TheCable

Pope Francis on Monday allowed all Roman Catholic priests the power to forgive abortion, a power previously reserved for bishops or special confessor.

Francis, who has made a more inclusive and forgiving church a characteristic of his papacy, made the announcement in a document known as an “apostolic letter” after Sunday’s close of the Catholic Church’s “Holy Year of Mercy.”

He said he wanted to “restate as firmly as he can that abortion is a grave sin, since it puts an end to an innocent life”.

Pope Francis, who has made a more inclusive and forgiving Roman Catholic Church a characteristic of his papacy, made the announcement in a document known as an “apostolic letter” after Sunday’s close of the Church’s “Holy Year of Mercy”.

The measure represents a significant softening of the Church’s stance on the issue of abortion.

The Catholic Church historically deemed abortion so great a sin that those who undertake them or carry them out are automatically excommunicated.

In the past, only a bishop or a designated chief confessor of a diocese could grant absolution for an abortion.

In a document last year, Francis described the “existential and moral ordeal” faced by women who have terminated pregnancies and said he had “met so many women who bear in their heart the scar of this agonising and painful decision”.