Giving the gift of life and Jesus' toughest commandment

Fifteen years ago last summer while driving to my sister's wedding in Carmel, California, in the midst of a political conversation in which I had been highly critical of both President Bush and the still fairly new President Obama, my then-fifteen year-old son said, "Dad, you just don't like anyone who is the president." There is no little truth in that observation. You know what? I wouldn't want to be any other way!

I am writing this to laud President Biden for commuting the death sentences of 37 federal prisoners (see "Biden commutes sentences of 37 of 40 inmates on federal death row"). There are forty total federal prisoners who've been sentenced to die. As someone who opposes the death penalty, I would've like for the president to have commuted all the sentences. I am not alone in this.

Nonetheless, I commend the president for commuting the death sentences of what amounts to a little under 93% of condemned federal prisoners. Responses to the president's act of mercy have been mixed (see "'A mistake': Biden faces backlash upon commuting sentences of death row inmates").

It disappoints me that the death penalty remains so popular among people in the United States. So many people of different political stripes favor the death penalty that many Republican and Democrat office holders and candidates tend to officially support it. President Biden, for example, was a supporter of the federal death penalty for a long time. In 2023 53% supported the death penalty for someone convicted of murder, while 44% did not (see Statistica).

I have personally been opposed to the death penalty since reading George Orwell's short story "A Hanging" my junior year of high school. Now, as a Cathoilc and a member of the clergy, I oppose the death penalty not only on personal grounds, but on religious grounds as well.

In August 2018, Pope Francis promulgated a change to section 2267 of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This same section, which sets forth Church teaching on the death penalty, was also altered by Pope John Paul II in 1997, just a few years after he promulgated this wonderful compendium of Catholic teaching. Here is what the Catholic Church's officially teaches on the death penalty:

Recourse to the death penalty on the part of legitimate authority, following a fair trial, was long considered an appropriate response to the gravity of certain crimes and an acceptable, albeit extreme, means of safeguarding the common good.

Today, however, there is an increasing awareness that the dignity of the person is not lost even after the commission of very serious crimes. In addition, a new understanding has emerged of the significance of penal sanctions imposed by the state. Lastly, more effective systems of detention have been developed, which ensure the due protection of citizens but, at the same time, do not definitively deprive the guilty of the possibility of redemption.

Consequently, the Church teaches, in the light of the Gospel, that “the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person”, and she works with determination for its abolition worldwide

For brief history of section 2267 through three the first three editions of the Catechism see "State Your Peace Tonight."

Too often being pro-life is reduced to being opposed to abortion. Opposing abortion, while neccessary, is not sufficient of itself to be pro-life. Being pro-life includes opposing the death penalty, physician assisted suicide, euthanasia, and certainly requires coginizance of the relevant facts concerning firearms (see Pew Research Center "What the data says about gun deaths in the U.S.").

President Biden's commutation of 37 death sentences is good news. Forty of forty would've been better news. Stating this in no way diminshes the suffering caused by the crimes those sentenced to death committed both to their victims and the victims families. The death penalty does not bring either healing or closure to survivors of victims. It merely perpetuates the cycle of violence.

In his Sermon on Mount, Jesus addresses the lex talionis directly. The result of an eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth is blindness and toothlessness. It is in this context that the Lord gives what is probably His most challenging commandment: "love your enemies" (see Matthew 5:38-48).