Did Pope Francis misspeak on the matter of abortion?

Last August, Pope Francis gave a wide-ranging interview to the principal Italian Jesuit journal, later published in English in the U.S. Jesuit weekly America.

The most controversial part of the interview had to do with abortion. Francis said: "We cannot insist only on issues related to abortion, gay marriage and the use of contraceptive methods. ... When we speak on these issues, we have to talk about them in context." He continued: "The dogmatic and moral teachings of the church are not all equivalent. The church’s ministry cannot be obsessed with the transmission of a disjointed multitude of doctrines to be imposed insistently."

Many American Catholics winced when liberal secular groups like Planned Parenthood and NARAL Pro-Choice America seized upon the Pope’s words, thanking him publicly for what they understood to be the beginning of a change in Catholic teaching on abortion.

At the other end of the spectrum, moral theologian Germain Grisez declared rather imprudently that the "spirit" present in the Pope’s words "was not of the Holy Spirit." More moderate voices like those of Archbishop Chaput of Philadelphia and Bishop Vasa of Santa Rosa, California, thought the Pope’s statement confusing to the ordinary Catholic, and unfair to pro-life organizations.

The key words in Pope Francis’ interview that generated controversy were "obsessed" and "context." On the first, the Pope’s point was that there exists often a kind of obsession among those who preach about abortion. They speak insistently and often as if there were no other moral matter facing the Church. In the parishes in which I have ministered, I was constantly aware of people whose only issue seemed to be abortion; and I am aware of priests who hammer away at the subject every chance they get. There is some evidence that this obsession is occasionally replicated even at episcopal level.

On the matter of "context," the Pope was making the point that advocacy and activity on abortion must not be approached as part of a "conservative" political and ecclesiastical agenda, but as part of a "progressive" agenda that includes the issues of human rights, the plight of migrants, the needs of the poor, and the liberation of victims of human trafficking. Moreover, he says, the church’s pastoral activity on abortion must be more adequately accompanied by mercy, compassion, and forgiveness, especially for women who are poor, belong to minorities, or are socially marginalized.

It is not Francis’ fault if some pro-choice groups took his words to mean a change in the Catholic understanding of abortion. And it is all to the good if some shrill, culturally conservative voices took his words as criticism. Maybe the Pope touched a nerve among this group that was overdue.

The fact is the Pope has had a strong and unambiguous decades-long stance on abortion that is completely in line with Catholic moral theology (To have to state this shows how badly he has been misinterpreted). Anyone who has read his homilies and talks as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and any of the biographies hastily assembled since his election, can have no doubt that he is, as he himself put it, "a man of the Church."

In my judgment, Pope Francis did not at all misspeak on the matter of abortion. (Indeed, I welcome his message enthusiastically.) What Francis did do was to caution against arid preaching on abortion, and to insist that advocacy on the subject be accompanied by practical and costly solidarity with women in distress – a message that is sorely needed at all levels of the Church.

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