Prior to my return to Montana, nearly five years ago, I served as priest and auxiliary bishop for 28 years in the Archdiocese of Seattle. In addition to parish duties in the archdiocese, I also served as chaplain for 13 years to an 1,800-bed maximum security jail in downtown Seattle.

These experiences introduced me to the world of crime and punishment, and forced me to struggle personally with the challenges associated with capital punishment. During my tenure in Seattle, I had regular and sustained contact with the inmate population and their families, along with victims of violent crime who often turned to the Church for comfort and care. My pastoral work also placed me in regular contact with the legal and mental health communities, with law enforcement and corrections officials, along with legislators striving to address questions associated with the death penalty, and wanting to make decisions that were responsible, informed and humane.

The Catholic Church takes seriously its duty to speak uncomfortable truths when necessary, or to embrace unpopular positions that go against the prevailing winds of culture and society. Such is the case with the death penalty and the myriad questions it creates.

The Catholic Church holds the position that all life is sacred from the moment of conception until natural death. This vision is called a consistent ethic of life, and is predicated upon the conviction that God alone is the Author of life and the Arbiter of death. Furthermore, we believe that a person’s worth is inherent, even when their actions have been sub-human or their life decisions inhumane. The U.S. Catholic Bishops state unequivocally, “each person’s life and dignity must be respected, whether that person is an innocent unborn child in mother’s womb, whether that person worked in the World Trade Center or a market in Baghdad, or even whether that person is a convicted criminal on death row.” (Faithful Citizenship, p. 13)

The Church’s position on the death penalty is coupled with a strong sense of solidarity with victims of violent crime and their families, whose lives and sense of well-being have been altered forever. We acknowledge that except for other victims of violent crime, none of us can ever appreciate fully the anguish they have experienced or the struggles they endure on a daily basis. We want to stand in solidarity with them, minister among them, and to pray for their healing and security, particularly at this time when legislative hearings and media interest re-open the tender wounds left by the losses they have endured.

The Catholic Church’s position on the death penalty flows from a Gospel vision that acknowledges every person as redeemable and every soul salvageable. We support and applaud the courageous testimony of those crime victims who have warned against the futility of an “eye for an eye” mentality, and who ardently desire to break the cycle of violence that is perpetuated by the death penalty mentality. Their lives have been living testimony to the power of restorative justice, and underscore the Church’s long held conviction that even the most hardened criminal can experience redemption and a change of heart. This vision of human life prompts us to conclude that the death penalty should be replaced by values that interrupt the cycle of violence and create opportunities for restorative justice, redemption and healing for all.

Dr. Albert Schweitzer once opined that “example is not the main thing in influencing others. It’s the only thing.” Every parent, teacher and pastor knows that example is the first and best teacher and moral consistency is a necessary ingredient when conveying moral values to the next generation.

We believe that society has a right and duty to defend itself against violent crime and a duty to reach out to victims of crime, but the U.S. Bishops in their document entitled Faithful Citizenship state compellingly, “Yet our nation’s increasing reliance on the death penalty cannot be justified. We do not teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill others. The late Pope John Paul II has said the penalty of death is “both cruel and unnecessary.” The antidote to violence is not more violence.”

The moral disconnect of killing killers is both apparent and appalling, and cries out for redress and correction. We hold that the dismantling of the death penalty machinery in favor of life in prison without the possibility of parole will help to address the moral incongruity presented by the death penalty laws that are now on the books in the State of Montana.

Finally, we hold that advances in public safety, including penal technology and the intensive management of prison populations, provide the means necessary to make the death penalty dated, obsolete and unnecessary.

We believe that the late Pope John Paul II expresses accurately our moral position: “If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means...” We hold that these advances are well in place in the State of Montana.

In sum, the Catholic Church in the State of Montana stands in support of Senate Bill 236, to abolish the death penalty in favor of life in prison without the possibility of parole. We hold that this bill secures public safety, promotes restorative justice, provides moral consonance and helps to break the tragic cycle of violence.


Published in The Montana Catholic, Vol. 25, No. 2, February 15, 2009.