Abortion Essay - The Church Was Pro-Choice -- Argumentative Persuasive

The Church Until Recently Was Pro-Choice From a sermon delivered on February 15, 1998 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, by the Rev. Elaine Gallagher Gehrmann Most of us know that the Roman Catholic church teaches that flavour begins at conception, and yet most of us dont know that this is a relatively recent change. It wasnt until 1869 that Pope Pius IX decreed that en reasonment takes place at conception. Up until then, the Catholic church had taught that life begins at 40 days gestation period for a male and 80 days for a female, and therefore abortions forward those 40 or 80 day periods were not viewed as murder. (Gehrmann) The supra claim that before 1869 the Catholic Church did not oppose abortion and the sometimes accompanying claim that Catholic theology held that the father provided the soul to the fetus are both false. Further, the allegation that the Catholic Church which has consistently opposed contraception would be indifferent to induced abortion moldiness be considered suspect on its face. By way of background St. capital of Minnesota in his epistle to the Galatians uses the Greek word pharmakeia in condemning the effects of indulgence which place include abortion and other uses of drugs with magical or abuse intent. The first recorded explicit Catholic opposition to abortion can be found in the Didache (written circa 80 AD). Though it was not include in the Canon of the Bible, the Didache condemned abortion as the way of death by men who are killers of children. The letter of Barnabas written around 140 AD also condemned abortion Thou shalt not kill the fetus by an abortion or commit infanticide. (Jurgens) St. posterior Chrysostom, one of the Greek... ...omas. Treatise on Man. Summa Theologica. headway 90. Gehrmann, Elaine Gallagher. Sermon delivered on February 15, 1998 at the Unitarian Universalist Church of Urbana-Champaign, Illinois. http//www.rcrc.org/ legitimate/roevwade29.htm Jurgens, William A. The Faith of the Early Fathers. N.p. Liturgical machinate, 1998. McHugh, John, O.P., and Charles J. Callahan, O.P. Translation and Notes -- Catechism of the Council of Trent for Parish Priests. 11th edition. New York Joseph F. Wagner, Inc., 1949. Noonan, John A. Jr. editor. The Morality of Abortion Legal and Historical Perspectives, Cambridge, Massachusetts Harvard University Press,1970. -- -- -- . contraceptive method A History of Its Treatment by the Catholic Theologians and Canonists. Cambridge, Massachusetts Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press, 1966.