ARTICLES

Faithful Citizenship in Virginia: Issues for the 2007 Elections

During the general elections to be held on November 6th, Virginia voters will have the opportunity to choose who will represent them in the Virginia General Assembly.

This year’s elections will determine the occupants of all 140 seats in the state legislature (40 in the Senate and 100 in the House of Delegates).

To help Catholics preparing to vote connect the Church’s social teaching to contemporary issues, and then apply that understanding to specific measures that have been debated by the General Assembly in prior sessions and that may be reconsidered in future years, the Virginia Catholic Conference has devised a six-part educational series.

The first part, entitled “Care for Pregnant Women and Unborn Children,” and the second entitled “Death Penalty,” appear below.

Subsequent editions of the Arlington Herald and The Catholic Virginian will include similar pieces on Economic Concerns, Education and Family Life, Immigrant Families, and Ethical Research Standards.

Care for Pregnant Women and Unborn Children

Catholic social teaching proclaims that human life is sacred from the moment of conception. Because all human beings are created by God, all possess an inherent dignity and therefore have certain basic rights, including the right to life and to those things that make life truly human (e.g., food, shelter, clothing, religious freedom, health care, education, and a safe environment).

The right to life is the foundation of all others. Without it, no other rights are possible.            

Abortion, then, is a preeminent threat to human dignity, because it directly attacks the most fundamental human good (life itself) and the condition for all others.

Abortion is “always a grave act of violence,” and laws permitting it are “profoundly unjust” because they fail to recognize equal rights for every child, born and unborn. (Living the Gospel of Life, a Statement by the U.S. Catholic Bishops, 1998). In addition, just as all children merit legal protection and care as members of our human family, so too do all women facing unexpected and difficult pregnancies. Laws and programs that provide the support they need are an essential element of a just and compassionate society.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and state Catholic conferences oppose any law that denies an unborn child’s right to life. Although federal law currently governs abortion’s legality, federal and state policies that restrict abortion and facilitate life-affirming alternatives to the greatest extent possible can save many lives and provide many pregnant women the assistance they need and desire. Key abortion and prenatal measures that were recently considered by the Virginia General Assembly include:

• Legislation requiring that, prior to receiving an abortion, a pregnant woman be given an opportunity to view an ultrasound image of her unborn child.

• Legislation requiring abortion clinics to be licensed by the state and subject to safety standards applicable to outpatient surgery centers.

• A prohibition on the use of state funds for providing abortions.

• An increase in state funding for prenatal care for low-income pregnant women.

The Death Penalty

Because each person is created in God’s image and likeness, human dignity belongs equally to each person, including someone convicted of a heinous crime. While acknowledging the legitimate defense of individuals and society, the Church teaches that the death penalty cannot be justified when a government has other ways to adequately protect its people against an unjust aggressor: “[I]f non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm — without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself — the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent.” Catechism of the Catholic Church (2267).

Applying this teaching during his 1999 visit to the United States, the late Pope John Paul II told those who attended a Mass in St. Louis: “The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life – who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of Life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal . . . for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.”

In solidarity with this teaching, the U.S. Catholic bishops issued a 2005 statement entitled A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death that renewed the call they first made in 1980 for an end to the use of capital punishment in our nation. In this statement, they observed, “In Catholic teaching the state has the recourse to impose the death penalty upon criminals convicted of heinous crimes if this ultimate sanction is the only available means to protect society from a grave threat to human life. However, this right should not be exercised when other ways are available to punish criminals and to protect society that are more respectful of human life.”

The Virginia bishops have also consistently appealed for an end to executions. In an op-ed featured in the Washington Post on April 29th of this year, Arlington Bishop Paul Loverde and Richmond Bishop Francis DiLorenzo wrote, “No matter how horrendous the crime, if a society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so. With Virginia’s life-without-parole sentence and modern incarceration system, that protection is provided. The life-sentence alternative is unique in its ability to protect state residents while upholding the dignity of every person, even the one convicted of a brutal crime. Accordingly, we are convinced that — in our time and place — the death penalty is unnecessary and inappropriate, and that death sentences should no longer be imposed or carried out in Virginia. Whenever an execution is scheduled in Virginia, we have called for a commutation of the death sentence to life without the possibility of parole.”

Among the 38 states that currently permit capital punishment, Virginia is second only to Texas in the number of executions (98) performed since 1976. Despite this alarming trend, lawmakers’ reactions are mixed. Some believe that executions are no longer needed, others favor keeping the death penalty but wish to reduce the possibility of errors in death-penalty cases, while still others even call for the expansion of capital punishment. Widely varying death-penalty-related measures recently considered by the Virginia General Assembly include:

• Legislation to abolish the death penalty in Virginia.

• Legislation to impose a moratorium on executions while flaws in the state’s death-penalty system (e.g., possible racial, socioeconomic, and geographic disparities in death sentencing) are addressed.

• Legislation expanding application of the death penalty by eliminating the requirement that only a crime’s “triggerman” can receive a death sentence.

The six-part “Faithful Citizenship in Virginia” series is authorized by the Virginia Catholic Conference (VCC) for parish use. To print a letter-size version of this piece that can be copied and made available at your parish with your pastor’s permission, visit the VCC’s Website, www.vacatholic.org.

The VCC’s website also includes a sign-up feature for those who wish to receive regular e-mail alerts and updates on legislation considered by the Virginia General Assembly and the U.S. Congress. Please join!

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