EWTN News reports that the majority of peers in the U.K.’s House of Lords voted to decriminalize women who terminate their own pregnancies, removing criminal liability under the 1861 Offences Against the Person Act. Archbishop John Sherrington of Liverpool expressed being “deeply distressed,” stating the move “is likely to lead to more late-term abortions putting pregnant women and their babies at risk,” and called for support for organizations aiding women. Baroness Rosa Monckton, who tabled an amendment to overturn the change, lamented the focus on maternal vulnerability over the “vulnerability of the unborn infant who has no voice.” Archbishop John Wilson of Southwark called it “a truly tragic moment for our nation,” questioning how legislation permitting abortion “right up until the moment of birth for any reason” can have a place in a civilized society. Sarah Mullally, archbishop of Canterbury, stated the Church of England’s “principled opposition” recognizes that abortion “may be preferable to any available alternatives” in complex situations. The article reveals a hierarchy mired in naturalistic humanism, utterly silent on the supernatural horror of abortion as mortal sin and the divine mandate for the state to enforce God’s law, thereby manifesting the apostasy of the post-conciliar sect.
Theological and Spiritual Bankruptcy of the Modernist Response
Naturalistic Humanism Masquerading as Pastoral Care
The reactions from “Archbishop” John Sherrington and “Archbishop” John Wilson are masterclasses in the naturalistic reductionism condemned by Pope Pius IX’s Syllabus of Errors. Sherrington’s concern is framed entirely in terms of “risk” to “women and their babies” and “isolation, coercion, and pressure.” Wilson speaks of “another life involved which is now to be ignored and silenced.” This language, while seemingly pro-life, operates on a purely natural, sociological plane. It utterly omits the supernatural reality: that every procured abortion is the direct and voluntary killing of an innocent human being, a cry of blood that cries out to Heaven for vengeance, a mortal sin that severs the soul from God and consigns it to eternal damnation unless repented of with perfect contrition and sacramental confession. The pre-conciliar Magisterium taught that the primary duty of the state is to protect innocent life as a matter of divine law, not merely public health. Pope Pius XI in Quas Primas decreed: “Let rulers of states therefore not refuse public veneration and obedience to the reigning Christ… when God and Jesus Christ… were removed from laws and states… the foundations of that authority were destroyed.” The silence of these modernists on the state’s obligation to enact coercive laws protecting the unborn under pain of punishment, as taught by St. Thomas Aquinas (Summa Theologiae II-II, Q. 10, A. 10) and the Roman Catechism, is a definitive rejection of the Social Kingship of Christ. Their focus on “practical support” without an uncompromising call to repentance and faith is the precise “dogmaless Christianity” condemned by St. Pius X in Pascendi Dominici gregis (echoed in Lamentabili sane exitu, Prop. 26: “Faith, as assent of the mind, is ultimately based on a sum of probabilities” and the reduction of dogma to “binding in action”).
The Omission of Mortal Sin and Divine Justice
The gravest accusation against the article and the clerics it quotes is their complete silence on the supernatural order. There is no mention of:
- The fifth commandment: “Thou shalt not kill” (Ex. 20:13), which the Church has always understood to prohibit abortion directly, as defined by the Council of Trent (Sess. V, Can. 7: “If anyone says that all homicides are forbidden by the law of God… let him be anathema”).
- The state of mortal sin incurred by the woman who procures an abortion, and the excommunication latae sententiae reserved to the Ordinary (1917 Code of Canon Law, Can. 2350 §2).
- The duty of the pastor to proclaim the terrible judgment of God upon the crime of abortion (cf. Apoc. 21:8) and the necessity of sacramental confession for reconciliation.
- The divine retribution promised to nations that legalize such abominations (cf. the judgments on the sins of Sodom, Gomorrah, and the Canaanites).
This omission is not pastoral sensitivity; it is apostasy. It reduces the sacredness of human life, created in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27), to a matter of “vulnerability” and “choice.” Sarah Mullally’s statement that abortion “may be preferable to any available alternatives” is a direct assent to the error of consequentialism, condemned by the constant Magisterium. It implies that the direct killing of an innocent can be morally justified by a “difficult decision,” which is the essence of the “situation ethics” of Modernism. The pre-conciliar Church taught that an intrinsically evil act can never be justified by intention or circumstance (Roman Catechism, Part III, Chap. 4, “Thou shalt not kill”).
The Rejection of Christ’s Social Kingship and the Duty of the State
The bishops’ entire framework accepts the secular state’s autonomy in legislating on life and death, a direct embrace of the errors condemned in the Syllabus of Errors.
