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, beca