Growing Together in our Catholic Faith

Each week we explore an aspect of our Catholicism to grow a deeper understanding of our faith

Catholic teaching about the death penalty

By Fr. John Diezten

There is much discussion in our state about the death penalty.� The Catechism of the Catholic Church (no. 2266) repeats the �traditional teaching of the church� that public authorities have the right to punish crimes with penalties commensurate with the crime, �not excluding in cases of extreme gravity, the death penalty.�� I am really struggling with this issue.� The pope and our own bishop seem to say the church is totally against the death penalty.� I cannot be the only one confused.� Where do we stand?

Some confusion is understandable considering the movement in the church�s position, as reflected by Pope John Paul II and most bishops over several years.�

First, the catechism itself is now much more explicit.� A new article (no. 2267) in the revised edition repeats the traditional position, but then adds, �If non-lethal means are sufficient to protect and defend the security of persons, then public authorities must limit themselves to such means.�� Today, it continues, the state has other ways to make a guilty person incapable of further harm, �without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself.�� Cases in which execution of the offender is necessary �are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.�� During his 1999 visit to St. Louis, Pope John Paul II repeated his appeal to build �a consensus to end the death penalty, which is cruel and unnecessary.�

Anyone who has followed events of the past several years can understand why the pope, plus an endless stream of bishops and other Catholic leaders, have come to such a hard line about the evils of the death penalty.� The major reason may be summarized as follows:

--The death penalty is applied with gross inequity.� For example, 12 percent of the prisoners on death row are in Texas, which has about 7 percent of the population and leads the country by far in number of executions.� Everywhere in the United States, those on death row are predominantly the poor and racial minorities.

--No evidence exists that the death penalty is a deterrent to crime.� As the Texas bishops and, incidentally, the nation�s chiefs of police point out, states which have the death penalty have no lower rates of crime than states without it.

--Many condemned to death have been later found innocent.� At a recent conference at Northwestern University Law School, reports showed that since 1976, when the Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty, more than 500 persons have been executed.� As of last year, of the 75 individuals scheduled for execution, one of out of seven had their sentences reversed because of new evidence.� Based on this percentage, it is reasonable to assume that nearly 500 persons out of approximately 3,500 now on death row are innocent and may be found innocent before or after they are executed for the crimes for which they were convicted.� As the only developed nation in the world which has the death penalty, the United States is in the unenviable company of countries like Iraq, Iran, and China.

There are other reasons, but one that church leaders (Catholic and others) often point to in their opposition is the dehumanization of a society that officially kills any of its members, for any reason.� One mother, whose child was viciously murdered, opposed the death penalty for the murderer saying, �There has been enough killing.�� Too often plain revenge is the real motive behind wanting the death of a perpetrator of a vicious crime.� And, at least in the estimation of the pope, that is not a worthy Christian motive for any action.

As the Archbishop Charles Chaput of Denver wrote at the time of the Timothy McVeigh trial for the Oklahoma bombing, the death penalty accomplishes nothing but �closure through bloodletting, violence against violence.�� The hope of the bishops and the pope is that we can be, and are, better people than.

Reprinted with permission from Father Dietzen's book "Catholic Q and A",   Crossroad Publishing  New York N.Y. Weekly columns by Father Dietzen on current questions are available in Catholic newspapers throughout the country.