“Violence is not overcome by violence… peace is the result of a process of purification and of cultural, moral and spiritual elevation involving each individual and people, a process in which human dignity is fully respected.” (Pope Benedict XVI’s 2011 Peace Message)
Last September CCSJ sought to implement a Synod resolution by organising Respect for Life Week. The T-shirts we printed read: “Respect ALL Life: God’s gift to us”. Promoting human life and human dignity is a key social justice principle. As Catholics we believe that all life is to be respected and protected absolutely from conception to natural death.
The measure of any society is whether what we do threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person. Thus, while the death penalty remains on our law books, our task as Catholics is to strive to have Capital Punishment abolished and to find other ways of responding to/reducing crime.
At the moment our Government, in its attempt to reduce crime in Trinidad and Tobage, is seeking to introduce a Bill to amend T&T’s Constitution to remove what are seen as “hindrances” in carrying out the death penalty and to introduce classification of murders.
CCSJ agrees with our bishops in the Caribbean that the death penalty does not address the root causes of crime. As the US bishops have said: “The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life.”
Last August, the CCSJ sent a letter to each Member of both Houses of Parliament about this issue. Accompanying the letter was a copy of the AEC Bishops’ Pastoral Letter on Capital Punishment. While we opposed the death penalty in our letter, we listed a range of strategies that could be adopted by those in authority to reduce crime.
There is an e-mail currently being circulated in which the writer uses the Bible to support the death penalty. I ask you to remember Jesus’ words in Matthew 5:38-39: “You have heard that it was said, an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. But I tell you this: do not oppose evil with evil…”
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It was Martin Luther King Jr who said: “Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter”. I call on all Catholics and people of good will to speak out at this critical time. Speak out against the death penalty. Let us not buy into the culture of death. Both victims and offenders are children of God, made in His image and likeness, with inherent and inviolable dignity. Let us protect the sanctity of all life and embrace Restorative Justice – not Retributive Justice.
Pope John Paul II rightly stated that capital punishment can only be defended in cases of absolute necessity—when it is not possible otherwise to defend society. However, he says, “such cases are rare, if not practically non-existent… Non-lethal forms of punishment are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.”
Our AEC Caribbean Bishops said in their Pastoral Letter on Capital Punishment (2000): “The prophetic voice of the Church must be heard especially in times of moral and social crisis…regardless of the potential unpopularity of our Gospel message…Capital punishment symbolises a form of despair for the effective reform of persons.”
And in their Pastoral Letter, The Gift of Life, the AEC Bishops expressed their “firm desire that the leaders and people of Caribbean society move toward the total abolition of the Death Penalty. Therefore, we should place emphasis on the rehabilitation of the offender rather than on his/her elimination.”
Let it not be said, though, that Catholics are not concerned about the welfare of victims of crime. I agree with Archbishop Pinder of Nassau, who said: “It is important to note that while we oppose the death penalty, we embrace the victims of violent crimes; those who are hurting and grieving for their loved ones who have been killed, at times in the most heinous ways. We urge each parish to establish victim support groups and seek to meet their physical, mental, spiritual, financial and other needs.”
And since we are all made in the image and likeness of God, let’s stand in solidarity also with offenders and their families and address the complex causes of crime. I end with part of Sr Helen Préjean’s (author of Dead Man Walking) prayer to abolish the death penalty:
“Holy Spirit of God, You strengthen us in the struggle for justice, help us to work tirelessly for the abolition of state-sanctioned death and to renew our society in its very heart so that violence will be no more. Amen”
