SENTENCED
TO DIE,
STILL CHILDREN OF GOD
A
Pax Christi USA Backgrounder on Capital Punishment
"A
consistent ethic of life suggests that the death penalty is not
an appropriate response to crime in our society. We believe human
life is so precious that the state should not take the life of
any person, even one who has taken another life. Society must
send a message that we can break the cycle of violence, that we
need not take life for life. As a civilized society, we must struggle
to find more humane, more hopeful and more effective responses
to violent crime. Each of us bears a responsibility to foster
an attitude in a broader society which affirms human life and
rejects vengeance as a means of promoting justice."
Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, Sept., 1989
Pax Christi USA supports a consistent ethic of life, believing
that all life is sacred from the moment it begins until its natural
death. As people of faith, we believe that we are called to work
for an end to all forms of violence which threaten the sanctity
of human life. The death penalty promotes the idea that the life
of a perpetrator is no longer sacred. We believe that those who
are guilty, even of the most heinous crimes, are still sacred
in the eyes of God. Innocence is not a precondition for receiving
the redemptive love of God. We are called to model the love of
our God, who embraces all sinners as sons and daughters, as we
work to abolish the death penalty.
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