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Sister Helen Prejean

Today, March 1, is International Death Penalty Abolition Day and, by coincidence, it’s also the First Sunday of Lent.

On March 1, 1847, the State of Michigan became the first English-speaking area in the world to abolish capital punishment. Since then, other states and nations have followed, but the Bible Belt states remain resolute in their claiming the right to kill. In New Mexico and Maryland, the death penalty could be on its last legs, too.

A visiting priest who will be doing the Lent mission at our parish today mentioned the true meaning of the verb “repent.” It’s not a matter of saying you’re sorry or of giving up chocolate to repent for your sins during Lent, it’s about metanoia, or changing’s one’s way of thinking. Residents of New Mexico and Maryland can change their state government’s way of thinking by expressing their support for legislation to introduce the abolition of the death penalty. What a unique chance to experience the metanoia of Lent in a real way!

Catholics pondering what the church really says about the death penalty should familiarize themselves with the US Conference of Catholic Bishops campaign to end the dealth penalty and read attorney and chaplain Dale Recinella’s Biblical Truth About America’s Death Penalty.

Pope John Paul II’s Evangelium Vitae in 1995 acknowledged a clause in the Catechism about society’s need to protect itself, but went on to say:

It is clear that for these purposes to be achieved, the nature and extent of the punishment must be carefully evaluated and decided upon, and 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 nonexistent [italics mine].

In any event, the principle set forth in the new Catechism of the Catholic Church remains valid: “If bloodless means are sufficient to defend human lives against an aggressor and to protect public order and the safety of persons, public authority must limit itself to such means, because they better correspond to the concrete conditions of the common good and are more in conformity to the dignity of the human person.”

 The dignity of the human person is preserved by the church in its positions against abortion and euthanasia and, here, Pope John Paul II is saying that we debase our pro-life position when we say it’s OK to kill anyone.

Unfortunately, many doctrinaire Catholics prefer to side with the Bible Belt’s evangelical preachers in demanding death for crimes rather than upholding the seamless garment of life with the greatest Pope of our century.

Last year, I searched through countless hours of program listings on EWTN during its pro-life month of January looking for an interesting segment on the abolition of the death penalty. Bud Welch, Antoinette Bosco and Sister Helen Prejean are three of the best-known Catholic abolitionists, after all. Yet, EWTN had zilch on the issue in January. Not an interview with Sister Helen or with Welch and Bosco, who saw loved ones murder and yet have become abolitionists. Nothing on 20th century death-penalty victims St. Maximilian Kolbe, Blessed Titus Brandsma, Saint Edith Stein, Jacques Fesch or Blessed Miguel Pro.

I wrote to the network to ask why and the answer came that abortion is always wrong, but the Catechism allows the death penalty. In other words, don’t even discuss what the Pope or the Bishops say about the death penalty, just follow the narrowest possible excuse for judicial murder. In fact, don’t even feature a program that allows Catholic viewers to consider that the Pope or the Bishops say about the death penalty. Another classic case of scribes and Pharisees straining out the gnat and swallowing the camel.

New Mexico’s Governor Bill Richardson has publicly stated that he is reconsidering his position on the death penalty. Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley has marched for abolition this past week. Metanoia, it seems, can be a blessing on everyone, except for those with whitewashed tombs.

The New York Times says that the Catholic Church is once again offering indulgences in exchange for Confession and other acts of penance, but the Times doesn’t have the theological acumen to go beyond telling its readers that indulgences can reduce a sinner’s time in Purgatory.

In fact, it’s a persistent myth that indulgences are sort of mini “Get Out of Jail Free” cards for the afterlife. (For a good discussion of this and other myths associated with indulgences, click here.)

The Church defines an indulgence as “a remission before God of the temporal punishment due to sins whose guilt has already been forgiven [italics mine] which the faithful Christian who is duly disposed gains under certain defined conditions through the Church’s help when, as a minister of redemption, she dispenses and applies with authority the treasury of the satisfactions won by Christ and the saints.”

Yet, when we think of indulgences, we see Martin Luther nailing his theses on the church door because of his disagreement with the selling of indulgences and Chaucer’s Pardoner conning pilgrims into buying relics. Pope Paul VI’s Indugeltarium Doctrina recognizes this misunderstanding of how indulgences are obtained:

Unfortunately, the practice of indulgences has at times been improperly used either through “untimely and superfluous indulgences” by which the power of the keys was humiliated and penitential satisfaction weakened, or through the collection of “illicit profits” by which indulgences were blasphemously defamed.

In fact, Pope Paul VI goes on to say that metanoia, or a true conversion, is essential in obtaining an indulgence instead of only going through the motions. Within the heart, metanoia draws us closer to God as we repent for our sins. Since God exists beyond time, repentance and conversion should be the value of indulgences rather than ticking off time in Purgatory, where our souls exist free of the bounds of earthly hours.