Stance on abortion
I was born into the Catholic faith but, I’ve found myself struggling with many of the Church’s teachings. There are certain doctrines I can’t bring myself to fully believe, and that probably makes me a bad Catholic or, as some would call me, not catholic at all, despite having been baptized into the faith. Growing up, I was always familiar with the core beliefs, but I never truly understood the reasoning behind them. That changed about few years ago when I had a faith crisis and started seriously reading what it actually means to call myself Catholic. One of the teachings that particularly challenged me was the idea that all forms of abortion are considered murder. Before delving deeper, I would confidently repeat this stance whenever asked, but as I began reading explanations, I found myself struggling to reconcile certain aspects.
What I can’t fully wrap my head around is the absolute nature of the Church’s position, like in cases of incest or rape. I’ve read that while the Church acknowledges the trauma and complexity of such pregnancies, its response is to emphasize compassionate support for the victims. But to me, that doesn’t necessarily seem like true “compassion.” When the fetus lacks brain function or human attributes in early stages, how is it still considered unequivocally wrong? I’ve also read arguments citing the Bible how abortion is wrong and the idea that the soul enters the body at conception. Yet, at the same time, there are passages where God commands the destruction of infants. So where exactly is the line drawn?
EDIT: following the replies maybe I’m not a “bad Catholic,” but not a Catholic at all. *Also, it’s kind of sad that when I asked a priest about all of this face-to-face, he genuinely had no problem with me questioning this yet the comments really made me feel like there’s a much bigger issue here with people not knowing how to practice what they preach.