“After the death of Dr. Bernard Nathanson last February, we were reminded that somebody once asked him why he became a Catholic. Because, said Dr. Nathanson – who'd been a leader in the movement to legalize abortion and performed or presided over many thousands of abortions, then seen the light and become ardently prolife – no other religion provides as much opportunity for forgiveness as the Catholic Church does, and he had a lot to be forgiven for.
“Bernard Nathanson was a realist. What about the 75 percent of American Catholics who, according to polls, receive the sacrament of penance less than once a year or never? Escapists perhaps?”
In a 2011 commentary (and that still rings of truth), writer Russell Shaw reflected on the flight from sacramental penance and on how contrition, penance, and conversion go together to make up the complex, continuing process of lifelong growth in the Christian life.
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