ARLINGTON, Virginia (LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Michael F. Burbidge directed pastors across the Diocese of Arlington to read from the pulpit a pastoral letter instructing Catholics to vote “No” on two November ballot measures that would write expansive abortion access and a redefinition of marriage into Virginia’s constitution.
During a homily at St. Leo the Great Church in Fairfax yesterday, Burbidge said he had never before asked the priests of his diocese to do what he requested this weekend, to read this letter from him at every Sunday Mass.
Across 70 parishes serving more than 430,000 Catholics in northern Virginia, the faithful heard the bishop warn of “two dangerous ballot initiatives” that voters will decide on November 3. The extended early voting process begins this Friday, September 18.
In the September 12 letter published by the Arlington Catholic Herald, Burbidge wrote that Virginians “will soon face very serious legal threats to the sacredness of human life and the sanctity of marriage.”
Ballot Question 1, he explained, “proposes an extreme and vague change to the Virginia Constitution that would create a legal right to unregulated abortions, performed by unlicensed abortion practitioners at any time during pregnancy.”
The measure “threatens the health and safety of mothers and would allow for abortions targeting healthy babies all the way up to birth.” It “extends this so-called right even to minors” and “would remove the role of parents concerning life-altering and irreversible decisions for their minor daughters,” the bishop wrote.
“Unfortunately, abortion is already legal in Virginia,” Burbidge lamented. “But what is on the ballot this fall would expand abortion beyond what most citizens recognize as reasonable limits. The proposed amendment is extreme. It is unnecessary. And it is wrong.”
‘An issue of fundamental moral justice confronts each one of us’
Ballot Question 2, he wrote, “would remove from our state constitution the truth, as Jesus taught, that marriage is between one man and one woman.” It would also “enshrine gender ideology by falsely separating the reality of one’s sex and gender, obscuring the truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God.”
Originally named a bishop by Pope St. John Paul II in 2003, Burbidge affirmed that the Church “is not partisan. The Church never advocates for or against specific candidates or parties,” he wrote. “At the same time, the Church, in fidelity to the Gospel and her mission, always speaks clearly, faithfully and truthfully concerning matters of faith and morals in public life.”
“An issue of fundamental moral justice confronts each one of us,” the Philadelphia native continued. “The Church boldly proclaims its ‘Yes!’ to the protection of the unborn and the sanctity of all human life.”
“For us to speak this ‘Yes,’ we must together proclaim ‘No!’ to these radically unjust ballot initiatives, in fidelity to God and for the good of all in our society.”
He asked Catholics to do three things: pledge to vote at CatholicsVoteNo.com; register and make a plan to vote, preferably early beginning September 18; and “speak with family, friends and colleagues, in truth and love,” to turn out those most likely to protect life and marriage.
“With God’s grace, there is always hope!” he wrote. “‘We the people’ can unite to defeat these dangerous amendments to our commonwealth’s constitution.”
Supporting ‘radically unjust’ amendments could threaten one’s eternal salvation
The pulpit appeal follows months of resolute opposition. In January, after the General Assembly advanced the so-called “Virginia Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment,” Burbidge and Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout called its swift passage “shocking to the conscience.”
In a joint statement, they warned the measure “would go far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed” and “would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction.” They pledged to “fight the extreme abortion amendment with maximum determination.”
A May analysis by LifeSite journalist Patrick Delaney argued that a “Yes” vote on such an amendment is unlike an ordinary candidate vote: “the voters themselves become legislators, who in voting ‘Yes’ will be willing the enactment of every word of this amendment.”
Citing the Church’s teaching that anyone involved in lawmaking has a “grave and clear obligation to oppose” laws that attack human life, Delaney wrote that a knowing, free vote for the measure is an objectively grave moral offense before God that could threaten one’s eternal salvation.
Burbidge’s letter closes with a charge of baptismal duty: Catholics must “participate in public life with a prayerfully and factually informed conscience.”
“Together, with God’s grace,” he wrote, “we can protect life, liberty and the future of our Virginia home.”
RELATED
Virginia abortion amendment endangers not only babies but souls of those who vote for it
Virginia bishops vow to ‘fight’ radical pro-abortion amendment with ‘maximum determination’
Over 2 million Ohio voters may have jeopardized their immortal souls by ratifying abortion amendment
Virginia bishops stress upcoming election could determine future of abortion amendment
171 Ohio religious leaders urge faithful to vote no on ‘wicked, diabolical’ abortion amendment