Last week four national Catholic publications joined together in calling for the end of the death penalty in the United States. The publications involved in this action are America, National Catholic Register, National Catholic Reporter and Our Sunday Visitor. The publications issued an editorial that all agreed with. They strongly called upon the Catholic community to say ?Capital punishment must end.? This message was published on March 5.
As the Catholic Church has continued to stress the dignity of all people, the Church has moved further and further away from the death penalty as a legitimate penalty.
We can trace the Church?s development in this matter by looking at its teachings for example. Over the past years from the early 1990s the Church has repeatedly spoken about the use of the death penalty, questioning its appropriateness.
This questioning has been based upon the Church?s teaching that stresses ?human life is sacred because from its beginning it involves the creative action of God and it remains forever in a special relationship with the Creator, who is its sole end. God alone is the Lord of Life from its beginning until its end.? Donum Vitae (Gift of Life) issued by The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.
While it is true that the Church does not exclude recourse to the use of the death penalty, it is also true that given the capabilities of society protecting itself from an unjust aggressor it is more difficult to justify use of the death penalty given the dignity of the human person and the possibility of a person redeeming himself.
In the words of Saint John Paul II?s encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life) ?the cases in which the execution of an offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent.? This is noted in the Catechism of the Catholic Church #2267.
The editorial noted these testimonials: first, Saint John Paul II amended the Catechism of the Catholic Church to effectively prohibit capital punishment; second, Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in 1997 that ?where other means for self-defense of society are possible and adequate, the death penalty may be permitted to disappear?; third, Pope Francis? 2014 call ?to fight . . . for the abolition of the death penalty.?
The day after the four publications published their issues with the editorial noted above, the Vatican?s permanent observer to United Nations agencies in Geneva stated the Vatican ?fully supports the efforts to abolish the death penalty.? Archbishop Silvano Tomasi suggested two steps to reach this goal. The first step is to sustain social reforms that would be foundational for societies to discontinue the death penalty. The second is to better conditions in prison to ensure human dignity for prisoners.
May we work for the elimination of the death penalty by our commitment for human dignity being recognized for all.
(The above column by the Most Reverend Richard Lennon, Bishop of Cleveland originally appeared in the Friday, March 13, 2015 issue of the Catholic Universe Bulletin, the official newspaper of the Diocese of Cleveland.)
