In Respect Life Part 1, I introduced the issue of respect for Human Life. With quotes from the U.S. Bishops Pastoral Statement on the Gospel of Life, I showed that the truly pro-life person or disciple seeks to protect human life wherever it is threatened: the life of the unborn, the life of poor persons, especially those whose lives are threatened by a lack of food, clean water and disease, euthanasia, war and capital punishment-which is sometimes called "state sponsored killing".
In this weeks column I will share with you an article on the issue of capital punishment. At the end of 2001, there were 3,581 inmates on death row, 71 were executed. It is said that over 70% of Catholics-including church going Catholics, are in favor of capital punishment. I find this sad. The following article was written by Fr. Robert Fin of Gannon University, Erie Penn and published in Priest magazine in Aug '03. Fr. Fin writes:
The Illinois Catholic Conference and other Catholic groups that oppose the death penalty praised the 2002 decision by outgoing Illinois Gov. George Ryan to commute all the state's death sentences. Just two days before he left office, he commuted the death sentences of the 167 people on Illinois' death row.
He issued pardon for four death-row inmates, who-he said-were wrongly convicted on the basis of coerced false confessions. Three inmates had their sentences commuted to 40-year terms. The rest of them received alternate sentences of life in prison without possibility of parole.
The actions followed a three-year moratorium on executions in Illinois, and the release last spring of a report detailing problems with how the death penalty is carried out in the state. Prior to Ryan's latest actions, 13 Illinois death-row inmates had been exonerated in recent years.
On Jan. 10, the governor discussed his actions during an address at DePaul School of Law in Chicago. He quoted Judge John Noonan of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, who told an audience at the Catholic University of America that capital punishment is "state sponsored homicide." He also quoted Chief Justice William Rehnquist's comments in a 1993 case that "clemency is deeply rooted in our Anglo-American tradition of law and is a historic remedy for preventing miscarriages of justice where judicial process has been exhausted."
At his Jan. 13 inauguration, incoming Gov. Rod Blagojevich called the commutations of his predecessor a "big mistake.: The U.S. bishops' Domestic Policy Committee applauded the clemency decision of Ryan, whose reply to Blagojevich was: "Why do we kill people who kill people to show that it is wrong to kill people?"
Many Catholics find the Church's stance on capital punishment somewhat confusing. While Christian faith affirms the sanctity of human life, the Church also upholds the legitimacy of executing a duly convicted criminal.
In the Old Testament, the first murder's punishment was not death. God cursed and banished Cain for slaying Abel, but also threatened a sevenfold vengeance on anyone who would harm him (Gn 4:15).
On the other hand, in the same Old Testament, when Noah left the ark, the Lord blessed him and said to him: "Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed" (Gn 9:6).
Even Christ seems to tolerate the practice of capital punishment. When Pilate told Him he had the power to release Him or have Him crucified, Jesus answered: "You would have no power over me, unless it had been given you from above" (Jn 19:11).
Nor does our Lord contradict the good thief, crucified next to Him, who while stealing had even committed murder: "We are receiving the due reward of our deeds..." (Lk 23:41). Through the ages, moreover, a clear consensus regarding the death penalty was condoned by Christians, since it restored the balance of justice by inflicting punishment in exchange for the harm done to an individual or society. In addition, the threat of death, it was thought, would discourage people from committing heinous acts against their fellowmen.
But some people wonder how executions performed in the presence of just a few witnesses would deter potential wrongdoers. Furthermore, capital punishment certainly does not deter murders perpetrated "in the heat of passion," or when committed by mentally ill people.
In the Old Testament, Exodus and Leviticus lay out the scope of capital punishment. Here are some quotations:
"Whoever strikes a man a mortal blow, must be put to death" (Ex 21:12).
"You shall not wrong any widow or orphan. If ever you wrong them and they cry out to me, I will surely hear their cry. My wrath will flare up, and I will kill you with the sword, then your own wife will be a widow, and your children orphans" (Ex 22:21-23).
"If a man commits adultery with his neighbor's wife, both the adulterer and the adulteress shall be put to death" (Lv 20:10).
"If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them shall be put to death" (Lv 20:13).
"If a man marries a woman and her mother also, the man and the two women as well shall be burned to death for their shameful conduct" (Lv 20:14).
"Whoever takes the life of any human being shall be put to death" (Lv 24:17).
