While Arizona’s Catholic bishops and state and local pro-life groups were pleased with the ruling by the state’s Supreme Court April 9 — which let stand an 1864 law banning abortions — they also cautioned Arizonans to vote against a proposed amendment on the November ballot that would undo this ban.
A Catholic advocate against the death penalty was encouraged by an annual report, released Dec. 1, that shows that 29 states either abolished the death penalty or paused executions this past year.
With Arizona set to carry out its first capital executions in almost eight years, the state’s Catholic bishops fear that once the practice resumes it will be hard to stop.
