Church leaders speak out against Amendment 3

Photos by Jacob Wiegand | jacobwiegand@archstl.org Demonstrators prayed against Amendment 3 on Oct. 2 outside St. Mary Magdalen Church in Brentwood. Amendment 3 deals with reproductive services including the legalization of abortion in the state. St. Mary Magdalen parishioner Ron Benge said the gathering, organized by the pro-life committee at St. Mary Magdalen, meets from 5-5:30 p.m. every Wednesday until after the election. “We believe, very emotionally, that Amendment 3 is terrible for women, babies, everyone,” Benge said. “This is our way of fighting back, by prayer.”

Archbishop, dozens of priests share message in homilies during Respect Life Month

Jennifer Brinker

Submitted on October 9, 2024

Read more stories about Missouri Amendment 3 by visiting stlreview.com/3BC29O5

Faith leaders in the Archdiocese of St. Louis and elsewhere have been speaking out against Amendment 3, urging people of faith to vote against the measure on Nov. 5.

If passed, Amendment 3 would allow abortions until viability (typically around 22-24 weeks of pregnancy), with an exception for the “life and physical or mental health” of the pregnant person.

Connie Schleeper, Kathie Hodge, and Fred Weckenmann demonstrated against Amendment 3 on Oct. 2 at St. Mary Magdalen in Brentwood. St. Mary Magdalen parishioner Ron Benge said the gathering, organized by the pro-life committee at St. Mary Magdalen, meets every Wednesday until after the election. “We believe, very emotionally, that Amendment 3 is terrible for women, babies, everyone,” Benge said. “This is our way of fighting back, by prayer.”

The measure also proposes to create a right to reproductive freedom and that the government shall not “deny or infringe upon a person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom … including but not limited to prenatal care, childbirth, postpartum care, birth control, abortion care, miscarriage care and respectful birthing conditions.”

At the annual Red Mass for legal professionals celebrated Oct. 6 at the Cathedral Basilica of Saint Louis, Archbishop Mitchell T. Rozanski called for prayers for our country and the elected officials, judges and lawyers who make important decisions “so crucial to the truth of human life and dignity.”

In his homily, the archbishop also urged the congregation to uphold the dignity of human life from the moment of conception as they consider the candidates and issues on the ballot this November, especially Amendment 3.

“As a Church, we uphold the inherent dignity of human life, from the moment of conception until natural death,” he said. “Sadly, this age of relativism has eroded the meaning and dignity of life in our society, affecting the most vulnerable among us, the baby in its mother’s womb.”

Amendment 3 “is simply a bad law, poorly written and with the potential to bring devastating effects to the citizens of our state,” Archbishop Rozanski said. “I urge you to share this message with your friends and to vote ‘no’ on Amendment 3. We must bring the truth of reason and faith to defeat this horrible amendment in the most pro-life state in the union.”

Dozens of priests and deacons in the archdiocese have preached on Amendment 3 in their homilies over several weekends. They joined more than 45 Catholic parishes and Christian churches throughout the Archdiocese of St. Louis that participated in the annual Life Chain on Oct. 6. The ecumenical pro-life event unites tens of thousands of people each year in peaceful prayer and witness throughout the United States and Canada.

Speaking at Masses the weekend of Oct. 5 and 6, Father Aaron Nord, pastor of St. Stephen Protomartyr Parish in St. Louis, said that the proposed amendment would remove the protection of the law from an entire class of children who are dear to God — those who have not yet been born.

Ellen Korte, a parishioner at the St. Francis de Sales Oratory, prayed the Rosary during a gathering against Amendment 3 on Oct. 2 at St. Mary Magdalen in Brentwood.

“By human reason, aided by science and other truths, we can come to the conviction that human children in the womb are children,” he said in his homily at Mass Oct. 6. “Their lives are already existing.”

Calling the amendment “extreme and deceptive,” Father Nord wrote in the parish bulletin that “I believe we would fail in love for others if we did not oppose it.” He also provided links to resources where the local Church provides support to those who are pregnant or parenting.

Father Mitchell Baer, associate pastor at Immaculate Conception Parish in Dardenne Prairie, was featured in a video in which he highlighted some of the language in the proposed amendment and how it could be legally implemented.

For example, the language states that abortions may not be restricted if it is determined it is needed “to protect the life or physical or mental health of the pregnant person.”

“By including mental health in this subsection, it opens the floodgates for providers to justify late-term abortions for all kinds of emotional or psychological reasons,” Father Baer said. Amendment 3 “will be a radical and dramatic change that Missouri has never seen before, and going back on a constitutional amendment is not easy, and so I urge you vote ‘no.’”

Fathers Kevin Schroeder and Jacob Braun of Incarnate Word Parish in Chesterfield created a video and document on Catholic teaching and voting in accordance with your faith. The two described Amendment 3 as “an extreme constitutional amendment … The scope of the evil that will be unleashed by this amendment is deeply uncomfortable to ponder. But the moral consequences are also too abominable to ignore. Catholic voters cannot be silent in this election.”

Other faith denominations have been speaking out against Amendment 3. Rev. Dr. R. Lee Hagan, president of the Missouri District of the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod, said in a letter that the LCMS has “consistently spoken out on issues related to the sanctity of life” and that they “denounce any legislation or action that supports or funds abortions.”

Amendment 3 “would not just legalize abortion, but it would be an amendment to the Missouri constitution that essentially guarantees abortion under almost any circumstances with no meaningful caveats,” he said. The LCMS offered resources at mo.lcms.org/ a-letter-from-president-hagan.

“As followers of Jesus, we do not support killing the unborn,” Missouri Baptist Convention executive director Wes Fowler said in a column in the Pathway, the publication of the Missouri Baptist Convention.

“I wholeheartedly believe that 100 years from now, as our present culture is studied and analyzed, abortion will be viewed as barbaric,” he said. “Future generations will ask, ‘How could they be so blind?’ ‘How could they intentionally kill so many babies?’ ‘Why didn’t they value human life?’”

“I pray Amendment 3 fails, and I further pray you’ll join me in standing for life by voting ‘no,’” Fowler said.