Catholic Review Online: A Consistent Culture of Life

Archbishop Edwin O'Brien posts his weekly column in the Catholic Review Online called "Thoughts on Our Church" on the subject of "A Consistent Culture of Life." His Excellency discusses the subject of capital punishment in Maryland and in Society as a whole. Here is a part of this essay:

Pope John Paul II said, “Man’s life comes from God. It is His gift, His image and imprint, a sharing in His breadth of life. God, therefore, is the sole Lord of this life. Man cannot do with it as he wills.”

In the hearing before a Senate committee last week, representatives of the Church testified that our Church recognizes the right of legitimate government to resort to the death penalty, but it directly challenges the appropriateness of government’s doing so in a society that is capable of ensuring the public safety. If non-lethal means are sufficient to protect people’s safety from an aggressor, we believe that public authority should limit itself to such means, because they are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good, and with the dignity of the human person. Since 1987, non-lethal means sufficient to protect the people’s safety have been available in Maryland capital cases in the form of life-without-parole sentences.

I echo the statement of my brother bishops of Maryland who, in their 2000 pastoral letter, “A Prayer for Mercy,” said, “This teaching [justice-with-mercy] is directly applicable to the subject of this letter: Our continuing opposition to the death penalty, our hope that you will reflect with us on the matter, and our invitation to work with us to promote respect for human life … all human life … every human life, even the life of one who has committed the grievous sin of murder. We know that for some, a justice-with-mercy ethic that avoids resort to the death penalty is not easily embraced. We pray that they will come to realize that we cannot defend life by taking life. We pray that they will come to view the death penalty as a further manifestation of the culture of death that haunts our country, as a contributor to that lethal culture.”

With merciful hearts, I invite you to join me in praying for all who have been victimized by violence, especially those family members and loved ones of victims and survivors, as well as those who cause violence and for those in positions of public authority.

Please read the full column.