“Capital punishment offers no justice to victims, but rather encourages revenge. And it prevents any possibility of undoing a possible miscarriage of justice,” the pope said in a video message Aug. 31.
Death Penalty
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
The Parkland shooter, the death penalty and the limits of human compassion
It is right and just to feel anger at people like the Parkland shooter. What do we do with that anger, though?
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Sister Helen Prejean on Oklahoma’s unprecedented rush to execute 25 people
“This rush to execute would be reckless in any state, but Oklahoma in particular has a horrendous track record for problematic executions.”
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Good Friday is the perfect day to commit to ending the death penalty
Why is it that so many of us shed tears in remembering Christ’s execution on Good Friday yet condone the state-sanctioned killing of our neighbors throughout the rest of the year?
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Supreme Court reinstates death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber
The Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty for Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev in a 6-3 vote.
Posted inFaith, Features
I’ve been on death row for 23 years. Catholic Mass gives me hope in the midst of my suffering.
“I returned to my Catholic upbringing, professing a faith I did not completely feel, because I was suffering and needed answers from God,” writes Lyle C. May, who is on death row in North Carolina.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Sister Helen Prejean and Archbishop Coakley applaud decision to commute Julius Jones’ death sentence
“We are grateful that the governor has prevented an irreparable mistake.”
Posted inFaith, Short Take
Archbishop Coakley of Oklahoma City: A culture of life means an end to the death penalty
We must ask ourselves whether executing people on death row is truly a matter of public safety or merely a state-sanctioned tool for exacting the public’s demand for revenge.
Posted inFaith and Reason, Politics & Society
Pope Francis has shown the U.S. a new path for ending the death penalty—for good.
Last year, Pope Francis said, “There can be no stepping back” from the church’s opposition to the death penalty. It is time to put this teaching into action and stop executions in the United States for good.
Posted inFaith, Faith in Focus
A Prayer for the End of the Death Penalty
God who is justice, let the systems of justice we build on earth reflect your love for all creation. Let them value redemption over punishment, future over past, life over death.