The orga­ni­za­tion Catholics Against Capital Punishment recent­ly not­ed activ­i­ties relat­ed to the Catholic Church’s offi­cial posi­tion on the death penal­ty. For the first time in recent years, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops​’s annu­al Respect Life pro­gram is urg­ing its par­tic­i­pants to make oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty a sig­nif­i­cant part of car­ry­ing out the Church’s pro-life teach­ings. The state­ment is based on the 1980 Statement on Capital Punishment of the U.S. Bishops in which they voiced their oppo­si­tion to the death penal­ty and affirmed the Catholic Church’s belief in the sanc­ti­ty of all human life. 

In New Hampshire, Auxiliary Bishop Francis Christian of the Diocese of Manchester (includ­ing New Hampshire), sub­mit­ted tes­ti­mo­ny to the state’s Commission to Study the Death Penalty, stat­ing, ​“I sug­gest that the death penal­ty is the last fron­tier of this his­tor­i­cal move­ment that strong­ly accents the intrin­sic val­ue of every human per­son. At least for the past four cen­turies, human­i­ty has lift­ed women, slaves and civil­ians trapped in war zones from the class of ​‘human objects’ to the pro­tect­ed sta­tus of human beings who enjoy the invi­o­lable right to life. This same right to life must now be extend­ed to men and women con­vict­ed of capital crimes.”

Earlier in August, the 1.7‑million-member Knights of Columbus, a men’s fra­ter­nal orga­ni­za­tion with asso­ci­a­tions to the Church, passed a res­o­lu­tion stat­ing that they will ​“con­tin­ue to uphold the tra­di­tion­al teach­ing of the [Catholic] Church con­cern­ing the death penal­ty as explained in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and by the late Pope John Paul II in Evangelium Vitae.”

(“News Notes,” Catholics Against Capital Punishment, August 16, 2010). Read more about Religion and the Death Penalty. DPIC has pack­ets of mate­ri­als that may be use­ful to com­mu­ni­ties of faith in dis­cussing the death penal­ty. For more infor­ma­tion, con­tact Elaine de Leon.

Citation Guide