It all started with the rejection of total Biblical inerrancy. No other issue--abortion, homosexuality, or anything else--will be resolved until the Catholic Church learns to stand up for total Biblical inerrancy.
Unfortunately, since total Biblical inerrancy is identified by most American Catholics (and maybe most Catholics in the world?) as a Protestant doctrine this isn't going to happen, and that fish is just going to keep on rotting.
what you call total inerrancy is often used to conflat inspiration and revelation. But I agree that Scripture ought to be taken as a given and not subject to methodical doubt and in general treated the same way as
Homer or the Babylonian myths. Ironically, most analyses of these classical tales are dubious. Why should I think they properly represent authors’ prespectives? It is hard enough to understand what a poet like Robert Frost means, and we are familiar with the culture in which he lived. When one is dealing with Holy Scripture, especially if one is a believer, one never must suppose even for a moment that one is looking at the Word of God.