I thought in the rc church you were automatically excommunicated if you abort a child.The Pope should look again at the role priests are playing in the west and give some better direction,at the moment they seem conflicted with a variety of views.
Rape is not killing,Eleanor,women have so politicised rape
that the seriousness of a real rape is being lost in an avalanche of indiscretions.We also have figures today showing that hiv is not the major concern,in terms of increase
that one might imagine given the massive funding for same.
Where is the money going?

mike savell, eastbourne,east sussex, UK

This is the Father's command to the disciples of Jesus Christ - This is my Son, with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him! Matthew 17.5

amel, sydney, New South Wales

My view is that abortion is a heinous crime that disrespects the sanctity of human life. I wholeheartedly support our Pope in making it clear that support ing abortion and membership of the Catholic Church are incompatible.

Hugh Macfarlane, Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland, UK

For those of you who aren't Roman Catholic...........
mind your own business.

For those of you who are Roman Catholic.........
defend the faith, all of it !

sammy, toronto, canada

Stevev Davis of Californis, I have asked people who joined our Catholic Church how they lived for years with selective Bible reading. They reply that those who speak like you concerning the Apostolic succession just seem not to notice certain things. Interesting?

Father Bryan Storey , Tintagel, UK

The church was founded by Jesus Christ, the Son of God. The church was purchased by His Blood in His Sacrifice for our sins on the Cross of Calvary. After he arose from the dead he commanded his disciples to "go into the whole whole and teach what Jesus had taught them and to baptize in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit." he had told them that all power had been given unto Him and that was the basis for His Authority. He then ascended into Heaven. Jesus DID NOT appoint any person or succession of persons as His earthly authority to act on His behalf until His return. Jesus did however, send the Holy Spirit to indwell those who believe and had recieved Jesus as their Lord and Savior. The promise of the indwelling of the Spirit of God was alluded to by God to Abraham, prayed for by David in the Psalms and looked forward to by all of the Jewish faithful. The work of the Holy Spirit in the heart of the person who believes is the exercise of Christ's authority on earth.

steven davis, claremont, california, usa

With regard to the Church's opposition to contraception and condom use, the following facts should not be ignored:

In 1997 the Medical Institute for Sexual Health in the USA reported that prior to 1960 there were only two common sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) and both were easily treated with Penicillin and that sexual abstinence was still the norm and STDs were dramatically lower than now.

Today, according to the Centres For Disease Contol, more than 65 million Americans have an incurable venereal disease and 15 million are newly infected each year. Also, chlamydia and gonorrhea cause serious problems each year in more than 750,000 women.

Promiscuity, with or without condoms, has caused the catastrophic spread in these diseases.

The Church is teaching common sense based on the facts of biology. If your ideology clashes with biology, it's time to look at your ideology, as well as maybe studying some of the points put forward by the Church.

P Cosgrove, Belfast, Ireland

What gives this man the right to intrude into the life of a family on such an enormous and complex issue as abortion? I think it highly interesting that many of the vicious and ignorant attacks on abortion shown here come from men. If a child cannot be loved, have a good quality of life - if it will die, be extremely ill, or hated as an unwanted or even rape-induced child - then is it better that that child be born, or that it be spared such horrors?

At the end of the day, pregnancy and birth are huge, huge events in a woman's life and no one except her has the right to decide what happens to her body. One man, closed up in the Vatican as far away from real life as possible, should not be threatening women in this way.

Likewise his attitudes to contraception are ridiculous. It could save AIDS, relieve poverty, and stop illegal abortions killing young women. What on earth is the world coming too that these attitudes are allowed to be preached under threat of hell fire?

Eleanor, York,

I wish the Pope would be more vocal about men’s sexual sins. What about automatic excommunication for rapists?

Deborah S, Jerusalem, Israel

In answer to E Thomson of London, England, many Christians do not condone the murder of innoncent children, and many have condemnend the actions, or lack there of, taken by the pope during the 2nd World War. So please do not put all Christians in the same box with a man who made a major mistake. We aren't all the same.

Paul, London, Canada