REACTIONS TO ANNOUNCEMENT ON DEATH PENALTY

(Editor's note: Catholic News Service reports this week that, "building on the development of Catholic Church teaching against capital punishment, Pope Francis has ordered a revision of the Catechism of the Catholic Church to assert that 'the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person,' and to commit the Church to working toward its abolition worldwide." Read more about the announcement and reactions from Catholic leaders around the country in The Evangelist's print edition.)

"I never saw any real justification for the death penalty. To me, this change to the catechism is not a new teaching, but a clarification of our genuine teaching — that all life is sacred from the moment of conception until natural death. St. John Paul II first strengthened the language on this teaching in the 1997 update to the catechism, which said that cases in which the death penalty could be morally justified “are very rare, if not practically nonexistent.” Now, Pope Francis has gone a step further, ensuring that our teaching on this life issue truly reflects the Gospel of Jesus Christ."
Bishop Edward B. Scharfenberger

"As someone who has lost a relative to a senseless murder, I understand the anger that people feel in such circumstances. However, as Catholics, we are called to a response based not on our emotions, but on our faith. Through prayer and a study of Church documents on the topic of the death penalty, I have grown to appreciate the wisdom of forgiveness and the possibility of redemption. That is why, today, I pray not only for my cousin’s granddaughter, who was murdered at the age of 21, but also for the man who killed her."
Deacon Walter Ayres, director, Albany diocesan Commission on Peace and Justice