All Life is Sacred

Dear sisters and brothers in Christ,

I pray that you are blessed and doing well. Most of my week was spent in Zoom meetings that focused on our Convocation in October. Amongst other things we will be electing new leadership, and so, part of these preparatory meetings were a chance for some of the candidates to share their vision and ideas. We then had an opportunity to ask them some questions. We also discussed what type of qualities we are looking for in our new leaders, and where we think they need to focus their energies. We also talked about the larger plans to merge or consolidate the various units of North America, which includes us and Baltimore, as well as, Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean and the Vietnamese Province which is currently based here in The States. As you can imagine, that will be a huge undertaking.

Pope Francis has asked Catholics to pray and work for the abolition of the death penalty. It is a topic that is especially poignant here in the US. It is sad that as a first-world nation we still execute people. It has always saddened me to see how many Christians, especially Catholics that support the death penalty. In fact, when I have said something against it I have had fierce attacks arguing in favor of it. Some Catholics argue that The Church supports it. There is an old Catholic argument that states that a nation has the right to protect its citizens. Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict clarified this argument by stating that in this modern world it is very difficult to conceive of a situation where a nation cannot safely imprison someone and therefore keep their population safe. I admit that they left a small sliver open, however, it would be hard to argue in favor of that sliver here in The US with all of our resources and technology. Pope Francis has since slammed and sealed the door by stating that it is inconceivable in our modern world that a nation cannot keep its population safe without resorting to the death penalty.

If we argue that life is sacred, then that must be ALL life. One of the things that always troubled me with many people who argued against legalized abortion because life is sacred, and then they turned around and supported the death penalty? Life is not just sacred in the womb. We must defend all life, “from the womb to the tomb,” especially us Catholics, who claim to believe in redemption and mercy. No matter what someone has done, our faith says that they can be forgiven. God’s mercy is boundless and is offered to all people no matter their circumstances. So let us join with our pope and pray for the end of the death penalty and that we learn to respect ALL life everywhere.

In the Redeemer, Fr. Rick