The Trump administration’s speed-up of federal executions is bringing new scrutiny to Catholic judges. Nathaniel V. Romano, S.J., writes about the challenges facing the faithful in a pluralist political system.
Death Penalty
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Catholic activists applaud encyclical’s stance against death penalty
Pope Francis tackled several issues in his new encyclical, but the section devoted to ending capital punishment was particularly cheered by U.S. Catholics who oppose the death penalty.
Posted inFaith, Politics & Society
Pope Francis closes the door on the death penalty in ‘Fratelli Tutti’
Pope Francis’ new encyclical, “Fratelli Tutti,” does something that some Catholics believed could not be done: It ratifies a change in church teaching.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
U.S. bishops urge immediate halt to federal executions
U.S. bishops call the application of capital punishment “completely unnecessary and unacceptable.”
Posted inDispatches, Politics & Society
Report: The death penalty is a ‘descendant of slavery’
Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy: “The death penalty serves as a sort of litmus test for how our nation is making progress to either dismantle or uphold racism.”
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Catholics denounce federal execution of Navajo tribe member
Catholic leaders have joined their voices with members of the Navajo Nation in opposing the Aug. 26 scheduled execution of Lezmond Mitchell, the only Native American on federal death row.
Posted inPolitics & Society, Short Take
The federal government is about to execute the only Native American man on death row—despite his tribe’s wishes.
The Catholic Church and the Navajo Nation stand together in opposition to the execution of Lezmond Mitchell because it, like the racism which brought his death sentence to pass, erodes the sanctity of human life, writes Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy.
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
US executes 2nd man in a week; lawyers said he had dementia
In Indiana, the second federal execution in three days was carried out when Wesley Purkey was strapped to a gurney and injected with lethal chemicals as he expressed words of regret for what he had done.
Posted inLast Take, Politics & Society
Sister Helen Prejean: Stop the federal killings
What is the moral imperative behind the government’s urgency to hasten the death of its citizens?
Posted inNews, Politics & Society
Despite resistance first federal execution in 17 years conducted in Indiana
Helen Prejean: “While we were all sleeping, the government killed a man under cloak of darkness.”