The Death Penalty?

A common prayer at our Catholic masses is called the "Penitential Rite".  Although this is a prayer that is said by nearly every Catholic who attends mass, do we actually realize what we are saying?

The Penitential Rite

I confess to almighty God, and to you, my brothers and sisters, that I have sinned through my own fault, in my thoughts and in my words, in what I have done, and in what I have failed to do; and I ask blessed Mary, ever virgin, all the angels and saints, and you, my brothers and sisters, to pray for me to the Lord our God.

We are confessing to God and proclaiming to those who are around us that we are sinners.  We are accepting responsibility for the sins that we commit. The sins are present in both our thoughts and that which we have exercised vocally.  We have stated that we are guilty of sinning through our own actions, and also through our inactions.  Sinning through our inaction, or sins of omission, is an important point in our penitential rite.  This is an important point, because as we become more spiritually aware, we realize that we can be sinful by not taking action when we are able to take action.

How does this relate to the death penalty?

As a Catholic Christian I believe in the sanctity of life.  That is, human life is sacred and I must not take another life except in the case when another person has an immediate intent to take another life that is not his own.  I believe in the sanctity of life from conception until natural death.  I believe that a person's dignity needs to be upheld during one's living days.  This is really what "pro-life" is about.  How can a person say they are "pro-life" and at the same time believe in the death penalty?

As for the sins of omission, they occur when one knows that it is sinful to murder another person, and still allow that murder to take place without taking action.  For example, if there is a person who is able to stop a murder, and does not stop that murder, then that person, I believe, is committing a sin of omission.  Likewise, a person who is aware that they can exercise influence in stopping a killing and does nothing about exercising that influence is, I believe, committing a sin of omission.

Doesn't it follow that the governors of states that allow a person to be killed in their houses of execution and who have the power to stop the killings are committing sins of omission?  Doesn't it follow that all of us who do not write or call are elected officials (provided they are elected and the government is democratic in nature) and let the elected officials know that they do not approve of state sanctioned murder are committing a sin of omission?  How many of us have stood by and let a person be killed by the state, knowing that no one is being immediately threatened and that the state sanctioned killing is obviously done with forethought.

Please take the time to cause a change in our culture, a culture of death, so that we no longer will tolerate state sanctioned murder.  Write to your elected officials.  Don't wait until another person is killed in our name. We should never use the same penalty in a just act against a crime that we abhor.  For if we do, we are putting ourselves in the same place as the person who committed that abhorrent act.