A novena asking the intersession of Pope Saint John Paul II to prevent the legalization of PAS in Massachusetts
The Massachusetts 2025-2026 legislative session will begin on Wednesday, January 8. The assisted suicide bill – The End of Life Options Act – will certainly be introduced again as it has been in every session since its defeat as a referendum in 2012. We expect it to be referred to the Joint Committee on Public Health; we will soon see the legislators who will comprise that committee. Likely it will be packed with supporters from both sides of the aisle as it was last session. We also expect a hearing on the bill in the fall of 2025. Even if you do not plan to testify in person, we strongly urge you to email your opposition to the committee and your own legislators.
This year, I put together a novena prayer asking for the intercession of Pope Saint John II to defeat the bill once again. Pray the novena leading up to and at the start of the new legislative session and at critical times in the bill’s deliberations. In the words of Pope Saint John Paul II:
“Let the Christian who listens to the word of the living God, uniting work with prayer, know the place that his work has not only in earthly progress but also in the development of the kingdom of God, to which we are all called through the power of the Holy Spirit and through the word of the gospel.”
Laborem Exercens, 27
I’ve also started a new page to follow the bill through the 2025-2026 session. You can access it from the main menu at the top left of the blog under Stop Assisted Suicide in MA, as well as pages for Central and Western MA legislators and the JPII Novena.
Nature and dignity 