Inside this issue

• Last-Minute Voter Resources
• Newsom Calls Death Penalty "Infected with Racism"
• COVID-19 Coping Resources
• Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory Named to the College of Cardinals
• Archbishop Gomez: Our Mission is Bigger Than Politics

  Last-Minute Voter Resources  
  Tuesday is Election Day and if you have put off voting so far, the California Catholic Conference has the resources below to help guide you through the lengthy ballot. There are also Faithful Citizenship resources to help you make decisions using Catholic Social Teaching, non-partisan background information and careful analysis.

2020 General Election Propositions Analysis

California Bishops Oppose Prop 14's Use of State Bonds to Pay for Embryonic Stem Cell Research

The California Bishops Oppose Prop 20 and its Promise to Roll Back Historic Criminal Justice Reforms

The Importance of Public Participation for Catholics

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  Newsom Calls Death Penalty "Infected with Racism"  
 
Building on his promise to prevent any death row executions while he is governor, Gov. Newsom on Monday filed a California Supreme Court brief calling the death penalty "infected with racism."
 
Lawyers on behalf of Newsom are arguing that the current process for juries allows room for racial bias due to "aggravating circumstances" and "mitigating circumstances" not being equally considered.
 
Newsom's brief argues that the death penalty in the United States is "rooted in the legacy of slavery, racial terror and subjugation," saying it has been "disproportionately applied, first, to enslaved Africans and African Americans, and, later, to free Black people."
 
Newsom filed the brief in the case of Donte Lamont McDaniel, who was sentenced to death in 2009 for the murder of 33-year-old George Brooks and 52-year-old Annette Anderson.
 
For more information on Catholic teaching surrounding the death penalty visit the Catholic Mobilizing Network Ending the Death Penalty.
 
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  COVID-19 Coping Resources  
  With the number of COVID infections climbing again and the holidays quickly approaching, anxiety levels are also rising.
 
How do you stay healthy - spiritually, physically, and emotionally - during such time for connection and celebration?
 
From a faith perspective, the resources available online are tremendous.  The California Catholic Conference has assembled some helpful tips for navigating emotions and loneliness during these socially isolating times.
 
The USCCB also has spiritual resources devoted to getting through these difficult times.
 
Catholic health care providers are at the epicenter of the Coronavirus response - providing quality and compassionate care amidst very complex challenges. CHA-USA's page includes prayers for patients, liturgical resources, and intercessions for a pandemic. You can also view the brochure Building Resiliency in Times of Crisis.  

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  Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory Named to the College of Cardinals  
  Archbishop José H. Gomez of Los Angeles and president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops issued a statement following the naming of Archbishop Wilton D. Gregory of Washington to the College of Cardinals by Pope Francis:
 
"By naming Archbishop Wilton Gregory as a Cardinal, Pope Francis is sending a powerful message of hope and inclusion to the Church in the United States. As a former president of our national bishops' conference, Archbishop Gregory displayed generous and principled leadership. The naming of the first African American cardinal from the United States gives us an opportunity to pause and offer thanks for the many gifts African American Catholics have given the Church. Please join me in praying for the continued ministry of Archbishop Gregory."  

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  Archbishop Gomez: Our Mission is Bigger Than Politics  
  As we are voting this year, I think we all recognize that there are some problems in our democracy. 
 
We see the obvious things ­- the polarization, the lack of charity and civility in how we talk about our differences; we see the struggles that our political leaders seem to have in working together and compromising for the common good.
 
But the deeper questions about our democracy begin in the human heart: Who are we and why?
 
Unless we know what it means to be a human being, we cannot know how to create a society that will be good for human beings. We cannot know what justice is, what a good life is, what the best way is for us to live and work.

Continue Reading at AngelusNews.com

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October 30, 2020
Vol. 13 No. 39

California Catholic Conference

 En Español

"Kindness frees us from the cruelty that at times infects human relationships, from the anxiety that prevents us from thinking of others, from the frantic flurry of activity that forgets that others also have a right to be happy." #FratelliTutti
 @Pontifex

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