U.S. bishops to launch major new campaign to abolish death penalty

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March 2005

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U.S. bishops to launch major new campaign to abolish death penalty

U.S. bishops to launch major new campaign
to abolish death penalty
Armed with the results of a recent survey that reports a sharp decline in support for the death penalty among American Catholics, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops plan a new, more aggressive campaign to abolish the death penalty in the United States.

According to the USCCB-sponsored survey, now less than half of American Catholics—48 percent—support the death penalty, a sharp drop from historic levels of more than 70 percent in favor of the use of capital punishment. Resistance to the death penalty was highest among Catholics who regularly attended Mass. Previously levels of support for the death penalty among U.S. Catholics generally mirrored U.S. public opinion.

A USCCB brochure introduces the "Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty" with a simple statement: "It is time for U.S. Catholics to come together to work to end the use of the death penalty in our land."

Nancy Wisdo, the director of the USCCB's Office of Domestic Social Development, says the signs of the times suggest a new opportunity for the U.S. church, long opposed to the use of capital punishment, to step up its efforts toward a U.S. abolition. Speaking at the official launch of the new campaign during the annual USCCB Social Ministry Gathering in Washington on February 22, Wisdo says the effort enjoys strong support among U.S. bishops.

Recent clarifications of Catholic catechism leaning toward the church's complete refutation of capital punishment, the growing number of death row exonerations, and recent Supreme Court rulings restricting the use of capital punishment—including a 2002 decision ending the use of the death penalty on people who are mentally retarded and a March 1 decision ending its use on juveniles—suggest that the conditions are ripe for a broad reappraisal of the issue, according to Wisdo.

According to the USCCB campaign brochure, Catholic teaching, as expressed in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and other statements of the Vatican and the U.S. bishops, makes clear that the use of the death penalty cannot be justified when the state has other ways to protect society.

The USCCB argues that "the death penalty in our land is deeply flawed," noting that more than 100 people on death row have been exonerated and that the death penalty is unfairly applied "depending on where a crime is committed, the race of the victim and offender, the quality and costs of defense and other factors."

It adds: "The death penalty diminishes all of us. Its use ought to be abandoned not only for what it does to those who are executed, but what it does to us as a society. We cannot teach respect for life by taking life."

In his encyclical The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II wrote that "the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform" (27).

The cases where society could not defend itself, according to the Pope, "are very rare if not practically nonexistent" (56).

There is evidence that support for the death penalty is slipping throughout the nation. Illinois has maintained a moratorium on capital punishment since a high percentage of its death row inmates were exonerated—one inmate was 48 hours from his execution at the time he was cleared.

And in New Mexico on February 28, a house vote to abolish the state's death penalty and replace it with a sentence of life in prison without parole passed 38-31. The bill has advanced to the New Mexico Senate, where abolition supporters expect a close vote. New Mexico's Catholic governor Bill Richardson, who would have to sign the bill for it to become law, is a supporter the death penalty.

New Mexico is one of 38 states with capital punishment.

The USCCB campaign will include educational materials and resources explaining Catholic teaching on the death penalty, as well as suggestions on how dioceses, parishes, and individuals can get involved in local, state, or national efforts to end the death penalty. The materials will include: Papal and Bishops’ statements; state Catholic conference statements; USCCB Amicus Briefs on execution of the mentally retarded and juveniles; Information on victims’ families who oppose the death penalty and innocent people who were on death row; and liturgical, preaching and other resources.—Kevin Clarke

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