Put Your Sword Back

Summary of a Fr. Gerry Creedon homily from April 15, 2007

"Whose sins you forgive are forgiven them." John 20:22

The second Sunday after Easter has been designated Divine Mercy Sunday. In today's gospel Jesus proclaims "Peace be with you." There is no peace without reconciliation. Mercy is the path to reconciliation.

On the Monday before Easter, over 500 parishioners celebrated the sacrament of Forgiveness. Like doubting Thomas, we are all assured of a second chance. However the message of mercy is not a gift to be reserved for the faith community.

It struck me as ironic that on Spy Wednesday, the day before the Easter Triduum, the State of Virginia decided to expand the use of the death penalty. During the reading of the Passion, you will recall how we as a congregation took the role of the crowd and proclaimed, "We have no right to execute anybody!" The crowd was responsive to the Mosaic Code, "Thou shalt not kill." Later in the story of Jesus' surrender, we see Peter taking up arms, only to be rebuked by Jesus, "Put your sword back in its scabbard!"

Yet Virginia's legislators in our name, and despite the recommendations of the Governor and the Catholic bishops of Richmond and Arlington, chose to extend the grounds for execution.

While Catholics have the right to have their own opinions on the morality of the death penalty, it is yet wise for us to check our attitudes in the light of our hierarchy's guidance. Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive others.

Life and Death in our Commonwealth
By Bishops Francis X. DiLorenzo and Paul S. Loverde

As the leaders of Virginia's two Catholic dioceses, we recently opposed five bills in the General Assembly aimed at widening the list of crimes for which death sentences could be rendered. Although the bills passed with very little debate about their moral implications, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's decision to veto them gives our Commonwealth a much-needed second chance to reflect on a system of punishment that has spiraled wildly out of control.

As the leaders of Virginia's two Catholic dioceses, we recently opposed five bills in the General Assembly aimed at widening the list of crimes for which death sentences could be rendered. Although the bills passed with very little debate about their moral implications, Gov. Timothy M. Kaine's decision to veto them gives our Commonwealth a much-needed second chance to reflect on a system of punishment that has spiraled wildly out of control.

Even as states across our nation exhibit growing unease, restraint and moratoria on use of capital punishment (ten of the thirty-eight states in which it is lawful have suspended it), Virginians and their elected officials continue to apply the accelerator to a system of punishment that kills to teach that killing is wrong.

Our Commonwealth's legacy, approach, and trajectory in the matter of capital punishment should give Virginians pause. That it has given Gov. Kaine sufficient cause to exercise his veto power is commendable; may citizens of our Commonwealth, and especially our legislators, join him in a deeper reexamination of our state's use of this ultimate and irreversible sentence.

Our perspective on this matter is enhanced by our personal experiences. Together with faithful prison ministry volunteers at many of our Commonwealth's 180 corrections facilities, we visit and pray with the incarcerated; so too, we have met the victims' families and witnessed first-hand their deep-seated grief and anger at the loss of loved ones. We pray with victims for a healing that no further loss of life can bring, even as we pray that justice be served to those who commit crimes.

A just punishment must be consistent with both the demands of justice and with respect for human life and dignity. Although often difficult or painful to acknowledge, respect for life applies to all, even the perpetrators of the most terrible acts imaginable. Later this week, on Good Friday, we will call to mind the mercy shown by Jesus Christ in his words to the thief on the cross: "Today you will be with me in paradise." Each of us is called to likewise respect the life and dignity of every human being. Even when the criminal, the thief, denies the dignity of others, we must still recognize that his dignity is, quite literally, a given: a gift from God neither earned nor lost through behavior.

Our consciences, therefore, call us to defend human life and dignity from conception to natural death with maximum determination. In fact, whenever an execution is scheduled in Virginia, we have called for a commutation of the death sentence to life without the possibility of parole. Because bloodless means of punishment are more in keeping with the offender's human dignity, society must, we believe, limit itself to those means whenever possible. Our Catholic tradition teaches that the death penalty should only be used when, in the words of Pope John Paul II, "it would not be possible otherwise to defend society." In similar words, we recently joined with our fellow U.S. bishops in A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death: "No matter how heinous the crime, if society can protect itself without ending a human life, it should do so."

Applying these principles to the Commonwealth of today, we are convinced that our government, equipped with an effective system of incarceration and the availability of a life-without-parole sentence, has no business imposing or carrying out death sentences. We therefore call on Virginia's General Assembly members to sustain the Governor's vetoes.

Even those who do not share our firm conviction - that the death penalty cannot be justified when non-lethal means are sufficient to protect society - should be able to agree on this much: Given Virginia's unusually frequent recourse to the death penalty, the last thing needed is to look for even more ways to apply it.

Citizens of our Commonwealth stand at a crossroads: The vital choice before us - raised by the General Assembly's approval of death-penalty expansions and Governor Kaine's subsequent rejection of them - is whether Virginia's death penalty should be curbed or expanded. As we weigh the decision at hand, may we be mindful of how the price of capital punishment extends - far beyond those executed - to the very society which condones the taking of life.