Dear friends and participants at this International Conference entitled: “The Death Penalty in the context of Public Security: Neither right nor Effective.” I would have liked to be here with you to add my “two cents” to the public debate on the death Penalty, unfortunately matters of the clergy have me occupied and I am unable to attend.
I would like to say however, from the very outset, that I stand with Francis bishop of Rome on this issue.
I think it fair to say that most persons, deep inside, want a calmer, gentler society. Faced with rising violence, crime and murder, we seek ways to bring this about. Some clamour for ways which can turn around the wave of hopelessness which appears to be taking over so many of our young people. Others cry for churches and religious organizations to do more but religion must never be used as the opium of people. Others try to bring about this calmer gentler society through the instilling of fear but fear is no antidote for a person with no hope. How then do we as societies deal with the scourge of violence and murder which seems to be engulfing us here in the Caribbean? As a churchman and a person of faith I cannot endorse the violence perpetrated on individuals in the name of justice. Pope Francis teaches us very clearly that Faith and violence are incompatible.
Since the Vatican II council, Flowing from a more profound and inclusive understanding of the dignity of human life, the church has become very much clearer in its teaching on the death penalty. In fact recent popes have all called for its abolition.
In the message sent to the participants of the Fifth World Congress Against the Death Penalty held in Madrid, Cardinal Bertone wrote on behalf of Pope Francis. “Today, more than ever, it is urgent that we remember and affirm the need for universal recognition and respect for the inalienable dignity of human life, in its immeasurable value.” The inalienable dignity of human life extends to all human life, even the life of those who have no respect for life. In his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life), Blessed John Paul II stated, “the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon and ought not go to the extreme of executing the offender, except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very rare, if not practically non-existent.”
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Until and unless society does serious research into the causes of violence and murder and based on its findings takes the necessary steps to deal effectively with these causes, no amount of executions will stop the violence and the murders.
Let us never forget that God is the giver of all life and ultimately only God has jurisdiction over life. We must concentrate on building the society of love, a calmer and gentler society in which we all sincerely try to do the best that we can for each other. “Poping” necks is not doing the best that we can for the other.
+Joseph Harris
Archbishop of P.O.S.
