Indiana bishops release new statement and DVD on death penalty
By Mary Ann Wyand
“The Death Penalty: No Justice, No Healing, No Closure” is the theme of a new pro-life educational campaign initiated on Aug. 10 by the Indiana Catholic Confer-ence (ICC), the Church’s public policy voice in Indiana for state and national matters.
It supports the U.S. bishops’ ongoing efforts to educate people about the inhumanity of capital punishment.
Announced in November 2005, the bishops’ national Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty seeks to publicize Church teachings about defending life from conception until natural death.
In a statement announcing the state conference’s new educational video and printed materials for use by pastoral leaders, teachers and catechists, ICC executive director Glenn Tebbe explained that, “In the past 16 months, Indiana has executed six persons. Because individuals continue to be placed on death row and executions continue to be carried out, it is necessary that the Church continue its efforts to educate and to advocate for an end to its use.”
Tebbe said the new 22-minute DVD features two educational programs, and is intended to help “individuals and groups to reflect upon the implications and consequences of executions in light of Catholic teaching and values.”
The new video named after the ICC campaign focuses on Church teachings about the dignity of the person, reconciliation and rehabilitation. It explains how state-sanctioned executions affect others by showing interviews with a victim, a prisoner and people who witnessed an execution.
It supplements an earlier 10-minute video, “Talking about the Death Penalty,” released in 2000 and produced with a grant from Our Sunday Visitor, which explains Church teachings about the need to be “unconditionally pro-life” and relates why the option of life in prison without parole makes the death penalty only morally acceptable in a very limited context.
A brochure distributed with the DVD clarifies Church teachings with text from the Catechism of the Catholic Church regarding the death penalty. It also provides statistics about state executions and suggests recommended references for further study.
At present, Indiana and 37 other states, as well as the federal government, administer capital punishment. Twelve states do not have the death penalty.
Since Indiana reinstated the death penalty in 1976, 17 people have been executed by the state, with 10 executions since 2001. Only three of the 92 people sentenced to death in Indiana received commuted sentences of life in prison without parole.
“To change attitudes, people must be convinced that the death penalty is counter-productive to promoting the common good,” Tebbe said. “The public must understand that the death penalty is only morally acceptable when it is the only option to protect society.”
He said the purpose of punishment is the rehabilitation of offenders, and the restoration of peace and order in society.
“Vengeance does not lead to peace,” Tebbe said. “Victims’ families and friends are better served through reconciliation than revenge. Criminals are human beings, and the opportunity for reconciliation with God and society should not be precluded by their execution.”
Research has shown that prisoners can lead productive lives after committing crimes, he said, even within the confines of prison.
Tebbe said Indiana’s five bishops have asked all parish and educational leaders to provide opportunities for study and the use of these resources in coming months.
He said the new brochure can be accessed on the Indiana Catholic Conference Web site at www.indianacc.org and printed for use.
“Because all human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, each person has inherent dignity,” Tebbe said. “The Church has consistently upheld the dignity of life from conception to natural death. It is out of this consistent life ethic that we address public policy issues—the death penalty being one of them. This statement from the Indiana bishops echoes the U.S. Catholic bishops’ campaign to end the death penalty.”
The ICC statement reads, in part:
• We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing.
• The death penalty denies the person who is executed the opportunity to experience repentance and rehabilitation.
• It perpetuates the cycle of violence and does not deter criminal behavior.
“In seeking to end the use of the death penalty,” the statement explains, “we do not dismiss the evil and harm caused by people who commit horrible crimes, especially murders. … Yet, the pain and loss from one death cannot be wiped away by another. The death penalty does not bring healing, reconciliation or justice.”
The campaign also cites the catechism statement that, “The Church does not exclude the recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor” (#2267).
Because of the late Pope John Paul II’s pro-life encyclical “Evangelium Vitae,” (“The Gospel of Life”) and the U.S. bishops’ campaign, many Catholics are changing their attitude about capital punishment.
Tebbe said recent studies show that 53 percent of Catholics aged 18-28 and 56 percent of Catholics who attend Mass regularly oppose the use of the death penalty.
Tebbe said the Indiana General Assembly is expected to consider new death penalty legislation during the 2007 session. †