The following is an excerpt from the statement of the Most Rev. Jaime Soto, Bishop of Sacramento and President of the California Catholic Conference, on the referendum to overturn the physician-assisted suicide law (ABx2-15) in California:
January 4, 2016
“Dear Fellow Catholics and Friends,
“On behalf of my brother Bishops in California, I express my gratitude on your admirable efforts to overturn the physician-assisted suicide law (ABx2-15) passed by the Legislature and signed by Governor Brown in the fall of 2015. “
“Today is the deadline for turning in petitions. We are disappointed that the required number of signatures has apparently not been reached.”
“Your efforts and those of many other Californians during the regular legislative session stopped the push to allow physicians to give patients a lethal dose of drugs. It was only through the manipulation of the legislative process that the bill eventually passed. The initial defeat of the law – as well as the thousands of signatures gathered in the referendum effort – demonstrate that when the dangers of physician-assisted suicide are allowed to be properly aired, the concept is soundly rejected.
“The Bishops of California are committed to expanding our efforts to explain the richness and love embodied in Catholic teaching surrounding end-of-life. We will work with Catholic health care to further cultivate this tradition among the faithful in the coming years.
Editor: Informed sources say that 156,000 signatures were turned in, out of 500,000 raw signatures needed.
I worked on this petition signature drive in my parish in the San Bernardino Diocese. There was a great deal of effort put into getting signatures. We got about 700 in our parish alone, and there are about 59 parishes in this one diocese.
If all dioceses had put a significant effort into getting parishioners to sign the petition, it should have qualified rather easily. My conclusion is that once again, our Bishops and Archbishops here in California have failed us. It would be interesting to learn just how many signatures were collected in each diocese.
I don’t recall getting that petition signed at my parish. I did sign it outside of Kmart! Do not be so quick to blame the Bishops/Archbishops. Perhaps it may be the lack of communication within the diocese itself or the parish “pastoral coordinators.” I reside within the San Bernardino diocese.
With the use of emails, there is no excuse for lack of quick communications.
All CA Bishops can email each other – as a group.
All CA Bishops can email each of their Priests – as a group.
And the Priests can email those appropriate in their Parish.
This takes only a few minutes.
Any dope can do it.
If you did not find the petition being circulated at your parish, I suggest you ask you pastor why? The Diocese of San Bernardino staff went to a great deal of effort and expense to train parish volunteers such as myself, and to supply each parish with an adequate supply of petitions. In addition, other position fact sheets for distribution to parishioners were provided as well as a template sermon for use by priests at Mass. Again, I would like to see a tally of the number of signatures secured within each and every diocese/archdiocese in CA.
I agree that our California bishops have failed God’s people, again. May God have mercy on us all.
Our Bishops need a total commitment, to teaching and preaching the Catholic Faith to all, daily! All Catholics must be good, practicing Catholics, well-trained in their Faith and Morals — including the clergy, and nuns- and the Pope, too! Then, the Church can have a HUGE impact for Christ, in the world! But the Church can have little or no impact for Christ, in merely dabbling in secular, worldly politics– waste of time!!
When I was young, most all Americans, of all religious faiths, had RESPECT FOR GOD– and DID NOT DARE to even consider taking their life, or the life of a loved one, by euthanasia! God forbid! That (assisted suicide) is called MURDER!! No, you had to face life on its own terms, worship God, and know He is to be RESPECTED!! Catholics were all taught to unite their sufferings daily, with Christ’s sufferings, and to “offer it all up,” as productive reparation for sin! Suicide is a Mortal Sin, and such a horrific action, we were taught, will result in no Catholic funeral nor burial– and probably a trip to Hell! And deep shame, for your family!!
when you are old and sick you are faced with some dreadful situations I know of a case where the person kkidney went bad she declined to go on dialysis and after 10 days passed into eternity and let me tell you only the lord who loves each human being decideds where the soul spends eternity Ipers
In their 2014 California Democratic Platform (goals) – euthanasia – “death with dignity” is a listed goal.
All Bishops should take the time to read the State Platforms of all Parties – so they will know the goals of each.
Let’s be logical. We want doctors to be healers, not killers. But that’s what assisted suicide does. In fact, the American Medical Association rejects physician-assisted suicide in the following terms:
“Physician-assisted suicide is fundamentally incompatible with the physician’s role as healer, would be difficult or impossible to control, and would pose serious societal risks.”