by Bishop Raymond A. Lucker
Diocese of New Ulm

During these holy days we celebrate the central mystery of our faith: Jesus, son of God made flesh, died for our sins and rose again for our salvation.

Always seeking to do God’s will, without ceasing he reached out to people, taught them and healed them. He incurred the enmity of the religious leaders of that time as he taught with authority, forgave sin, healed on the Sabbath, revealed that he was sent by the Father, and that he was the Son of God. He was, they said, guilty of death and handed him over to imperial authorities. Even as he died he forgave his executioners.

But we are an Easter people. We do not focus just on the tragedy of Jesus’ death. We believe in his resurrection. We believe also as a cornerstone of our faith that we will rise with him.

Through faith, that is conversion of life, and through baptism we enter into the mystery of his death and rising. With him we rise with new life. We share eternal life and are a new creation. We are the body of Christ, the risen Christ, called to change the world through the grace and power of the Holy Spirit.

Good Friday is also a day when we recall that in fact Jesus was executed - an action of capital punishment. Innocent as he was, he was put to death. On Good Friday this year the Administrative Board of the Bishops of the United States, of which I am a member, are issuing an appeal to end the death penalty.

Our Holy Father, Pope John Paul II, used his personal influence to convince the governor of Missouri, a supporter of capital punishment, to commute the death sentence of a convicted murderer. Through his appeal, the death sentence was commuted to life in prison without parole.

By his words and actions the Pope has focused the attention of the world on the United States policy of capital punishment and challenged us to take bold steps to end it. The Pope called the death penalty "cruel and unnecessary."

In a powerful address on June 27 of this year in St. Louis, the Pope expressed his opposition to the death penalty, "even in the case of someone who has done great evil." The Pope said,

The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life: who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of Life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.

The United States is one of the few countries in the world that still employs the death penalty. "The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life", the bishops said.

The appeal to end the death penalty issued by the Bishops was inspired by Pope John Paul II’s words and our own position over the past twenty-five years. We recognize that the death penalty has been applied in an unjust way against racial, ethnic, and economic groups (in that it has affected the poor and people of racial minorities much more than the affluent white Americans). Nevertheless, our teaching is primarily dependent on our belief in the dignity of the human person and the sacredness of human life.

We appeal to all people of good will, and especially Catholics, to end the death penalty. We recognize that many Catholics are supportive of capital punishment through an understandable fear of crime and the horror that so many innocent lives are lost through criminal violence. We hope, however, that they will come to see that more violence is not the answer.

We see the death penalty as perpetuating a cycle of violence and promoting a sense of vengeance in our culture. We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing. We also encourage Catholics at the forefront of efforts to end capital punishment at the state and national levels to continue their witness.

The Bishops also said that "victims of violent crime need the support of the church", and said that they "strongly encourage all within the Catholic community to support victims of crime and their families. Our family of faith must stand with them as they struggle to overcome their terrible loss and find some sense of peace."

The Bishops urge pastors, teachers, and others to preach, educate, and advocate for in a "persistent and principled witness against the death penalty."

This position of the Bishops and the Holy Father represents a development of doctrine. Over a period of years strengthened by our own growing awareness of human rights and human dignity, we have come to see that in this day and age the need to use the death penalty is "very rare, if not practically non-existent." To this teaching we owe respect and need to give it careful consideration.

During the II Vatican Council we also recognize the development of our teaching on religious liberty, speaking strongly against the use of torture and punishment which was mistakenly used in the past, in support of truth.

I especially support the efforts of Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, author of Dead Man Walking, and the organization she works with called "Moratorium 2000" which calls on the United States and the United Nations to stop executions by the year 2000.

April, 1999