(LifeSiteNews) — Bishop Michael F. Burbidge of Arlington has summoned Catholics in his diocese to a month of prayer and fasting in October, asking them to unite in imploring God’s assistance for the defeat of two “radically unjust” constitutional amendments on the ballot in Virginia.

In a video message posted by the Diocese of Arlington, Burbidge framed the effort as the heart of the diocese’s “Catholics Vote No” campaign ahead of the November 3 election.

“Brothers and sisters in Christ, I’m asking you to take some specific actions throughout October to defeat two radically unjust ballot initiatives now before all Virginia voters,” he appealed.

“Our Catholics Vote No campaign is rooted in prayer and fasting. Therefore, on Fridays, I ask that you pray the Stations of the Cross and fast, which means eating one full meal and no meat. On Sundays, I ask that you pray the Rosary and fast from social media for at least a few hours, especially before and after Mass,” he requested.

The bishop added that diocesan unity would be “a powerful force,” and that the effort should be entrusted “to the Lord’s amazing grace so all that is just, right, and true will be done in this election.”

‘An issue of fundamental moral justice confronts each one of us’

The October discipline follows an unprecedented pastoral intervention Burbidge made earlier in September when he directed priests in his diocese’s parishes to read from the pulpit a letter instructing Catholics to vote “No” on Ballot Questions 1 and 2. He said he had never before asked every priest to perform such a task.

In that letter, Burbidge warned that Virginians “will soon face very serious legal threats to the sacredness of human life and the sanctity of marriage.” Ballot Question 1, he wrote, “proposes an extreme and vague change to the Virginia Constitution that would create a legal right to unregulated abortions, performed by unlicensed abortion practitioners at any time during pregnancy.”

The measure, he explained, “threatens the health and safety of mothers and would allow for abortions targeting healthy babies all the way up to birth.” It “extends this so-called right even to minors” and “would remove the role of parents concerning life-altering and irreversible decisions for their minor daughters.”

“Unfortunately, abortion is already legal in Virginia,” the bishop lamented at the time. “But what is on the ballot this fall would expand abortion beyond what most citizens recognize as reasonable limits. The proposed amendment is extreme. It is unnecessary. And it is wrong.”

Ballot Question 2, he said, “would remove from our state constitution the truth, as Jesus taught, that marriage is between one man and one woman.” It would also, in his words, “enshrine gender ideology by falsely separating the reality of one’s sex and gender, obscuring the truth that we are created in the image and likeness of God.”

Originally named a bishop by Pope St. John Paul II in 2003, Burbidge affirmed that the Church “is not partisan. The Church never advocates for or against specific candidates or parties,” he wrote. “At the same time, the Church, in fidelity to the Gospel and her mission, always speaks clearly, faithfully and truthfully concerning matters of faith and morals in public life.”

“An issue of fundamental moral justice confronts each one of us,” the Philadelphia native continued in his letter. “The Church boldly proclaims its ‘Yes!’ to the protection of the unborn and the sanctity of all human life.”

“For us to speak this ‘Yes,’ we must together proclaim ‘No!’ to these radically unjust ballot initiatives, in fidelity to God and for the good of all in our society.”

Supporting ‘radically unjust’ amendments could threaten one’s eternal salvation

The appeal to prayer and pulpit letter represent aspects of the resolute opposition promised by the state’s bishops in January after the General Assembly advanced the so-called “Virginia Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment.” At the time, Burbidge and Richmond Bishop Barry Knestout called its swift passage “shocking to the conscience.”

In a joint statement they warned the measure “would go far beyond even what Roe v. Wade previously allowed” and “would enshrine virtually unlimited abortion at any stage of pregnancy, with no age restriction.” They pledged to “fight the extreme abortion amendment with maximum determination.”

A May analysis by LifeSiteNews journalist Patrick Delaney argued that a “Yes” vote on such an amendment is unlike an ordinary candidate vote: “the voters themselves become legislators, who in voting ‘Yes’ will be willing the enactment of every word of this amendment.”

Citing the Church’s teaching that anyone involved in lawmaking has a “grave and clear obligation to oppose” laws that attack human life, Delaney wrote that a knowing, free vote for the measure is an objectively grave moral offense before God that could threaten one’s eternal salvation.

Burbidge’s letter closes with a charge of baptismal duty: Catholics must “participate in public life with a prayerfully and factually informed conscience.”

“Together, with God’s grace,” he wrote, “we can protect life, liberty and the future of our Virginia home.”

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