In a let­ter issued pri­or to Easter, the Catholic Bishops in Missouri called for an end to exe­cu­tions in the U.S. and urged parish­ioners to ​“build a cul­ture of life.” The let­ter not­ed that vio­lence ​“is not a solu­tion to soci­ety’s prob­lems,” and it sum­ma­rized church teach­ings regard­ing cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and high­light­ed a cam­paign by U.S. Catholic Bishops to end the use of the death penal­ty. “(Christ) was unjust­ly sen­tenced to death and exe­cut­ed on a cross, the cru­elest form of cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment at the time.… [R]ecent court inter­ven­tions have focused atten­tion on the inhu­mane­ness of exe­cu­tions. As Catholics who believe in the sacred­ness of life, the use of state-autho­rized killing in our names dimin­ish­es us all,” the Bishops wrote. In the let­ter, the Bishops urged Catholics to con­tact their elect­ed offi­cials to advo­cate for a halt to executions. 

(St. Louis Review, April 7, 2006). Read the Bishop’s Letter on the Death Penalty.

New Resource: In Florida, Catholic Lay Chaplain Dale Recinella, who serves as a spir­i­tu­al advi­sor to those on death row, has ini­ti­at­ed a new Web resource at http://​www​.iwas​in​prison​.org. Dale and his wife, Susan, a clin­i­cal psy­chol­o­gist and Catholic lay min­is­ter to the fam­i­lies of the exe­cut­ed, use the site to post week­ly arti­cles about cap­i­tal pun­ish­ment and about their expe­ri­ences min­is­ter­ing to those fac­ing exe­cu­tion and their fam­i­lies. See the Web Site. See also New Voices.

Tags
Citation Guide