Bishop Dennis Brennan Mothers and fathers who consider abortion in difficult circumstances should be treated with “tremendous sensitivity and support”, an Irish bishop has said.
In an April 22 Pastoral Message, Fern’s bishop Dennis Brennan said that individuals can find themselves in difficulties during pregnancy, pointing out that mothers may be abandoned, afraid, isolated or facing financial and relational problems.
The bishop added that “the unspeakable pain and darkness” experienced in pregnancy as a result of rape or incest is “profound”.
“That a person might consider the termination of pregnancy as the only option they have in difficult circumstances challenges us all to discern an ever more supportive approach that lovingly penetrates the frightening and lonely places in which some mothers and fathers find themselves, especially in those cases where they believe they have no other choice but termination,” Bishop Brennan said.
He stressed that the unequivocal teaching on the sanctity of life should at all times be delivered with both clarity and charity so that any doubts regarding the teaching of the Church in this matter are dispelled, while assistance and support are simultaneously extended to those distressed or in difficulty.
“In particular here, I ask priests to be instruments of mercy, dispensing freely the mercy of God, to any person who seeks to emerge from the regret they experience, in having had an abortion in the past,” he said.