Death Penalty

The United States is the only Western democracy that continues to use the death penalty. (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, France, Germany, Ireland, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom are just a few of the many countries which have abolished the death penalty.)
--Education for Justice

We oppose capital punishment not just for what it does to those guilty of horrible crimes, but for what it does to all of us as a society. Increasing reliance on the death penalty diminishes all of us and is a sign of growing disrespect for human life.
--Administrative Committee of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, March 24, 1999.

Websites to visit:
• Amnesty International http://www.amnestyusa.org/Our_Issues/Death_Penalty/page.do?id=1011005&n1=3&n2=28
• Death Penalty Focus http://www.deathpenalty.org/
• Death Penalty Information Center http://www.deathpenaltyinfo.org/
• National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty http://www.ncadp.org/
• Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ http://www.prejean.org/
• The Moratorium Campaign http://www.moratoriumcampaign.org/
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops
http://www.usccb.org/sdwp/national/deathpenalty/

Prayer

God of Compassion,
You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts
so that we may love as You love,
even those among us who have caused
the greatest pain by taking life.
For there is in our land
a great cry to take vengeance
as we fill up death rows
and kill the killers in the name of justice,
in the name of peace.
Jesus, our brother,
you suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you.
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduring love may help them heal.
Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice.
Help us to work tirelessly for the abolition
of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more.
Amen.

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ

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