Catholics attending Mass across western South Dakota last weekend found petitions waiting at church aimed at further restricting abortions in the state.

Bishop Blase Cupich of the Catholic Diocese of Rapid City gave permission to individual pastors at West River Catholic churches to place the petitions. Most were believed to have done so. Cupich also previously sent a letter explaining the issue to church pastors that could be read at Mass.

In the letter, Cupich urged Catholics to study an accompanying explanation of the proposed law, which would prohibit abortions except when needed to save the life and prevent serious damage to the health of a pregnant woman, or in cases of pregnancy from rape or incest. Cupich asked parishioners to "pray for the grace of God's wisdom about your response to this serious effort to protect women and their unborn children."

Although the policy of the Roman Catholic Church is clear and emphatic in opposing abortion and favoring not only restrictions but an outright abortion ban, some Catholics were unsettled by the presence of the petitions inside the church at Mass.

"It was troubling to me," Bernadette Borszich-Usera of Sturgis said. "I don't think petitions belong inside the church building. There are so many other places you can sign that petition."

Borszich-Usera attends Our Lady of the Black Hills Catholic Church at Piedmont. She said the petitions were there in the church before and after Mass, but she didn't see anyone encouraging people to sign them.

The Cathedral of Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Rapid City was one of the many churches that made the petitions available and read the bishop's letter. Cupich is pastor of the cathedral, but the Rev. Michel Malloy is rector and handles regular management and pastor duties there.

People standing at the entrances of the cathedral presented petitions or directed those coming in to tables where the petitions lay. In his letter, Cupich did not specifically encourage people to sign the petition or tell them how to vote. But the presence of the petitions applied pressure to those entering the church to sign the petition and support the proposed law, Borszich-Usera said.

"It's still implied how you should vote," she said.

Mulloy announced the presence of the petitions before Mass at the cathedral but didn't direct people to sign them. Parishioner Fred Berendse helped present the petitions at one of the entrances.

"We were instructed that we shouldn't try to coerce anybody, but to just make the petition present," he said. "I just held the clipboard and told them it was a petition for the abortion bill. That's all we could say. We got a lot of signatures."

Berendse said he didn't have any mixed feelings about presenting the petitions in church. "It was directed by the bishop, so I guess I felt as a parishioner that it was in good order," he said.

Bishop Paul Swain of the Catholic Diocese of Sioux Falls issued a statement last week about the petition drive. Swain wrote that pastors could "use their prudential judgment as to when and how petitions will be available in the parish." But they should "never interfere with the reverence due sacred space or create an unwelcoming or divisive atmosphere," he wrote.

Borszich-Usera worries about the petitions doing that. She also wonders why the issue is returning, since state voters rejected an abortion ban - one without the exceptions for health, rape and incest - in 2006.

"What part of 'no' don't they understand?" she said.

Berendse, however, said the petition drive and the proposed law make sense to him.

"I think we have a moral obligation as Catholics to present our point of view," he said.

Some Catholics and other strong abortion foes have questioned whether they could support the proposed ban because it includes exceptions.

Swain said Catholics may in good conscience support the "principle of gradualism" to reduce abortions as much as possible and work to eliminate exceptions in the future.

Catholics also may, in good conscience, oppose the law because of the exceptions, Swain wrote.

Cupich never specifically endorsed the proposed law or encouraged Catholics to vote for it in his letter. He did write that the "core teaching of the church on the sanctity of all human life from conception to natural death, which flows from the natural law, is clear." He also said there are "legitimate differences" on how best to write that unconditional right to life into law. And he urged Catholics to be charitable and to show "respect and love one another" as the discussion continues.

Contact reporter Kevin Woster at 394-8413 or kevin.woster@rapidcityjournal.com