Thank you, Bishop Silva
I would like to extend a hand of deep gratitude to Bishop Larry Silva for the letter he wrote to the people of the Diocese of Honolulu on the issue of the impending legislation to legalize assisted suicide (euthanasia) in our Aloha State.
It was thought- provoking and sincere as he meticulously stated the overlying cover-up and dangers connected with this bill as well as the perspective of our church on the matter of assisted suicide.
Bishop Silva advises us to do a number of things to show our disapproval and to take action, most importantly to voice our opposition to this bill to our elected representatives. It is the culture of death vs. the culture of life, the first being the legalization of abortion in Hawaii and nationwide.
What the people of our diocese may overlook is that each of the political parties in our nation and state have a platform. As long as we elect those individuals who accept and continue to enforce the present platform represented in our state, we will continue to see abortion on demand, allocation of our tax monies for Planned Parenthood, experimental sex education in our schools and more.
Most egregious are HB663 and SB501 that want to require private, religious-based pregnancy resource centers to post prominently, as well as hand out, a list of places where their clients can procure an abortion and obtain abortificients or be subject to a fine and penalty. They now also propose bills favoring assisted suicide and legalizing prostitution. These will all come to be without a concerted action on our part.
Catholics, great in number, could make a difference, yet continue to vote these representatives into office. Why then, do we act surprised when these things are legislated into law?
Over and over again, our elected representatives simply resort to sticking to their party platform.
A culture of life is possible here in Hawaii if Catholics seek out and support those running for public office who represent our most important Catholic values.
Ruth Prinzivalli
Kaneohe
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