--- title: Pope Francis Is Right About Abortion description: Every person’s actions must be understood within a wider context canonical: https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/ author: Christopher Hale article:opinion: true article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-09-02T16:51:26.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:57:57.620Z article:section: Ideas og:title: Pope Francis Is Right About Abortion og:description: Every person’s actions must be understood within a wider context og:url: https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffba10d04bb9ba4c/698861d1e20a871164a8d066/pope-francis-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 594 og:image:height: 334 og:image:alt: Pope Francis blesses the faithfull as he leads his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on August 26, 2015. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Pope Francis Is Right About Abortion twitter:description: Every person’s actions must be understood within a wider context twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffba10d04bb9ba4c/698861d1e20a871164a8d066/pope-francis-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=594&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Pope Francis Is Right About Abortion > Sponsored content. 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A paid TIME subscription is separate and available at time.com/subscribe-agent. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-inside-2026q3/newsletters?i=d512dd82-cb0e-4e1b-a2b7-b1a6fe2d9e72&cr=time-nl-inside-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Know Right Now: Pope Francis Alters Abortion Rules For Jubilee [Watch (HLS stream): Know Right Now: Pope Francis Alters Abortion Rules For Jubilee](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nTD0dJGJ.m3u8) (1:01)  _Published 2015-09-01. Pope Francis announced that priests will have the authority to forgive the Catholic sin of abortion_ by [Christopher Hale](https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/) ## Christopher Hale Sep 2, 2015 4:51 PM UTC  Pope Francis blesses the faithfull as he leads his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on August 26, 2015. Pope Francis blesses the faithfull as he leads his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on August 26, 2015. VINCENZO PINTO—AFP/Getty Images by [Christopher Hale](https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/) ## Christopher Hale Sep 2, 2015 4:51 PM UTC Pope Francis [revealed](http://time.com/4018460/pope-francis-priest-forgive-abortion-holy-year/) Tuesday that he intends to allow Catholic priests to grant sacramental forgiveness to those who have procured an abortion during his special yearlong celebration of the “Jubilee Year of Mercy” set to begin this December. Since procuring an abortion is considered a grave sin that automatically excommunicates someone from the Catholic Church, normally only a bishop can grant forgiveness for it and lift the excommunication. Many bishops have already exercised a church law that allows them to grant their priests special authority to forgive excommunicable sins such as abortion. So while Francis’s directive is new, it’s only somewhat groundbreaking. It also isn’t surprising. From the beginning of his pontificate, Francis has been a pope of mercy. The first Sunday after his election, [Pope Francis said,](http://whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com/2013/03/from-window-god-never-gets-tired-of.html) “God never tires of forgiving us. … but we at times, we get tired of asking forgiveness.” For his papal motto, Francis chose [_miserando atque eligendo_](http://www.zenit.org/en/articles/pope-s-motto-miserando-atque-eligendo)_,_ a Latin phrase that roughly translates as “choosing through the eyes of mercy.” Perhaps no words better describe Francis’s pastoral ministry as the universal leader of the Catholic Church. Of particular note in the announcement is [how Francis describes](http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2015/documents/papa-francesco%5F20150901%5Flettera-indulgenza-giubileo-misericordia.html) what he calls “the tragedy of abortion:” --- > “” --- The willingness of Pope Francis to understand abortion as a societal failure can help end the ancient lie that abortion is simply the result of the personal failure of an individual woman. Make no mistake: this is the Francis way. [He says that those](http://w2.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/apost%5Fexhortations/documents/papa-francesco%5Fesortazione-ap%5F20131124%5Fevangelii-gaudium.html) “who accompany their brothers and sisters in faith or on a journey of openness to God must always remember what the Catechism of the Catholic Church teaches quite clearly: ‘Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors.’” In other words, every person’s actions, failures, and—yes—sins must be understood within a wider context. While Francis hasn’t in any way changed the Catholic Church’s teaching on the grave immorality of abortion, he is suggesting that Christians accompany those who have had abortions in a more compassionate way. It makes sense coming from a pope who has built his spiritual legacy on [his dogmatic certainty](http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/world/europe/an-interview-with-pope-francis.html?pagewanted=all) that God is in every person’s life. ## Transcript [ MUSIC ] [ BLANK_AUDIO ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"OpinionNewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/"},"headline":"Pope Francis Is Right About Abortion","datePublished":"2015-09-02T16:51:26.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:57:57.620Z","description":"Every person’s actions must be understood within a wider context","url":"https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/","keywords":["Religion"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffba10d04bb9ba4c/698861d1e20a871164a8d066/pope-francis-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Christopher Hale","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/christopher-j-hale-2/"}],"articleSection":"Ideas","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltffba10d04bb9ba4c/698861d1e20a871164a8d066/pope-francis-abortion.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Pope Francis blesses the faithfull as he leads his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on August 26, 2015.","caption":"Pope Francis blesses the faithfull as he leads his weekly general audience in Saint Peter's Square at the Vatican on August 26, 2015.","creditText":"VINCENZO PINTO—AFP/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/ideas/","name":"Ideas"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/","name":"Pope Francis Is Right About Abortion"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Know Right Now: Pope Francis Alters Abortion Rules For Jubilee","description":"Pope Francis announced that priests will have the authority to forgive the Catholic sin of abortion","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/nTD0dJGJ/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-09-01T16:43:08.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/nTD0dJGJ.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/","duration":"PT1M1S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4019385/pope-francis-is-right-about-abortion/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```