Q. In a recent reply, you essentially condemn suicide bombers to Hell. However, if a person really believes in the righteousness of something strong enough to die for it, even if it is objectively evil, is he not acting in good conscience? The Church has never declared that a particular person is in Hell, not even Judas. — T.F.B., California.
A. True, the Church has never declared that any particular person is in Hell, and we did not “essentially condemn suicide bombers to Hell.” What we said was that it is possible for a suicide bomber “to repent sincerely of his evil deed” in the moment before he carries out the deed, but we deemed that possibility to be unlikely — not impossible, but unlikely.
We also find it hard to believe that such a person could be acting in good conscience because of the premeditation leading up to the bombing and because the objective evil of destroying innocent lives should be obvious even to the most dedicated Jihadist. But ultimately, of course, it will be up to God to decide the eternal destiny of suicide bombers.
Q. I recall that to commit a mortal sin three things are necessary. They are grievous matter, sufficient reflection, and full consent of the will. Christ is the only one who can judge sufficient reflection and full consent of the will. Therefore, He is the only one who can judge whether a sin is mortal or not. . . . Being pro-abortion is certainly a grievous matter, so we feel that those in favor of abortion do commit sin.
However, the Catholic bishops failed to condemn Catholic politicians who were pro-abortion. This serious lapse opened the door for Catholics favoring abortion to rationalize their views. However, since Christ is the only one who knows what goes on in our minds, we have no way of knowing just how serious they sin. This also goes for Muslims who senselessly shoot up people and to suicide [bombers] as well. — J.B.H., Utah.
A. You have stated the three conditions for mortal sin correctly, and you are right about Christ being the only one who can judge the reflection and consent involved in the commission of a grave evil. However, we disagree when you say that Catholic bishops have failed to condemn Catholic politicians promoting abortion. Granted, not all bishops have spoken as clearly and frequently as they should have on this vital matter of human life, but the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has not minced words regarding those who claim they can be Catholic and still favor abortion.
For example, in their 2015 statement Forming Consciences for Faithful Citizenship, the U.S. bishops said that “a Catholic cannot vote for a candidate who favors a policy promoting an intrinsically evil act, such as abortion, euthanasia, assisted suicide, deliberately subjecting workers or the poor to subhuman living conditions, redefining marriage in ways that violate its essential meaning, or racist behavior, if the voter’s intent is to support that position. In such cases, a Catholic would be guilty of formal cooperation in grave evil” (n. 34).
More recently, in February, Bishop Edward Scharfenberger of Albany, N.Y., criticized three Catholic lawmakers who attended pro-Planned Parenthood rallies. “While any judgment of these individuals’ hearts or souls is left only to God,” he said, “I am entrusted with the solemn duty of reminding them of the unambiguous teaching of our Faith on the matter of abortion, informing them that it is inappropriate and confusing to the faithful to hold yourself out publicly as a Catholic while also promoting abortion.”
Earlier this month, after two Catholic legislators in New Mexico cited their religious faith in support of their opposition to measures that would have restricted abortion, five Catholic bishops in the state — two retired and three active — said that they “are concerned by public statements by some legislators that seem to say that a faithful Catholic can support abortion or doctor-assisted suicide. This misrepresents Church teaching and creates a public scandal for the faithful. Furthermore, this action publicly separates a person from communion with the Catholic Faith.”
The prelates said that “proclaiming and living the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the most effective way to change hearts and minds so that one day the scourge of abortion will be eliminated. Our message is consistent: All human life is sacred, from the moment of conception to natural death, and must be protected.”
Q. Last year I suffered a debilitating case of shingles. The effects are still with me. It’s my own fault, some say, since I refused the shingles shot having learned that it was made from fetal cells. Would it have been wrong for me to get that shot? — C.A.L., Arizona.
A. Briefly, the Church teaches that one should not use vaccines that come from cell lines derived from the tissue of aborted babies, but should ask doctors to use already existing vaccines that do not come from morally tainted sources. However, if only morally problematic vaccines are available, one may use them if the cell lines go back many decades and are so remote in time that a person concerned about the gravity of the diseases involved who uses these vaccines is not guilty of immoral cooperation in abortion. The pharmaceutical companies, not the person, are guilty of cooperating in the evil of abortion.
In a 2005 Vatican document entitled Moral Reflections on Vaccines Prepared From Cells Derived From Aborted Human Fetuses, which dealt primarily with vaccines for children, the Pontifical Academy for Life said that “there is a grave responsibility to use alternative vaccines and to make a conscientious objection with regard to those which have moral problems.”
If there are not alternative vaccines, the document said that “the lawfulness of the use of these vaccines should not be misinterpreted as a declaration of the lawfulness of their production, marketing, and use, but is to be understood as being a passive material cooperation and, in its mildest and remotest sense…[is] morally justified as an extrema ratio [extreme reason] due to the necessity to provide for the good of one’s children and of the people who come in contact with the children [pregnant women].”
Q. Two questions: 1) What are the correct positions for the hands of the laity during the celebration of Mass? It is very common to see laypeople holding hands during the Our Father or extending their hands upward during other parts of the Mass. 2) Please explain the “internal forum” as it pertains to moral theology. — Name Withheld, Texas.
A. 1) While both gestures are widespread today, neither one is recognized as an official part of the liturgy.
2) The phrase “internal forum” refers in general to the realm of conscience, as opposed to the laws and judicial procedures that constitute the external forum. In marriage cases, it applies to divorced and remarried Catholics who are “subjectively certain in conscience” that their first marriage was not valid and that they are allowed to receive the Holy Eucharist while living with their second spouse. While this topic has gained more popularity in the wake of Pope Francis’ exhortation Amoris Laetitia, it remains contrary to the teaching of Christ and His Church.
Writing in Familiaris Consortio, Pope St. John Paul II clearly stated why this theory is wrong:
“The Church affirms her practice, which is based upon Sacred Scripture, of not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried. They are unable to be admitted thereto from the fact that their state and condition of life objectively contradict that union of love between Christ and the Church which is signified and effected by the Eucharist. Besides this, there is another special pastoral reason: If these people were admitted to the Eucharist, the faithful would be led into error and confusion regarding the Church’s teaching about the indissolubility of marriage” (n. 84).
The Holy Father said that the only way divorced and remarried Catholics could receive Holy Communion would be by taking on themselves “the duty to live in complete continence, that is, by abstinence from the acts proper to married couples.”
He said that such couples are not separated from the Church, but should still attend Mass, persevere in prayer, contribute to works of charity, bring up their children in the Catholic faith, and “cultivate the spirit and practice of penance and thus implore, day by day, God’s grace.”
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