Death penalty Archives

Virginia carries out execution despite pleas inmate was mentally ill
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- July 10, 2017
“We pray for a change of heart and a spirit of remorse and conversion on the part of the perpetrators of this violence and ask God to give all of us the grace to work for peace and respect for all life in our communities and our commonwealth,” a statement from the Virginia Catholic Conference read ahead of the state’s second execution of the year.
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Catholic leaders criticize Indonesia’s continued use of death penalty
- Catholic News Service, Global Church
- May 15, 2017
The Philippines isn’t the only Asian country struggling with a revitalizing of the death penalty. Indonesia has rejected calls from the United Nations to end its use of the punishment, but the Catholic Church in the country challenges the government’s arguments for keeping it.
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Anti-death penalty activist says she wrestled with issue and ‘God won’
- Catholic News Service, Church in the US
- May 14, 2017
The death penalty appeals to many people on a gut level. After someone has heard about a very violent crime, often the person feels that the death penalty is a just response. Marietta Jaeger-Lane, whose 7 year old daughter was murdered, felt that at first too. She explains how she came to change her mind on the issue and now even works to end the death penalty.
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Trump nominee wrote on Catholic judges and the death penalty

President Donald Trump selected Catholic law professor at Notre Dame, Amy Coney Barrett, for the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals. In 1998 Barrett wrote an article on the debated topic of the death penalty and the role of Catholic judges when deciding such cases.

Pope Francis: Death penalty is inadmissible

“Today, we say that the death penalty is inadmissible,” Pope Francis said during his morning Mass at Domus Sanctae Marthae where he lives. Slavery “is a mortal sin; today we say this. Back then, some would say that this could be done because these people did not have a soul!”

Bishops among first signatories to pledge to end to death penalty

U.S. Catholic bishops were among the first to sign the National Catholic Pledge to End the Death Penalty insisting that Christians and all people of good faith should stand against the death penalty and advocate for more humane conditions in prison.