We Forgive Those Who Trespass Against Us

By MAUREEN KRAMLICH, ESQ., Guest Columnist

Published: October 2, 2003

Perhaps the most poignant moment in the book “Dead Man Walking” is Lloyd LeBlanc’s recollection of the day he identified the murdered body of his son. The author, Sister Helen Prejean, recounts:

[When] he arrived with the sheriff’s deputies there in the cane field to identify his son, he knelt by his boy —“laying down there with his two little eyes sticking out like bullets” — and prayed the Our Father. And when he came to the words: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us,” he had not halted or equivocated, and he said, “Whoever did this, I forgive them.”

While his initial response to the brutal murder of his son was forgiveness, he did face an ongoing struggle to live that forgiveness.

The stories of the loved ones of murder victims are too often untold. The stories of family members of victims who advocate against the death penalty are rarer still. Two of these inspiring stories follow.

A Father’s Story

Julie Welch, a recent Marquette University graduate, served as a translator for the Social Security Administration at the Alfred E. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. On April 19, 1995 she attended morning Mass before heading for work. At 9:02 a.m., she greeted her first clients. Then a bomb reduced the building to rubble. She, along with 167 others, was killed that day.

Bud Welch had always opposed the death penalty but he recalled acquaintances saying, “if it ever happens to you, you will change your mind.” When it happened to him, he did change his mind. He wanted the Oklahoma City bombers “fried.”

Then, he remembered a conversation he had with Julie during a road-trip home from Marquette. A news report on the radio announced that the state of Texas had carried out an execution the previous night. Julie turned to her father and said, “Dad, that makes me sick what they are doing down in Texas. All they are doing is teaching hate to their children and it has no redeeming social value.”

In his mind, then, the question was answered. He did not want executions, and shortly thereafter Mr. Welch became an eloquent spokesman against the death penalty. He befriended Timothy McVeigh’s family and when McVeigh was executed on June 11, 2001, Mr. Welch condemned the execution.

A Mother’s Story

Brian Muha had just completed his freshman year at Franciscan University in Steubenville, Ohio. At the end of the semester he returned home, but the stay was brief because he planned to attend summer classes at Franciscan. Before returning to school, he arranged to send roses to his mother. Rachael Muha received them the day after he left and called to thank him. He wasn’t home. Later that afternoon, the police informed the Muha family that Brian and his friend Aaron were missing. After nearly a week, the bloodied bodies of Brian and Aaron were found on a hill under a canopy of wild roses. Three suspects were arrested.

During that week when Brian’s status went from “missing” to murdered, Mrs. Muha relied on prayer. Her prayer was the Lord’s Prayer. And she prayed it deliberately, reflectively, asking herself, challenging herself, “Can I pray this? What is this forgiveness that God wants?”

She forgave his killers. Even after she learned that Brian was kidnapped, beaten with a gun, and forced to march up a hill to his death. Even after she learned that he was tormented and killed “execution-style.” And even though the murderers were and remain unrepentant.

“To forgive someone,” she says, “does not mean to excuse them. It doesn’t mean that you are saying that what they did is okay. … It means giving up anger, hatred, revenge and bitterness towards someone who has hurt you. It means to have good will, to want what is best for that person and to help them get it. What is ultimately best for everyone is Heaven. Do what you can for those who have hurt you so that they can get to Heaven.”

By rejecting the death penalty, she embraces life. “We need to be radical witnesses for life,” she says, “including very guilty life so that we can turn of the tide toward a culture of life.”

The Church and the Death Penalty

In The Gospel of Life, Pope John Paul II explains:

It is clear that … 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 non-existent (no. 56).

Today, the Holy See seeks worldwide abolition of the death penalty. The Holy Father himself has intervened in several American cases to ask for clemency. And the bishops, as a conference and individually, have been active and vigorous in calling for abolition of the death penalty.

In the end, the defining issue is not how wicked the criminal’s actions are, but how we should respond if we are to become a society that more fully reveres and respects human life.

Maureen Kramlich, Esq. is public policy analyst for the USCCB Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities.

Copyright © 2003, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, Washington, D.C. All rights reserved.