The Catechism of the Council of Trent (1566), also dismisses the idea that the soul is infused at conception (i.e. that personhood is conferred upon fertilization) and actually uses the supernatural nature of Jesus's conception to clarify this:
THE CATECHISM OF TRENT: The Creed - Article III
"What surpasses the order of nature and human comprehension is, that as soon as the Blessed Virgin assented to the announcement of the Angel in these words, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it done unto me according to thy word, the most sacred body of Christ was immediately formed, and to it was united a rational soul enjoying the use of reason; and thus in the same instant of time He was perfect God and perfect man.
That this was the astonishing and admirable work of the Holy Ghost cannot be doubted; for according to the order of nature the rational soul is united to the body only after a certain lapse of time."
And that was a statement of an ecumenical council, just like the 14th century council of Vienne that I mentioned earlier. It blithely and unquestioningly assumes the distinction between an "
unensouled" fetus at conception and an "
ensouled" fetus after a
'certain lapse of time'.
Jesus was thought to have been the only human animated at conception courtesy of a miracle of the Holy Spirit, whereas everyone else started out as unensouled fetal tissue until a certain lapse of time in which the fetus became 'quickened' in the womb (capable of sensation and movement).
The Church didn't define the length of the time lapse from conception, just that there was one
. Generally, however, the
quickening was long thought by theologians to occur at the time the woman first felt movement in her womb. If talking about specific time periods, it thus ranged from 40 - 80 days after conception but there was no completely agreed definition.
That was simply how the Catholic Church saw it in those days.
Ironically, the Irish government plans to permit abortion on demand within the
first trimester which begins on the first day of a woman's last period and lasts until the end of week 12, and only in exceptional circumstances thereafter (I believe). An early abortion is the termination of a pregnancy during the first trimester. That's barely over 80 days, so according to the earlier interpretation the fetus would likely not yet be ensouled.
Even today though, the Church does not teach that we can be sure that the embryo is animated at the point of conception. The stance actually goes that probabilism may not be used where human life
may be at stake, thus the 1992
Catholic Catechism notes that the embryo must be treated from conception "
tamquam, "as if" a human person". That's an important qualifier. It further states that: "
the church has not determined officially when human life [i.e. personhood] actually begins" and respect for life at all stages, even potential life, is generally the context of
church documents.
Consider this Vatican document:
(
Donum Vitae 1987)
This Congregation [for the Doctrine of the Faith] is aware of the current debates concerning the beginning of human life, concerning the individuality of the human being and concerning the identity of the human person...
Certainly no experimental datum can be in itself sufficient to bring us to the recognition of a spiritual soul...The Magisterium has not expressly committed itself to an affirmation of a philosophical nature, but it constantly reaffirms the moral condemnation of any kind of procured abortion.
So it refrains from directly affirming the moment of ensoulement and leaves it open that the earlier, traditional Thomist understanding could still be the correct one. But a lot of Catholics don't realize this.
