The following is a July 24 letter from Sacramento Bishop Jaime Soto:
Dear Friends in Christ,
Please join me in opposing the provision of abortion on university campuses in California and praying for the protection of infants and young college-age women from the scourge of abortion.
SB 24 — the bill that would mandate staff at all California state university health clinics to dispense abortion inducing medications — has steadily advanced through the California legislature and is now poised to become law. This is unprecedented intrusion on university campuses. It is unnecessary and only serves to further indoctrinate the young to the ideology of abortion. We must continue our efforts to stop this deadly piece of legislation. The womb should not become a tomb for any child anywhere in our state. Women and children deserve better.
I am grateful for all the letters and phone calls of opposition you have already made to your legislators. Continue to do so. The State Legislature is on recess from July 12 to August 11. This means many legislators will be in their home districts. This is a good time to pay them a visit.
At this critical moment, I urge all Catholics and all Christians to join together in prayer. From August 3 through August 11, pray with me a novena to Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of unborn children, asking her powerful intercession to defeat this bill. Our own political action is important but we must also draw wisdom and strength from prayer. Salvation History is filled with examples of the focused, unified prayer of many Christians overcoming evil even when, from our limited human perspective, the cause seemed insurmountable and hopeless.
So please join with me and pray this prayer each day over these nine days:
Novena to Defeat Senate Bill 24
Virgin of Guadalupe,
Mother of the Christ Child and Patroness of all unborn children, we implore your intercession for the defeat of Senate Bill 24 and for the protection of all human life.
Guide our public officials to see the tragedy and the injustice of abortion and to defend each and every human life through just laws.
Inspire us all to bring our faith into public life, to speak for those who have no voice.
We ask this in the name of your Son,
Jesus Christ, who is Love and Mercy itself.
Amen.
Our Father, Hail Mary, Glory Be
My heartfelt thanks, in advance, for your cooperation. May the intercession of our Blessed Mother Mary sustain our pro-life efforts with the wisdom and mercy of her Son. Jesus.
Respectfully,
Jaime Soto
Bishop of Sacramento
I will join Bishop Soto in his Novena.
However, I think the Church should strongly teach the Catechism to all, from an early age, as they used to– and warn pro-abortion politicians, they will be excommunicated if they fail to repent. Abortion is too serious a sin– the Church should not wrongly tolerate politicians who support it!
I will join Bishop Soto in his prayers to promote a culture of life in the higher education system in California. I encourage him to lead all Catholic and non-Catholic Christians in more closely following Jesus Christ, our Lord. Hopefully, the Bishop will confront our elected officials that support the death penalty and remind them the death penalty is unjust and immoral.
Day 1 prayed
Day 2 prayed
Day 3 prayed