Promoting Respect for Life, Opposing the Taking of Life
"The new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life - who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of Life in every situation. A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal . . . for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary."
Pope John Paul II, St Louis, MO. 1999
Resources and Information
on the Death Penalty
Books
The Death of Innocents by Sr. Helen Prejean. New York. See also http://www.sisterhelen.org/
Dead Man Walking by Sr. Helen Prejean. New York: Random House, 1993.
Choosing Mercy: A Mother of Murder Victims Pleads to End the Death Penalty by Antoinette Bosco. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2001.
Religion and the Death Penalty: A Call for Reckoning. Erik C. Owens, John D. Carlson, and Eric P. Elshtain, eds. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B Eerdsmans Publishing Co., 2004. Seventeen essays from a full spectrum of ideas and positions on religion and the death penalty, including teachings from various faith traditions both for and against the use of the death penalty.
Websites
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death Penalty
Virginia Catholic Conference Sign up for their email alerts!
United States Conference of Catholic Bishops: Efforts to End the Death Penalty This is an older USCCB site with links to several interesting articles.
The Death Penalty and the Catholic Church This web site is at AmericanCatholic.org, the home of the online edition of St. Anthony Messenger
Catholics Against Capital Punishment
The Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life: Death Penalty Issues and A Call for Reckoning: Religion and the Death Penalty
Death Penalty Information Center
National Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty
Task Force to Abolish the Death Penalty
Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty
