Virginia bishop urges faithful to ‘pray, fast and vote no’ on abortion, same-sex marriage amendments

(OSV News) — Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington, Virginia, is urging the faithful to pray, fast and vote “no” on enshrining abortion and same-sex marriage in that state.

The call, which Bishop Burbidge issued in a Sept. 30 video posted to the Diocese of Arlington’s YouTube channel, comes days after early voting in Virginia began Sept. 18, ahead of the Nov. 3 Election Day.

This election’s ballot includes two proposed constitutional amendments at odds with Catholic teaching on the sanctity of human life and the nature of marriage.

The first initiative, if approved, would guarantee access to abortion while allowing for third-trimester restrictions “except when the patient’s health is at risk or the pregnancy cannot survive.”

The second ballot question would remove the state’s constitutional ban on same-sex marriage — currently unenforceable following the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision on the issue — and “affirm that two adults may marry regardless of sex, gender, or race.”

The Catholic Church teaches that all human life is sacred from conception to natural death, and as such, opposes direct abortion.

Catholic teaching also holds that the marriage covenant is reserved for a man and a woman, regardless of their race. Their union images the love of God while ordered to “the good of the spouses” and the gift of children. The Church recognizes that gender can be distinguished as the social and cultural aspect of human sexuality, but not separated from biological sex.

Bishop Burbidge, whose Sept. 30 message followed previous calls as part of the diocese’s “Catholics Vote No” campaign, asked the faithful to “defeat” the “two radically unjust ballot initiatives” through spiritual as well as political action.

“Our ‘Catholics Vote No’ campaign is rooted in prayer and fasting,” he explained in his Sept. 30 video.

For the month of October, he asked the faithful to pray the Stations of the Cross — the traditional meditations on the Lord Jesus Christ’s journey to Calvary — while fasting by eating only “one full meal and no meat.”

On Sundays, Bishop Burbidge invited the faithful to “pray the rosary and fast from social media for at least a few hours — especially before and after Mass.”

He said, “It would be a powerful force if all in the Diocese of Arlington were united in these efforts,” adding, “We entrust them to the Lord’s amazing grace, so all that is just, right and true will be done in this election.”

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