Another important opportunity has arrived for Catholics to let their voices be heard in Delaware as another push for physician-assisted suicide is making its way through the state legislature.
Catholics at church this weekend will have the chance to send a message directly to state legislators that they want government to stay out of people’s life decisions. Postcards will be available to be filled out at every church and the diocese plans to have them delivered to lawmakers.
Bishop William E. Koenig plans to celebrate 8 a.m. Mass on March 11 at Church of the Holy Cross in Dover. He is welcoming priests and parishioners to join him at Mass and for recitation of the rosary. Legislative Hall in the state capital is where legislators will be returning to resume their session. Assisted suicide legislation is on the “ready list” and advocacy group “Patients Rights Action Fund” is hosting a Delaware Lobby Day the same day and encouraging parishioners to sign up to meet with their legislators. Click here to set up a meeting with your legislators on March 11.
As HB140 makes yet another return to the Delaware legislature, the Diocese of Wilmington is asking Catholics to urge their state lawmakers to vote “no.”
Bishop Koenig said the diocese that encompasses Delaware and the Eastern Shore of Maryland encounters proposed assisted suicide laws in both states this legislative cycle.
“In Maryland, we have the able assistance of the Maryland Catholic Conference,” the bishop said in a statement, “and are able to partner with the Archdioceses of Baltimore and Washington, D.C. We will take their lead for how we engage with Maryland’s legislators.
“In Delaware, however, we are the only Catholic voice to lobby our legislators.”
Then-Delaware Gov. John Carney on Sept. 20 vetoed House Bill 140, reversing an earlier legislative maneuver that enabled supporters to rescind the senate vote from the previous week that defeated the assisted suicide bill. The measure passed in a new vote with 11 Democrats voting in favor of it in the 21-member state senate. It went to Carney’s desk from there.
On inauguration day in Dover this year, new Gov. Matt Meyer promised he would sign a physician-assisted suicide bill that makes it to his desk. HB140 passed the state House of Representatives last April on a nearly party-line vote before barely making it through the senate.
The physician-assisted suicide legislation in Delaware has had numerous pushes in the last several years, including 2022 when it also passed through a House committee but was never offered for a full vote. It was removed from the House agenda that May.
