St Charles Church .org   News & Events Faith & Sacraments Ministries Volunteer Search/Help Contact Us

VIRGINIA CATHOLIC CONFERENCE ACTION ALERT

Letters, phone calls, and e-mails are urgently needed to stop the execution of Robin Lovitt scheduled for Monday, July 11, 2005.
PLEASE TAKE THE ACTION INDICATED BELOW.

Background: Robin Lovitt, convicted of murder in 1999 for stabbing a night manager at an Arlington pool hall, is scheduled for execution on July 11th. In a letter delivered on Tuesday, June 21st, Bishops Paul S. Loverde (Diocese of Arlington) and Francis X. DiLorenzo (Diocese of Richmond) called on the Governor "to reject the extreme and unnecessary measure of taking [Mr. Lovitt's] life to show that taking life is wrong" and urged him to commute Mr. Lovitt's death sentence to life in prison.

Acknowledging the "immense suffering" experienced by families of murder victims, the bishops expressed their desire for "healing that cannot come from more loss of life, which only creates more grieving families." They also noted that a life-without-parole sentence is "unique in its ability to securely protect state residents and at the same time uphold the dignity belonging to every person, even to one convicted of a brutal crime."

Church Teaching: "Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm - without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself -- the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically non-existent." Catechism of the Catholic Church, No. 2267

Action: Please write, phone, or e-mail Governor Mark Warner. Inform him that you oppose the execution of Robin Lovitt, and urge him to commute Mr. Lovitt's sentence to life in prison.

Letters should be addressed as follows:

Governor Mark R. Warner
E xecutive Office Building, 3rd Floor
1111 East Broad Street
Richmond, VA 23219

The phone number for the Governor's office is (804) 786-2211.

To send the Governor an e-mail message, visit www.governor.virginia.gov and click on "Contacting the Governor."