The softer position of Bishop Fisichella created a wave of articles and editorials—especially in Latin America—claiming that the Church had allegedly “softened” its position on abortion. The article was even used by pro-abortion activists in Nicaragua who were trying to reverse a ban on all forms of abortion.
In response to the Fisichella letter, the CDF says it received several letters, “including some from top personalities of political and ecclesiastic life, that have informed us of the confusion created.”
“In that regard, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith reconfirms that the Church’s doctrine on procured abortion has not changed and cannot change. Such doctrine has been expressed in numbers 2270-2273 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”
The CDF document quotes the numerals in its entirety:
2270: Human life must be respected and protected absolutely from the moment of conception. From the first moment of his existence, a human being must be recognized as having the rights of a person - among which is the inviolable right of every innocent being to life.
"Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you."
“My frame was not hidden from you, when I was being made in secret, intricately wrought in the depths of the earth."
2271: Since the first century the Church has affirmed the moral evil of every procured abortion. This teaching has not changed and remains unchangeable. Direct abortion, that is to say, abortion willed either as an end or a means, is gravely contrary to the moral law:
"You shall not kill the embryo by abortion and shall not cause the newborn to perish."
God, the Lord of life, has entrusted to men the noble mission of safeguarding life, and men must carry it out in a manner worthy of themselves. Life must be protected with the utmost care from the moment of conception: abortion and infanticide are abominable crimes.
2272: Formal cooperation in an abortion constitutes a grave offense. The Church attaches the canonical penalty of excommunication to this crime against human life. "A person who procures a completed abortion incurs excommunication latae sententiae," "by the very commission of the offense," and subject to the conditions provided by Canon Law. The Church does not thereby intend to restrict the scope of mercy. Rather, she makes clear the gravity of the crime committed, the irreparable harm done to the innocent who is put to death, as well as to the parents and the whole of society.
2273: The inalienable right to life of every innocent human individual is a constitutive element of a civil society and its legislation:
"The inalienable rights of the person must be recognized and respected by civil society and the political authority. These human rights depend neither on single individuals nor on parents; nor do they represent a concession made by society and the state; they belong to human nature and are inherent in the person by virtue of the creative act from which the person took his origin. Among such fundamental rights one should mention in this regard every human being's right to life and physical integrity from the moment of conception until death."
"The moment a positive law deprives a category of human beings of the protection which civil legislation ought to accord them, the state is denying the equality of all before the law. When the state does not place its power at the service of the rights of each citizen, and in particular of the more vulnerable, the very foundations of a state based on law are undermined. . . . As a consequence of the respect and protection which must be ensured for the unborn child from the moment of conception, the law must provide appropriate penal sanctions for every deliberate violation of the child's rights."
The CDF says that “Pope John Paul II has reaffirmed such doctrine with his authority as Supreme Pastor of the Church; and quotes the encyclical “Evangelium vitae”: 'by the authority which Christ conferred upon Peter and his Successors, in communion with the Bishops—who on various occasions have condemned abortion and who in the aforementioned consultation, albeit dispersed throughout the world, have shown unanimous agreement concerning this doctrine—I declare that direct abortion, that is, abortion willed as an end or as a means, always constitutes a grave moral disorder, since it is the deliberate killing of an innocent human being. This doctrine is based upon the natural law and upon the written Word of God, is transmitted by the Church's Tradition and taught by the ordinary and universal Magisterium.'”