron Saint of Scientists:  Walk the talk, as opposed to those preaching about global warming, while exponentially increasing their own carbon footprint

To combat the Albigensian heresy, instead of debating, Dominic patiently listened then simply shared the truths of the Catholic Faith. Determined to combat the heresies, Dominic began preaching throughout the region. He embraced a life of poverty, traveling barefoot and relying on the charity of others, just as the Apostles had. His humility and knowledge drew others to his cause, and soon a small group of men joined him, committed to living simply and preaching the Gospel.

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