Catholic church urges `Yes' vote on death penalty

A group set up by the Irish Bishops' Conference has said it is "not only desirable but morally incumbent on Irish Catholics" to vote for the removal from the Constitution of references to the death penalty, in the referendum on June 7th.

The Irish Commission for Justice and Peace has said in a statement, that "to retain even the possibility of re-introducing execution as a punishment in the ordinary criminal justice system appears increasingly at odds with the church's overall witness to the sacredness of human life from conception to natural death."

"If, as we believe, each person has a unique value, how can Irish Catholics fail to give clear witness to the sanctity of human life by not supporting the referendum proposal?," it asked.

Historical developments, the universal availability of long-term custodial alternatives to judicial execution, and the growing Catholic insight that a pro-life stance has to be consistent across the board, "make any toleration of capital punishment increasingly indefensible in moral terms, even in cases of extreme gravity," it said.

Traditional Catholic teaching had justified capital punishment by reference to society's right to self-defence in the interests of the common good, but "today the common good can be protected without using the death penalty."

"Irrespective of the degree of guilt and the gravity of the crime involved, Catholic teaching now asserts that the state's judicial taking of life is now to all intents and purposes unjustifiable," it continued. And the Pope had described capital punishment as "cruel and unnecessary", it noted.

The deterrent effect of capital punishment had never been proven beyond reasonable doubt and "indeed in some circumstances it may well have the opposite effect, as Irish history witnesses," it said. Where it had been introduced in some countries "crimes for which it is prescribed have not diminished." "Even in practical administrative terms, imprisonment as an alternative to judicial execution is a perfectly practical option for the state and community," it continued.

Further, available figures suggested that "the death penalty is actually a more expensive option for the community than imprisonment." "By refraining from judicial killing, the state makes a silent but powerful statement about the sacredness of human life, even the most guilty. Such a stance educates the moral conscience of the community. The culture of violence, which creates an unending stream of new victims, is much better confronted by taking measures which themselves avoid the further taking of life," it said. Catholic commitment to the sanctity of human life "must show itself as consistent and comprehensive, if it is to be fully credible," it said. The rejection of the death penalty by the church's teaching authority was part of such a consistent witness.