- Error 40: “The teaching of the Catholic Church is hostile to the well-being and interests of society.” By implying that the absolute protection of unborn life is an unreasonable imposition, they assent to this calumny.
- Error 55: “The Church ought to be separated from the State, and the State from the Church.” Their silence on the state’s duty to recognize Christ’s law is a practical acceptance of this separation.
- Error 56: “Moral laws do not stand in need of the divine sanction…” Their focus on “civil” and “public” discourse, without grounding the right to life in divine law, subscribes to this naturalistic error.
Pius XI in Quas Primas explicitly refutes this: “the state must leave the same freedom to the members of Orders and Congregations… it is necessary that Christ reign in the mind of man… in the will… in the heart… in the body.” The modernists’ acceptance of a “24-week limit” is a blasphemous admission that human legislators can place a temporal boundary on the inviolable right to life given by God. This is the “cult of man” and the “democratization of the Church” in action, where the “voice of the people” (the vote in the House of Lords) becomes the supreme norm, not the lex aeterna.
The Modernist Hermeneutic of Discontinuity and the Corruption of Language
The language employed is symptomatic of the “evolution of dogmas” condemned by St. Pius X. Phrases like “vulnerability of the mother,” “heart-wrenching decision,” and “practical support” are the euphemisms of the abomination. They transform the objective crime of abortion into a subjective psychosocial problem. This is the “hermeneutics of continuity” in practice: the pre-conciliar absolute “Thou shalt not kill” is “developed” into a “pastoral” call for “accompaniment” that implicitly accepts the legality of the act. The article notes that the change makes permanent a “virtual consultation” introduced during COVID. This reveals the slippery slope inherent in Modernism: once the “necessity” of in-person consultation (a minimal safeguard) is removed, the door is opened to total deregulation. The bishops do not condemn this as a step toward the “abomination of desolation” (Matt. 24:15) but merely fret about “late-term abortions,” implicitly accepting the principle of abortion-on-demand in the first 24 weeks. This is a direct repudiation of the unchangeable doctrine that any procured abortion is a mortal sin and a crime against God and man.
The Sedevacantist Implications: Public Heresy and Loss of Office
While the term “sedevacantist” is used sparingly, the doctrinal analysis is clear. The modernists occupying Catholic sees publicly teach and act in manifest contradiction to the sine qua non doctrines of the Faith. St. Robert Bellarmine, cited in the provided file, states: “a manifest heretic… by that very fact ceases to be Pope and head, just as he ceases to be a Christian and member of the body of the Church.” While Bellarmine speaks of the Pope, the principle extends to bishops: a public heretic cannot hold ecclesiastical office. The bishops’ acceptance of the decriminalization of abortion—a direct assault on the fifth commandment—constitutes public and notorious heresy. They have abandoned the defense of the lex divina for a dialogue with the “world” that St. Pius X called “the synthesis of all heresies” (Pascendi). Their very presence in the “House of Lords” to debate the “seriousness” of the issue, rather than to anathematize the very concept of decriminalizing child-murder, is a public profession of the modernist error that the Church must “reconcile herself with progress, liberalism and modern civilization” (Syllabus of Errors, Error 80). They are not “bishops” in the sense of the pre-1958 Church; they are functionaries of the conciliar sect, occupying buildings but bereft of the authority that flows from communion with the immutable Faith.
Conclusion: The Only Catholic Response
The integral Catholic response, drawn from the unchanging Magisterium, is one of uncompromising condemnation. The state has a grave obligation to punish abortion as a crime against the natural law and the divine positive law, as taught by Pope Leo XIII in Libertas Praestantissimum and Pius XI in Quas Primas. The “Church” that fails to demand this, that speaks of “support” without demanding repentance, that accepts the secular state’s right to define the boundaries of murder, is not the Catholic Church. It is the “abomination of desolation” standing in the holy place (Matt. 24:15). The faithful are bound to reject these modernist clerics and their naturalistic ethics. They must instead, as Pius XI urged, fight “bravely and always under the banner of Christ the King,” striving to “reconcile stray and unenlightened souls with the Lord” by preaching the fullness of the Catholic Faith: the absolute sanctity of life, the mortal sin of abortion, the necessity of confession, and the divine mandate for the state to enact laws reflecting the Ten Commandments. The only “hope” for the nation is a return to the Social Reign of Christ the King, not the false hope of “practical support” within a legal framework that consents to murder.
Source:
UK bishops, pro-life leaders react to vote decriminalizing women who end their own pregnancies (ewtnnews.com)
Date: 19.03.2026