The Christian Post > Fri, Aug. 19 2011 04:09 PM EDT

Sin of Abortion to be Absolved by Madrid Priests During Papal Visit

By Vincent Funaro | Christian Post Contributor

(Reuters/Susana Vera)

Pope Benedict XVI waves as he leaves after participating in the Way of the Cross ceremony with young people as part of the World Youth Day festivities in central Madrid, August 19, 2011. Pope Benedict denounced economic structures that put profits ahead of people on Thursday at the start of a trip to recession-hit Spain where the costs of the pontiff's visit have sparked violent protests.

Priests in Madrid have been given the authority to grant absolution to women who confess to having an abortion and allow them back into the Church. The authority has reportedly been granted during the pope’s visit to Spain’s capital city, according to CNN.

The Vatican usually only permits certain priests the power to grant absolution of the sin of abortion and to lift excommunications, but it has now been given to all priests in Madrid, according to a Vatican spokesman.

“All the priests that are administering the sacrament of confession during World Youth Day have the general authority to give absolution from the penalty of excommunication for abortion if someone comes to confession….if someone has this need,” said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi to CNN, referring to the event that that brought Pope Benedict XVI to Madrid for a four-day visit.

The announcement came via the archdiocese’s website and was given by Madrid Archbishop Antonio Maria Rouco Varela. He stated this authority was extended to more priests in the hope that “all of the faithful who attend the celebrations of the 26th World Youth Day in Madrid can more easily attain the fruits of divine grace, that the doors to a new life open for them.”

The Church has 200 confessional booths set up in a Madrid park for priests to hear confessions in.

Varela said to CNN that the Roman Catholic Church “has conferred to all the priests legitimately approved to hear sacramental confessions, who are in the archdiocese of Madrid during August 15 to 22, the delegated power to remit during the sacrament of penance the excommunication… corresponding to the sin abortion, to the faithful who are truly sorry, imposing at the same time a convenient penance.”

The Vatican often extends authority to priests to absolve believers of certain sins and lift excommunications during big papal events, according to Lombardi. He also stated that any woman who belongs to the Church, and knows that abortion is a sin, automatically gets excommunicated if they abort a child.

“This is not only for women,” Lombardi said. “If a man has given the pressure on the women to do an abortion then he’s guilty in the same way.”

This authority is only extended to priests who are in the Madrid archdiocese for World Youth Day festivities, according to a spokesman for the Catholic Church in Spain.

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