‘This is a critical moment’: Abortion Issue 1 takes center stage at Ohio March for Life

Peter Pinedo   By Peter Pinedo for CNA

October 6, 2023 Catholic News Agency News Briefs 0 Print

 

Crowds gather for the Ohio March for Life outside the Ohio State Capitol in Columbus on Friday, Oct. 6, 2023. / Credit: Photo courtesy of Bishop Earl Fernandes

CNA Staff, Oct 6, 2023 / 16:41 pm (CNA).

Ohio Issue 1, an upcoming referendum vote that could institute a right to unlimited abortion into the state constitution, took center stage at the Ohio March for Life on Friday.

As thousands of pro-lifers marched in Ohio’s capital city of Columbus, many, including large groups of Catholics from parishes, schools, and communities across the state, held signs and banners reading “Vote NO on Issue 1.”

The Ohio march was organized by the same group behind the National March for Life, which takes place every year in January, in conjunction with Ohio Right to Life.

The march, which saw the participation of several Ohio political leaders including Sen. J.D. Vance, comes one month ahead of the statewide vote on Issue 1 on Nov. 7.

“The upcoming vote on the extreme measure known as Issue 1 holds tremendous implications both for Ohio and nationally,” March for Life President Jeanne Mancini told CNA.

If Issue 1 is approved, Mancini said, “it would make Ohio one of the most pro-abortion states in the nation by allowing abortion through all nine months — among other harmful consequences.”

“This is a critical moment,” Bishop Earl Fernandes of Columbus told CNA.

Fernandes, who led the opening prayer at the march, has been deeply involved with the movement to defeat Issue 1. He said that “many people are indifferent or simply ignorant of what’s coming up or how much worse than Roe v. Wade this amendment will be.”

Issue 1 is about more than just abortion

Fernandes fears that Issue 1 does not just open unborn children to being killed up until the point of birth, he also believes it “isn’t just about abortion.”

The constitutional amendment could also be used to allow children to obtain sex reassignment surgeries without parental notification, according to Fernandes.

The official language that will be on the ballot in November says that “every individual has a right to make and carry out one’s own reproductive decisions including but not limited to decisions on contraception, fertility treatment, continuing one’s own pregnancy, miscarriage, and abortion.”

The bishop pointed out that the vague wording of “individual” does not specify age or gender and the term “reproductive choices” is not limited to abortion-related decisions. Because of this, he believes Issue 1 could be construed to also remove any limits on gender selection, harvesting of body parts, chemical castration, transgender surgeries, and gender reassignment on minors.

In all, Fernandes told CNA that if Issue 1 is passed it will be “absolutely devastating” for Ohio and “worse than Roe.”

‘As Ohio goes, so goes the nation’

Video and pictures on social media show downtown Columbus filled with massive crowds of pro-lifers participating in Friday’s march. Many at the march could be heard praying and chanting hymns.

Fernandes said there were more than 650 attendees at a pre-march Mass that he celebrated in St. Joseph Cathedral, about two blocks from the state capitol.

Despite the enthusiasm, Fernandes cautioned that without following through by getting out the vote against Issue 1, the pro-life movement in Ohio would still suffer a crushing blow.

The consequences, Fernandes said, will be felt not just in Ohio but across the country.

“As Ohio goes, so goes the nation,” Fernandes said, adding that “if you can do it in Ohio” then “you’re going to be able to do it in states like Nebraska and Arizona and so on.”

Since the overturning of Roe v. Wade, the pro-life movement has struggled to achieve many significant victories at the ballot box. Meanwhile, efforts to expand abortion have been much more successful.

Already, despite pro-life efforts to stop it, a similar ballot initiative enshrined abortion in Michigan’s state constitution in 2022.

“Getting out the vote is going to be critical,” he added, noting that despite their efforts to raise funds they are being outspent by groups supporting Issue 1, who he says are spending tens of millions of dollars on ads.

“We need to have our people register to vote and actually go to vote and to bus people to vote and to get people who are in assisted living facilities and nursing homes to vote and to vote early if they can,” the bishop said.

Amid it all, Fernandes said that he continues to trust in prayer and the Blessed Virgin Mary.

“People from all over the state came, and we prayed together,” he said. “We can never underestimate the power of prayer.”

“Tomorrow is the feast of Our Lady of the Rosary,” he continued. “St. Pius V had asked all Christendom to pray, and Don Juan and the Christian forces won the great battle at Lepanto. And I think we should not underestimate the power of prayer and the rosary in particular in the defense of human life.”

