"Some men you just can't reach"

Thanks to Mike Brummond for sharing this


Quick background - some sins are "reserved to Rome" meaning a priest can not simply absolve those particular sins in the confessional right away.  In cases were these "reserved sins" are confessed, I am to write a letter to Rome (leaving the person's name out of the letter) asking for permission to absolve a particular sin.  Rome then writes a letter back granting me that permission, and then the person comes back to the confessional and I can then absolve that sin for that person.  

Abortion is a sin that isn't reserved all the way to Rome, but it IS reserved to the local bishop, although the bishop CAN just give his priests the ability to forgive the sin of abortion immediately in the confessional.

This is MSNBC's headline today when news broke that the Pope has extended to ALL priests the ability to absolve the sin of abortion directly, WITHOUT having to write to their bishop each time.  

In the Archdiocese of Indianapolis we have always had that ability delegated to us priests, so this announcement doesn't affect us anyways, but there are dioceses where priests did not have the ability to absolve the sin of abortion.

Long story short, the headline should say something like "Pope permits priests to absolve the sin of abortion"

but according to MSNBC the Pope and priest "allow abortion", and abortion is also a "Catholic sin"????