California Bishops Push for Referendum to Overturn Assisted Suicide Law

Fr. Mark Hodges : Nov 18, 2015
LifeSiteNews.com

"How wrong this decision is will be measured in the lives that will be lost in the years to come..."

(Los Angeles)—Los Angeles' Catholic Archbishop José Gomez is leading California's bishops against the state's new "assisted suicide" law. (Photo: Archbishop Jose Gomez/via LifeSiteNews)

The Catholic bishops are garnering signatures for a statewide petition to take the End of Life Option Act (EoLOA) to the people. The new law legalizes killing terminally ill patients. The bishops want the law voted on by the citizens of California and are organizing the petition to create a ballot referendum in 2016.

Archbishop Gomez said the law is wrong. "How wrong this decision is will be measured in the lives that will be lost in the years to come—the lives of poor people, the elderly, the disabled, and those who are dependent on public assistance."

"The logic of doctor-assisted suicide does not stop with the terminally ill," the archbishop warned.

California Governor Jerry Brown, whom Church Militant calls a "lapsed Catholic" and former Jesuit seminarian, signed the EoLOA into law last month.

"Ordinarily the Church does not take a stand on ballot initiatives of referendum until they qualify the ballot," explained Andrew Rivas, director of government and community relations for the archdiocese. "In this case, the California bishops believe the threat of physician-assisted suicide is so grave that the Church should...

Continue reading here.