Bishop's Statements

Statement on the Impending Execution of Michael Angelo Morales

> Declaración del Obispo de San José Patrick J. McGrath en la inminente ejecución de Michael Angelo Morales

January 30, 2006

“I call heaven and earth today to witness against you:  I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse.  Choose life, then, that you and your descendants may live.”  Deuteronomy 30:19

Once more the choice between life and death is before us.  Once more a decision will be made and by that decision all will know whether ours is the way of life or the way of death.  Have we succumbed to the culture of death that the only way we can repay death is by heaping up even more deaths?  Can we justify the evil we do by the evil that others have done?  Truly the choice before Governor Schwarzenegger and the whole State of California is between life and death.

It seems likely that on February 21 our state will execute Michael Morales by lethal injection.  Many will feel that justice has been accomplished; many will feel avenged.

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

I call upon Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to provide clemency to Michael Morales.  I do so, not to diminish in any way the severity of the crime for which Mr. Morales has been convicted, but because of the barbarity of the penalty of death – to anyone – in a society in which other means can be employed to protect its people from those who have committed heinous crimes.

Catholic teaching on this is clear:

If non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person

Today, in fact as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm – without definitely taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself – the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are rare, if not practically non-existent” (Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae).

Catechism of the Catholic Church, n. 2267

 

I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.

Pope John Paul II, January 27, 1999

Twenty-five years ago, our Conference of bishops first called for an end to the death penalty.  We renew this call to seize a new moment and new momentum . . .  Our nation should forego the use of the death penalty because

• The sanction of death violates respect for human life and dignity.
• State-sanctioned killing in our names diminishes all of us.
• Its application is deeply flawed and can be irreversibly wrong, is prone to errors, and is biased by factors such as race, the quality of legal representation, and where the crime was committed.
• We have other ways to punish criminals and protect society.  The sanction of death when it is not necessary to protect society undermines respect for human life and dignity.

A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death

United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, November, 2005

We recognize that human beings can and do commit grievous crimes, but we reject the use of the death penalty—especially when we can protect society with an alternate penalty of life imprisonment.  In addition, of particular concern to us is the fact that the application of the death penalty is deeply flawed—with those who are poor or from racial minorities most often its subjects.  The three pending executions in California are illustrative of these facts.

At this moment in time, we entreat Californians to ponder carefully whether the use of the death penalty makes our society safer.  A moratorium is needed to evaluate whether the death penalty serves the common good and safeguards the dignity of human life.  We are convinced that it does not.

Statement on Ending the Use of the Death Penalty in California

California Catholic Conference, November 30, 2005

The death of Michael Angelo Morales will not stop the hatred, crime and violence which engulf our cities, homes, work places and schools.  Neither has the acceleration of executions in our state accomplished this lofty goal. The execution of Mr. Morales will be just another symptom of our failure to deal effectively with the serious social problems of our times.

Let us 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.

January 30, 2006