M
Matt25
Guest
Try visiting the Catholics against Capital Punishment site cacp.org/pages/585134/index.htm
Q: Doesn’t the death penalty deter others from murder?
A: There are no studies that clearly show this. Most murders are done out of misplaced passion, or under the influence of alcohol or drugs. It is doubtful that many of them would be deterred by some future threat.
Q: The Church seems to be standing up only for the criminals, not the victims. Why is that?
A: We understand the enormous pain that those close to a murdered loved one must feel. Our family of faith must stand with all victims of violence as they struggle to overcome their terrible loss and fear, and find some sense of peace.
We understand that those who commit violent crimes must be separated from society lest they create new victims. We do not suggest that they should not be punished. Jesus Himself was not “soft on crime.” What He did was to shift the locus of judgment to a higher court, one that has absolute knowledge of the evidence, of good deeds and evil, of faith, and of things private and public.
Q: Isn’t the death penalty something that family members deserve, so they can feel that justice is done?
A: Vengeance is an understandable human reaction when great evil confronts us. However, as people of faith living in a violent culture, we urge victims’ families and friends to seek justice without vengeance, and to seek an end to the cycle of violence by punishing murderers without executing them. Not too long ago a death sentence was given to a man who murdered a doctor who performed abortions. This is a prime example of the cycle of violence.
Q: What other reasons can you give to support your position?
A: In addition to the faith-based arguments outlined above, one can cite many other problems related to the death penalty:
- It extinguishes the possibility for rehabilitation and compensation.
- Executions attract enormous publicity, much of it unhealthy. They fuel the human desire for revenge, which is not a Christian virtue.
- Recent news stories about the exoneration of over 90 former death row inmates show there is the possibility that innocent persons may be executed.
- Long and unavoidable delays in death penalty cases are harmful to local communities. They divert public funds from law enforcement and other more pressing needs, and create anxiety, anguish and uncertainty for the loved ones of both the victim and the criminal.
Or the Holy See vatican.va/roman_curia/secretariat_state/documents/rc_seg-st_doc_20010621_death-penalty_en.html
- The death penalty is applied in a discriminatory manner. The poor and minorities are more likely to be executed than those who commit similar crimes but who can afford better legal help. It is applied arbitrarily – almost like a lottery – when one considers that only a small proportion of the many homicides that occur result in death sentences.
***DECLARATION OF THE HOLY SEE
TO THE FIRST WORLD CONGRESS
ON THE DEATH PENALTY ***
The Holy See has consistently sought the abolition of the death penalty and his Holiness Pope John Paul II has personally and indiscriminately appealed on numerous occasions in order that such sentences should be commuted to a lesser punishment, which may offer time and incentive for the reform of the guilty, hope to the innocent and safeguard the well-being of civil society itself and of those individuals who through no choice of theirs have become deeply involved in the fate of those condemmed to death…
It is surely more necessary than ever that the inalienable dignity of human life be universally respected and recognised for its immeasurable value.** The Holy See has engaged itself in the pursuit of the abolition of capital punishment and an integral part of the defence of human life at every stage of its development and does so in defiance of any assertion of a culture of death. **
Where the death penalty is a sign of desperation, civil society is invited to assert its belief in a justice that salvages hope from the ruin of the evils which stalk our world. The universal abolition of the death penalty would be a courageous reaffirmation of the belief that humankind can be successful in dealing with criminality and of our refusal to succumb to despair before such forces, and as such it would regenerate new hope in our very humanity.
Strasbourg, 21 June 2001.