The CNN religion blog has posed this question in reference to Dorothy Day, whose cause is being considered for sainthood. Apparently, in her younger years, Dorothy was not yet Catholic and led a life she later regretted. That included having an abortion.
The writer of the blog answered his question by stating that he believes that not only can someone become a saint who has had a sinful past, but that in Dorothy Day’s case, she will be accepted by the faithful because most Catholic’s either support abortion outright, or do not consider it to be a sin. Wow.
I think that his first question, can someone be a saint who was a big sinner before their conversion, has been answered many times by the Church in the past. One only needs to look to St. Paul (murder), St. Augustine (debauchery), and Bl. Bartolo Longo (Satanism) as just a few examples of big sinner to saint stories, and there are many more.
Troubling though, is the writers conclusion as to why Dorothy Day will be accepted by the faithful as a worthy saint. Do a majority of Catholic’s really believe that abortion okay? That abortion is not a sin? If that is true, or even if just 40% or 10% even think that is the case, that is deeply troubling.
Dominican Laity; Saint Monica Chapter 
Many so-called Catholics voted for Obama. They couldn’t possibly be seriously opposed to abortion. America’s shame: http://fjdalessio.wordpress.com/2009/01/02/americas-shame/
I just read this:
“A 1999 poll by the National Catholic Reporter shows that 77 percent believe a person can be a good Catholic without going to Mass every Sunday, 65 percent believe good Catholics can divorce and remarry, and 53 percent believe Catholics can have abortions and remain in good standing. Only 10 percent of lay religion teachers accept Church teaching on artificial birth control, according to a 2000 University of Notre Dame poll. And a New York Times/CBS poll revealed that 70 percent of Catholics age 18-44 believe the Eucharist is merely a “symbolic reminder” of Jesus.”