CATHOLIC WORD BOOK - Knights of Columbus, Supreme Council

procedure should not be confused with the
purportedly “medical” procedure of the
partial-birth abortion, a particularly cruel
form of abortion.
Abrogation: The Abolition or elimination
of a law by some official action. In Canon
Law, abrogation occurs through a direct
decree of the Holy See or by the enactment
of a later or subsequent law contrary to the
former law.
Absolute: (1) A term in philosophy, first
introduced at the end of the 18th century
and used by Scholasticism, that signifies
the “perfect being” (i.e., God), who relies
upon no one for existence. Modern
philosophical thought has added two new
concepts: a) the Absolute is the sum of all
being; b) the Absolute has no relationship
with any other things; the Absolute is thus
unknowable. These concepts are agnostic
and contrary to Catholicism, which holds
that God is the cause of all being (and
hence not the sum) and is knowable by his
creatures, at least in part. (2) Certain
truths, revealed by God, which are
unchanging.
Absolution, Sacramental: The act by which
bishops and priests, acting as agents of
Christ and ministers of the Church, grant
forgiveness of sins in the sacrament of
penance. The essential formula of
absolution is: “I absolve you from your
sins; in the name of the Father, and of the
Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.” The
power to absolve is given with ordination
to the priesthood and episcopate. Priests
exercise this power in virtue of
authorization (faculties) granted by a
bishop, a religious superior or canon law.
Authorization can be limited or restricted
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regarding certain sins and penalties or
censures. In cases of necessity, and also in
cases of the absence of their own
confessors, Eastern and Latin Rite
Catholics may ask for and receive
sacramental absolution from an Eastern or
Latin Rite priest; so may Polish National
Catholics, according to a Vatican decision
issued in May, 1993. Any priest can
absolve a person in danger of death; in the
absence of a priest with the usual faculties,
this includes a laicized priest or a priest
under censure. (See additional entry under
Sacraments.)
Abstinence: 1. The deliberate deprivation
by a person of meat or of foods prepared
with meat on those days prescribed by the
Church as penitential (Ash Wednesday,
Good Friday, and all Fridays of the year
which are not solemnities — in the United
States, not all Fridays of the year but only
the Fridays of Lent). Those fourteen years
of age and above are bound by the
discipline. (2) Sexual abstinence is the
willing refrain from sexual intercourse;
total abstinence is observed in obedience
to the Sixth Commandment by single
persons and couples whose marriages are
not recognized by the Church as valid;
periodic abstinence or periodic continence
is observed by a married couple for
regulating conception by natural means or
for ascetical motives.
Adoration: The highest act and purpose of
religious worship, which is directed in love
and reverence to God alone in
acknowledgment of his infinite perfection
and goodness, and of his total dominion
over creatures. Adoration, which is also
called latria, consists of internal and
external elements, private and social