After Democrats won every major statewide office in Tuesday’s midterm elections and gained a majority in the Texas House of Representatives, Texas’ Catholic bishops offered prayers for the winners and continued to emphasize public policy priorities aligned with Catholic social teaching.
In a Nov. 5 message, the Texas Catholic Conference of Bishops congratulated the winners, telling them that the bishops are praying “that God grants them wisdom as they take on the responsibilities of public office.”
The bishops reiterated their legislative priorities in a previously finalized agenda: “As we look ahead to the 90th Texas Legislative Session, the principles of Catholic social and moral teaching that guide our work remain unchanged,” the bishops wrote. They said they will continue to advocate for policies that “uphold human dignity, strengthen families, care for the vulnerable and creation, and promote the common good.”
In the agenda, the bishops stated: “Human life is intrinsically valuable and should be protected by law from conception, which happens at fertilization, to natural death. Moreover, the natural family is the sanctuary of life in which parents teach children how they ought to live.”
Specific policy positions the bishops took in their legislative agenda include supporting funding for abortion alternatives and assistance for parents (including kinship, foster, and adoptive families); opposing euthanasia, in vitro fertilization, and surrogacy; and opposing “the advancement of gender ideology, especially in places where young people are affected.” They also promoted safeguards for “the inviolable dignity of the human person through the ethical development of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and reasonable steps to address gun-related violence.
The bishops stated they continue to oppose “efforts to weaken the protection of unborn human life.”
Newly elected attorney general says he won’t enforce Texas abortion laws
These stances come 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 Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton’s lawsuits against out-of-state providers who have illegally mailed abortion pills into Texas, saying he will respect other states’ shield laws but will not enforce Texas’ pro-life laws.
John Seago, president of Texas Right to Life, a Christian pro-life advocacy group, called Johnson’s position “absolutely ridiculous.”
“His new job as attorney general is to enforce the laws of Texas, regardless of his personal feelings about them,” Seago told EWTN News.
“The abortion pill trafficking enables abusive men that are ordering pills from other states and sneaking them into the drinks of Texas mothers,” he said. “Nathan Johnson is taking a position that he will defend an industry that enables this type of assault on Texas’ pregnant women.”
Johnson did not respond to a request for comment from EWTN News by the time of publication.
‘Remain engaged in civic life’
Separately, Archbishop Gustavo García-Siller of San Antonio issued his own postelection statement. He recalled the U.S. bishops’ preelection call for Catholics to place faith before politics and noted that Pope Leo XIV cast a mail-in ballot from the Vatican.
The archbishop highlighted issues the Holy Father has emphasized: “protecting human life; protecting religious freedom and human rights; promoting the family; upholding the human dignity of all, including migrants and prisoners; and also promoting political dialogue and building consensus, so that we may find common ground among our diversity.”
“Following [Tuesday’s] election results, I strongly encourage all to remain actively engaged in civic life,” García-Siller wrote. “Let us further the Biblical values of the Kingdom. 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.”
He ended his statement with prayers for peace and for all officeholders to receive “wisdom and discernment from the Holy Spirit,” invoking Our Lady of Guadalupe, patroness of the Americas and of the archdiocese, to help “build up a civilization of love.”
Republicans retained control of the Texas Senate, a fact noted by some pro-life advocates as a potential check on legislative changes.