In the New Testament, there is a presumption of mercy. The adulteress in John 8 would have been in grave trouble in the Old Testament, but Jesus says, "Let the one among you who without sin be the first to throw a stone at her." And, He adds: "Neither do I condemn you."
Finally, there is the Sermon on the Mount in the fifth chapter of Matthew. Here Jesus speaks of mercy, retaliation and love of one's enemies. On retaliation, for example, He says to "offer no resistance to one who is evil. When someone strikes you on your right cheek, turn the other one to him as well."
When the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, executions were rather slow in coming. Today, they are hitting flood tide. The only countries that execute more people are China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the Congo.
The media have taken on the following two events as "hot stories": The two men in Texas who dragged an innocent, mentally impaired black man behind their truck, listening to his screams of pain and terror, while scattering his body parts all over the landscape "just for the fun of it." And the story of Timothy McVeigh who blew up Oklahoma City's federal building, killing 168 men, women and babies.
Of course, most people wanted death for the killers. Their major reason seems to be: "They did this to innocent people. They don't deserve to live."
The death penalty has been supported in many societies, and even, traditionally, by the Christian churches. The support was given, however, at times when society could not be adequately protected until criminals were executed. But our society has moved beyond this inadequacy, and now we are able to protect the common good by incarcerating for life those who have committed heinous crimes.
Major Difficulties
Therefore, the major difficulties with justifying capital punishment as a contemporary practice are:
The Church's strong opposition to the death penalty took center stage shortly after the publication of the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC) in 1994, when in his 1995 encyclical Evagelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Pope John Paul II said:
"The nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity; in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvement in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically nonexistent (E.V., no 56).
Prior to the Pope's encyclical, the 1994 Catechism acknowledged the right and even duty of public authority to use the death penalty "in cases of extreme gravity" (CCC, no. 2266).
Indianapolis Archbishop Daniel Buechlein, in whose archdiocese McVeigh's execution was scheduled, referred to the CCC's above statement:
Even if our Church opposes the death penalty in a case as awful as McVeigh's, we do not question in principle the state's right to impose the death penalty.
There is no doubt of the terrible crime that McVeigh committed. We cannot even imagine the immense pain and sorrow inflicted on the victims' families and on those people who were injured in the blast that brought such devastation to Oklahoma City.
Nevertheless, our Holy Father personally appealed to President Bush to commute McVeigh's sentence to life in prison. The president rejected that appeal. He was not alone in his disagreement with the Pope. Marquette University (a Jesuit school) professor Dr. John McAdams told the press just before McVeigh's execution: "Clearly the anti-death penalty people are thrown on the defensive by the obvious fact that it looks to everyone that McVeigh deserves to die."
Of course, the Pope acknowledges a legitimate government's right to execute. But he wishes that it wouldn't be exercised. He pointed out in the Evangelium Vitae: "In the depths of his conscience, man is always reminded of the inviolability of life-his own life and that of others-as something which does not belong to him, because it is the property and gift of God the Creator and Father" (E.V., no. 40).
It is from this understanding of sacredness of human life that the Ten Commandments prohibit murder; "You shall not kill" (Ex 20:13). In the New Testament at Matthew 19:18, Our Lord affirms this teaching, but He takes it further in the positive command of love for one's neighbor. The neighbor may be someone you know; it may also be a stranger, an enemy-even a murderer.
No Way Minimizes Horror
Where does this understanding of the dignity of every person leave us with regard to the death penalty? Revenge is always wrong for Christians; and not worthy of a country which prides itself on being humane.
In opposing the death penalty, the Church in no way minimizes the horror of the actions of those who take the lives of others, and particularly when they do so in a brutal manner. Evil is evil, and we all need to recognize it for what it is. But the taking of a criminal's life does not bring back the lives of his victims.
It is clear that our present correctional system has the capacity to protect citizens from convicted criminals. Imprisonment for the rest of one's life without the possibility of parole is indeed an appropriate penalty for taking another's life unjustly. It is only a delusion to believe that pain will end by making someone also feel pain.
The bottom line is: The Church has taught that a legitimate government has the authority to execute. What has changed is the Church's call, led by Pope John Paul II, not to exercise that authority.
Somewhere in the book of Ezechiel, we find these words: "God desires not the death of the sinner but, that he repents and lives." That should be our attitude also.