In our land of the free and the home of the brave.
The death penalty has been universally condemned by many religious leaders to include Pope John Paul II and the American Catholic bishops. Other Catholic leaders have repeatedly deplored the death penalty as not consistent with the sacred dignity of the human life. Bishop Placido Rodriguez of Lubbock, Texas wrote a letter to Texas Governor George W. Bush in an attempt to spare Karla F. Tucker from execution. He concluded his letter with the following citation from the Catechism of the Catholic Church: "If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human life against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means because they are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person."" There is great deal of validity to this statement. Those in favor of the death penalty say taking the lives of persons who have committed heinous crimes would remove them from society so that they could not sin again. The most common in favor is vengeance. But "Vengeance is Mine, I will repay,"" says the Lord, and the rest of us, even those who have suffered from the crime involved, are charged with the often terribly difficult task of forgiving. "Do not overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good."" Loving our neighbors as ourselves includes sometime despicable neighbors. Speaking of forgiveness, what of the opportunity for the condemned to be forgiven for their crimes in the eyes of God? Some are not ready to ask forgiveness from God and their neighbors, when sentenced, might come to that readiness only after years of contemplation in prison. .
In recent years, a number of persons condemned to death and waiting on death row have been found not guilty after another person has been proved to be the real culprit. .
3. Robert E. Burns, Pull the Plug on the Death Penalty (U.