Archbishop hits road with famous nun to speak against death penalty

Published: 2006-04-25

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Retired Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza of Galveston-Houston is hardly growing inactive in his retirement. Instead, he's been going on the road to speak out against capital punishment along with one of the more well-known advocates of abolishing the death penalty: Sister Helen Prejean, the Sister of St. Joseph of Medaille who wrote the books "Dead Man Walking" and "The Death of Innocents: An Eyewitness Account of Wrongful Executions." "She's an expert at it," said Archbishop Fiorenza, who retired in February. "She gives a very powerful presentation, working with death-row prisoners -- and the whole penal system." But the archbishop himself is hardly a slouch about the issue. Asked if he had a text of his remarks for a presentation, he laughed and replied, "I've been doing this so often I don't need a text." Given Sister Helen's breadth of knowledge on capital punishment, though, there's not much left for him to do but "give some personal reflections about it," Archbishop Fiorenza told Catholic News Service in an April 17 telephone interview from Houston.

Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .