Texas bishops cut ties with pro-life organisation

The Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, (TCCB) last week issued a parish advisory asking all parishes to cut ties with Texas Right to Life, the state's oldest and largest pro-life organisation.

"Texas Right to Life often opposes the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops and has implied that the bishops do not faithfully represent Church teaching," the bishops wrote, highlighting several areas where they said TRL had misrepresented Catholic positions or made misleading attacks on Texas legislators.

They said: "The bishops have been compelled to publicly correct Texas Right to Life's misstatements on end-of-life care and advance directives.. Texas Right to Life implied that the legislation the bishops were supporting allowed euthanasia and death panels rather than the reality that the legislation reflected the long-standing Church teaching requiring a balance of patient autonomy and the physician conscience protection."

The TCCB said Texas Right to Life's voter guide excluded pro-life members of the Texas legislature, and "was not based on a fair analysis of a legislator's work... Unfortunately, a number of legislators who have consistently voted for pro-life and end of life legislation have been opposed by Texas Right to Life," said the bishops.

They concluded: We encourage all Catholics to engage in pro-life legislative advocacy by engaging with the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops, joining the Texas Catholic Advocacy Network, and by supporting pro-life groups which engage in respectful legislative advocacy. Groups they endorse, include the diocesan Respect Life office, Gabriel Project, Project Rachel, 40 Days for Life, and pregnancy resource centers, which can be found by visiting the Texas Pregnancy Care Network's Find a Provider page.

Texas Right to Life say on their website that they are "disappointed but not surprised" by the "politically motivated attacks."

Read the Bishops' full parish advisory here: https://fwdioc.org/TCCB-parish-advisory-texas-right-to-life.pdf