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U.S. Bishops Call for End to Death Penalty
Approve Statement to Build a Culture of Life

http://www.zenit.org/english/visualizza.phtml?sid=80076

WASHINGTON, D.C
The U.S. bishops overwhelmingly approved a statement declaring that the United States
cannot "teach that killing is wrong by killing those who kill."

The bishops voted 237-4 on Tuesday for "A Culture of Life and the Penalty of Death,"
which says that the use of the death penalty contributes to a cycle of violence in
society that must be broken.

"The sanction of death violates respect for human life and dignity," the statement
contends.

The statement describes the death penalty as a continuing sign of a "culture of
death" in U.S. society.

"It is time for our nation to abandon the illusion that we can protect life by taking
life," the bishops' document asserts. "When the state, in our names and with our
taxes, ends a human life despite having non-lethal alternatives, it suggests that
society can overcome violence with violence.

"The use of the death penalty ought to be abandoned not only for what it does to
those who are executed, but what it does to all of society."

The statement echoes the words of Pope John Paul II. In his encyclical "Evangelium
Vitae" (The Gospel of Life), he insisted that punishment "ought not go to the extreme
of executing the offender except in cases of absolute necessity: in other words, when
it would not be possible otherwise to defend society. Today, however, as a result of
steady improvements in the organization of the penal system, such cases are very
rare, if not practically non-existent."

For the victims

The new statement from the bishops also acknowledges that more must be done to assist
victims of violence and loss.

"They deserve our compassion, solidarity and support -- spiritual, pastoral and
personal," their statement says. "However, standing with families of victims does not
compel us to support the use of the death penalty. … No act, even an execution, can
bring back a loved one or heal terrible wounds. The pain and loss of one death cannot
be wiped away by another death."

The statement includes brief statements and stories from the families of victims of
deadly crimes as well as from a former death row inmate who was exonerated.

This statement is part of a wider Catholic Campaign to End the Use of the Death
Penalty including a new Web site, www.ccedp.org.

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I intend to last long enough to put out of business all *****-suckers
and other beneficiaries of the institutionalized slavery and genocide.

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undermines military dictatorships and military lobbyists. It subverts
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helps them organize for change, and where people are powerful, it
reminds them of their responsibility." ~~~~ Author Unknown ~~~~
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