Catholic Commission for Social Justice
10 October 2013
On 10 October 2013, 11th World Day Against the Death Penalty, the Greater Caribbean for Life has called on governments of countries that retain the death penalty in the Greater Caribbean to urgently and effectively tackle crime, but without resort to the death penalty.
Port of Spain –2 October 2013
We, The Members of the Greater Caribbean for Life, at our first meeting in Trinidad and Tobago on 2 October 2013,
Welcoming that no executions have been carried out in the Greater Caribbean since 2008, and that the number of death sentences imposed in the region has been declining,
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.
Our 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”.