Death of death penalty suits Catholic Conference

By an 11-7 margin, the New York State Assembly Codes Committee voted last week not to send a bill to the full house that would have re-established the death penalty in New York State.

As a result, the death penalty will not be reinstated in New York State for the foreseeable future.

Richard Barnes, executive director of the New York State Catholic Conference, said, "What a wonderful conclusion to years of hard work by the Catholic Conference and other death penalty opponents."

The Catholic Conference represents New York State's bishops in matters of public policy.

"This vote is a fitting tribute to Pope John Paul II, who clarified Catholic teaching on the death penalty during his long pontificate," he continued. "In his 1995 encyclical 'Evangelium Vitae' ('The Gospel of Life'), he enunciated the Church's modern understanding of the morality of capital punishment, saying that states 'ought not go to the extreme' of execution.

"While acknowledging the state's right to use this form of punishment if it is the only way to protect the innocent, the pope noted that in modern society, such cases 'are very rare, if not practically non-existent.' How pleased he would be to know that New York State has now rejected this outdated, cruel punishment.

"The bishops of New York State take great joy in this vote, and they invite all members of the legislature to continue to follow the Holy Father's call to stand up for all human life, from the first moment of creation until the last breath of a natural death."

(4/21/05)