Background
"Assuming that the guilty party's identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor. If however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people's safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person. Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself - the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are very rare, if not practically nonexistent." (CCC, 2267)

Action

• Write to your state legislators and urge them to abolish the death penalty
• Take part in a Prayer Vigil scheduled the day of an execution
• Host a Death Penalty workshop at your parish

Resources

Catholic Teaching (Adobe^® Reader Required)
Death Penalty Study Guide (Adobe^® Reader Required)
Death Penalty Prayer Service (Adobe^® Reader Required)
Death Penalty Seminar (Adobe^® Reader Required)

Links

USCCB: Catholic Campaign to End the Death Penalty
Catholics Mobilizing Network to End Use of Death Penalty

Repeated Social Teaching
The Catholic Church proclaims that human life is sacred and that the dignity of the human person is the foundation of a moral vision for society. All people are created in the image and likeness of God and thus all human life, at all stages, is sacred. This belief is the foundation and root to all the principles of our social teaching (Catholic Social Teaching or CST). In our society, human life is under direct attack from abortion and euthanasia. The value of human life is being threatened by cloning, embryonic stem cell research, and the use of the death penalty. We believe that every person is precious, that people are more important than things, and that the measure of every institution is whether it threatens or enhances the life and dignity of the human person.