Bishop's Statements

The Death Penalty
June 7, 2001

“There is an appointed time for everything, a time to kill and a time to heal … a time to be silent and a time to speak” (Eccl 3:3,7). We have had our time of killing. Now is the time for healing. Now is the time to speak out, once again, in defense of life.

In a few days, it is possible that our nation will execute Timothy McVeigh by lethal injection.

Many will feel that justice has been accomplished, and many will feel avenged.

Some of us will be saddened because we know that the cycle of hatred and death will continue. Vengeance does not heal. It only escalates the violence.

The death of Timothy McVeigh will not stop the hatred, crime and violence which engulf our cities, homes, work places and schools. His execution will be just another symptom of our failure to deal effectively with the serious social problems of our times.

Because we believe in the inherent and transcendent value and dignity of all human life, we oppose always, and in all circumstances, the use of capital punishment. The use of the death penalty, we believe, only helps to strengthen the psychology of violence and death, while at the same time, weakening respect for life in our society.

Society has the right to punish the guilty perpetrators of crime, and the civil authorities have the right and duty to protect their citizens from these criminals. Justice, in fact, cries out for the victims of crime, for their families and loved ones who have suffered so horrifically at the hands of these criminals.

We believe, however, that there are ways of protecting people from violent crime and of reducing crime other than resorting to execution, an act that is always in solidarity with the violence it is meant to oppose.

We are now discovering that in its application, the death penalty may have discriminated against the poor and racial minorities. If for no other reason, we should have a moratorium on the death penalty at this time while the matter is reviewed. We should work together and reject the death penalty and look for other ways of dealing with violent crime, ways which are truly effective and which are consistent with a basic and fundamental respect for the dignity of all human life.