The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops congratulated Democratic winners of Tuesday’s statewide elections and prayed for their wisdom, while reaffirming that the bishops’ policy priorities remain unchanged.
In a Nov. 5 message reported by Catholic News Agency, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops told the winners that the bishops are praying “that God grants them wisdom as they take on the responsibilities of public office.” Looking toward the 90th Texas Legislative Session, the bishops said “the principles of Catholic social and moral teaching that guide our work remain unchanged,” and pledged to keep advocating for policies that “uphold human dignity, strengthen families, care for the vulnerable and creation, and promote the common good.”
The bishops’ agenda states that “human life is intrinsically valuable and should be protected by law from conception, which happens at fertilization, to natural death,” and adds that “the natural family is the sanctuary of life in which parents teach children how they ought to live.” It calls for funding abortion alternatives and assistance for kinship, foster and adoptive families, and it opposes euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, surrogacy and what the bishops called “the advancement of gender ideology, especially in places where young people are affected.”
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The statement comes as the incoming Democratic administration is expected to pursue pro-abortion measures. Attorney general-elect and pro-abortion Democrat Nathan Johnson has already said he will not continue outgoing Attorney General Ken Paxton’s (R) lawsuits against out-of-state providers who have mailed abortion pills into Texas, and that he will not enforce the state’s pro-life laws.
Texas Right to Life President John Seago called Johnson’s position “absolutely ridiculous,” telling EWTN News, “His new job as attorney general is to enforce the laws of Texas, regardless of his personal feelings about them.” Seago said abortion pill trafficking “enables abusive men that are ordering pills from other states and sneaking them into the drinks of Texas mothers,” and Seago added that Johnson “is taking a position that he will defend an industry that enables this type of assault on Texas’ pregnant women.”
Archbishop Gustavo Garcia-Siller of San Antonio issued a separate postelection statement, recalling the U.S. bishops’ preelection call for Catholics to place faith before politics and noting that Pope Leo XIV cast a mail-in ballot from the Vatican. He wrote, “Following [Tuesday’s] election results, I strongly encourage all to remain actively engaged in civic life,” and added, “We do not need more division after a particularly bruising campaign season, but rather, we need unity to be fostered in order to move forward in freedom to discuss difficult topics more deeply in light of the Gospel.”
Democrats won every major statewide office in Tuesday’s elections and gained a majority in the Texas House, while Republicans retained control of the state Senate.
This article originally appeared on American Faith and is reposted with permission.