“No matter how the vote goes,” Fernandes added, “we have to continue our efforts to build the culture of life and the civilization of love.”

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US bishops welcome change to Catechism on death penalty

August 3, 2018 CNA Daily News 7

Washington D.C., Aug 3, 2018 / 06:02 pm (CNA/EWTN News).- Bishops across the US have welcomed the modification made to the Catechism of the Catholic Church saying the Church teaches that capital punishment is “inadmissible.”

Archbishop José Gomez of Los Angeles welcomed the changes, stating Aug. 3: “I am grateful for Pope Francis’ leadership in working for an end to judicial executions worldwide.”

He said the revisions “reflect an authentic development of the Church’s doctrine that started with St. John Paul II and has continued under emeritus Pope Benedict XVI and now Pope Francis.”

“The Scriptures, along with saints and teachers in the Church’s tradition, justify the death penalty as a fitting punishment for those who commit evil or take another person’s life,” Archbishop Gomez wrote.

“And the Church has always recognized that governments and civil authorities have the right to carry out executions in order to protect their citizens’ lives and punish those guilty of the gravest crimes against human life and the stability of the social order.”

He also noted that “in recent decades, there has been a growing consensus — among bishops’ conferences around the world and in the teachings of the Popes and the Catechism — that use of the death penalty can no longer be accepted.”

“The Church has come to understand that from a practical standpoint, governments now have the ability to protect society and punish criminals without executing violent offenders. The Church now believes that the traditional purposes of punishment — defending society, deterring criminal acts, rehabilitating criminals and penalizing them for their actions — can be better achieved by nonviolent means,” the Archbishop of Los Angeles said.

“The Catechism now says the death penalty is ‘inadmissible’ — it should not be used — because it violates the dignity of the person and because ‘more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.’”

Archbishop Gomez added that the revision “is not equating capital punishment with the evils of abortion and euthanasia. Those crimes involve the direct killing of innocent life and they are always gravely immoral. By definition, the lives of almost all those on death row are not ‘innocent.’”

He said that “I do not believe that public executions serve to advance that message in our secular society.”

“Showing mercy to those who do not ‘deserve’ it, seeking redemption for persons who have committed evil, working for a society where every human life is considered sacred and protected — this is how we are called to follow Jesus Christ and proclaim his Gospel of life in these times and in this culture.”

Bishop Frank Dewane of Venice in Florida, chairman of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Domestic Justice and Human Development, said Aug. 2 that “we welcome the Holy Father’s decision to revise the Catechism and its explanation of the Church’s teaching on the death penalty. All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, and the dignity bestowed on them by the Creator cannot be extinguished, even by grave sin, such that all persons, from conception until natural death possess inalienable dignity and value that points to their origin as sons and daughters of God.”

“The new section in the Catechism is consistent with the statements of Pope Francis’ teaching on the death penalty, including his 2015 address to the U.S. Congress, as well as the statements of his predecessors,” Bishop Dewane said.

The Venice bishop noted that “Benedict the XVI urged ‘the attention of society’s leaders to the need to make every effort to eliminate the death penalty,’ and Pope St. John Paul II observed that ‘Not even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this.””

He added that “For decades, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has called for the end of the death penalty in the United States.”

The same day, the Nebraska Catholic Conference issued a statement in the names of Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha, Bishop James Conley of Lincoln, and Bishop Joseph Hanefeldt of Grand Island, saying Pope Francis had “issued an important clarification on the Church’s teaching regarding the death penalty. The Holy Father’s declaration that the death penalty is no longer admissible under any circumstances is an answer to our prayers and welcome news, especially for those of us living in Nebraska.”

The change to the Catechism “rightly upholds the inviolability of the human person,” the bishops of Nebraska said, “whose life is worthy of protection from the moment of conception to natural death, and ought to be treated with the respect and dignity given by God Himself.”

“As the Catholic Bishops of Nebraska, we join Pope Francis in calling for the ‘elimination of the death penalty where it is still in effect,’ since it is not necessary to protect public safety from an unjust aggressor. In particular, as we have publicly expressed on numerous occasions over the last two decades, Nebraska is fortunate to have a competent judicial system, modern correctional facilities and decades of law enforcement advances. Simply put, the death penalty is no longer needed or morally justified in Nebraska.”

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