By Erika Anderson, Staff Writer

ATLANTA—In an educational effort, Archbishop John F. Donoghue is encouraging priests to preach in November on church teaching and the death penalty so that Catholics may consider supporting a moratorium on executions.

Moratorium 2000 is an effort led by Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ, the nun whose 1993 book “Dead Man Walking” made her a leader in the fight to end the death penalty. According to the Moratorium 2000 web site, over 2 million people worldwide have signed the petition, which calls for a halt in executions.

In a letter asking for support for the moratorium in the United States, Sister Prejean says that the moratorium will be a time to “educate people about the realities of this system—and to show that we can live without it.”

“More and more, people are waking up to the truth about the death penalty. The system is not working,” she writes. “It is often carried out in a racially biased manner, without regard to due process. We sentence innocent people to death. We execute those who are mentally ill or who committed crimes as children. Politicians promise that an execution will bring healing, but there is no satisfaction or safety in seeing another person die. Let us admit that the system has failed us, and call for a moratorium.”

On Dec. 10, in honor of Human Rights Day, Sister Prejean will address the United Nations about the perception of the death penalty in the United States. The U.S. delegation to the United Nations consistently tells other nations that the people of the United States are overwhelmingly in favor of the death penalty. Those leading the Moratorium 2000 effort are hoping that by presenting the petition, the United Nations will be informed otherwise.

Pax Christi Atlanta is leading the effort in the archdiocese.

Surveys show that 60 to 70 percent of Christians are in favor of the death penalty. Catholic social teaching states that the death penalty is virtually no longer justifiable.

In the revised edition of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, it is stated that the death penalty, in cases where guilt is fully determined, is justified “if this is the only possible way of defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.” The Catechism goes on to say that in modern society “the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are rare, if not practically nonexistent” (Section 2267). Non-lethal means of protecting people from the aggressor are “more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person,” the Catechism states.

At the United States Catholic Conference in 1980, the National Conference of Catholic Bishops made a statement on capital punishment.

“We believe that in the conditions of contemporary American society, the legitimate purposes of punishment do not justify the imposition of the death penalty,” the statement reads. “Furthermore, we believe that there are serious considerations which should prompt Christians and all Americans to support the abolition of capital punishment.”

Pope John Paul II has spoken against the death penalty many times. While visiting St. Louis, Mo., in 1999, he said that the “new evangelization calls for followers of Christ who are unconditionally pro-life; who will proclaim, celebrate and serve the Gospel of life in every situation.”

“A sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform,” he said. “I renew the appeal I made most recently at Christmas for a consensus end to the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.”

During the month of November, Archbishop Donoghue has encouraged pastors to incorporate the church’s teachings on the death penalty into one of their homilies and to make available the Moratorium 2000 petition. Educational materials about the death penalty will also be made available at parishes.

Stuart Cashin, former president of Pax Christi Atlanta, said that they are addressing the issue from a moral standpoint.

“There has been a lot of publicity lately about people being executed who turned out to be innocent,” he said. “That’s not what we’re focusing on. We are focusing on the church teaching that the death penalty is immoral.”

Cashin believes that once those who currently favor capital punishment are educated about the subject, they will change their minds.

“There is a very clear moral principle that people aren’t thinking about,” he said. “... We are really just trying to get people to think about it.”

The moral principle, in the teachings of the church, is the belief that all human life is sacred.

A brochure, published in 1999 by the administrative board of the U.S. Catholic Conference entitled “A Good Friday Appeal to End the Death Penalty,” further explains the moral implications of the death penalty in modern Western society.

“Respect for all human life and opposition to the violence in our society are at the root of our long-standing position against the death penalty. We see the death penalty as perpetuating a cycle of violence and promoting a sense of vengeance in our culture,” it states. “As we said in ‘Confronting a Culture of Violence’: ‘We cannot teach that killing is wrong by killing.’”

Capital punishment affects everyone, not only the guilty, according to the brochure.

“We oppose capital punishment not just for what it does to those guilty of horrible crimes but for what it does to all of us as a society,” it reads. “Increasing reliance on the death penalty diminishes us and is a sign of growing disrespect for human life. We cannot overcome crime by simply executing criminals, nor can we restore the lives of the innocent by ending the lives of those convicted of their murders. The death penalty offers the tragic illusion that we can defend life by taking life.”

The bishops of Georgia and North and South Carolina issued their own statement against the death penalty in 1992.

For more information about Moratorium 2000, visit the web site at www.moratorium2000.org or call Cashin at (404) 874-1109.