Some years ago I discovered a surprising fact. In a book by a Catholic theologian I read that a pope once ruled abortion is not murder. I was amazed. Years of Catholic education, including four years at a Jesuit institution,had given me some understanding of Church doctrine and theway the Church works. From what I knew, it was absolutely unbelievable that a pope, any pope, would say abortion was not murder. Yet, according to the theologian, one pope had. The pope was Pope Innocent III. The time was about eight hundred years ago. The occasion was a question: was a monk who had helped hislover obtain an abortion guilty of murder? The monk was guilty of fornication and aiding an abortion. But were he and his lover also guilty of murder, of taking the life of a human being? No, answered Pope Innocent,because the aborted fetus was not a human being.My newly-discovered secret left me with two questions. Why woulda pope say a fetus is not a human being? Who was Pope Innocent?I wondered if Pope Innocent was one of the bad popes. If so, there might be no reason to worry too much about what he said.It is an undeniable fact that not all popes have been pious, good men.  Many have been pious and devout, but not all. Critics of the Church use that to argue the Church is not a special institution, but merely a creationof man. Believers, on the other hand, see God’s special care in preserving His Church in spite of the failings of men, and point to Peter, who denied Christ three times but nonetheless was made the first pope. But no one on either side of the controversy, as far as I know, disputes thefact that some popes have been less than holy. Was Pope Innocent one of the bad popes? I made my first order of business learning about Pope Innocent. Who was he?

John McCloskey is writing a book called “The Pope who said Abortion is NOT Murder” You can read it now online.