In his article, “Catholics and Abortion Law”, Fr Michael C. McGuckian, S.J., claims that any Catholic politician who supports “an overly permissive abortion law” may be making “a terrible mistake”, but “they are not necessarily guilty of formal co-operation with the act of abortion itself”. He distinguishes between a politician who believes that abortion is morally justified and one who does not “share the intention” of the act of abortion but only permits it. The latter may be guilty of a serious error in judgement but is not guilty of formal co-operation and therefore should not be “excommunicated”.