Pope Francis extends Catholic priests' power to forgive abortion

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Freedom Extension.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Non-story

I'm pretty sure it's a story if you're a woman who's had an abortion and has still been trying to get up the courage to go to confession as the Year of Mercy has run out.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

How does this square with:

a) The Roman Church's theology of the sacraments, priesthood, and mortal sin? That is if abortion is a mortal sin, then would not the old rules condemn the repentant abortionist/abortion-seeker to hell? Or at least makes it more likely that they will go to hell?

b) The quasi-universalism I've been hearing from some Catholics?

Really not that much was changed. Participating in an abortion is one of eight sins which results in an automatic latae sententiae excommunication, something which is an additional penalty on top of being in a state of mortal sin. Excommunications can generally only be lifted by bishops, but bishops have the power to selectively devolve this ability to the priests below them. This devolution for abortion was the standard in the United States, but not in other parts of the world. For the Year of Mercy, Pope Francis devolved this power to all priests; all the pronouncement today did was make this devolution permanent and universal.

Not sure what you mean by part b.

Thanks for the explanation.

B isn't a coherent group, so much as a variety of opinions I've heard expressed by some Catholics that could be construed as universalism.  Mea culpa if that isn't an actual faction among some (very progressive) Catholics.

It's not even necessarily 'very progressive' (I've heard it among Catholics of the John Paul II-style modern-but-conservative stripe), but among more moderate or conservative Catholics it's, yeah, deliberately not conceptually elaborated enough to call a real tendency.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

The most quasi-universalist talk I've heard is from people like Robert Barron who hold the "reasonable hope that everyone will be saved" position, but I'm not aware of many, if any, who go further than that.

That's what I'm referring to (and approximately the position I hold).

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There are elements within Eastern Orthodoxy, especially in Russian-language theology, that tend in the purgatorial-universalist direction, if memory serves.