What does the Church say about the death penalty?

If non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity are, in the words of Pope John Paul II, “very rare, if not practically non-existent.”

Catechism, 2267

When someone is murdered, their death cries out for a response, but violence in response to violence only perpetuates the illusion that cruelty and the taking of human life can balance the scales of justice…. We affirm the inherent dignity of every human person regardless of their age, stage of human development, usefulness, or behavior—no matter how violent or reprehensible that behavior might be.

Washington State Catholic Conference,
A Pastoral Statement on the Death Penalty in Washington State, June 2009

Reflection

Forgiveness, the act of loving my enemy, like forgiveness of self, is not a sudden event, a rapid change of the heart. Most of the time it is a long process that begins with the desire to be free, to accept ourselves as we are, and to grow in the love of those who are different and those who have hurt us or appear as rivals. It is the process of getting out of the prison of our likes and dislikes, our hatreds and fears, and walking to freedom and compassion. In the process of liberation, there may still be inhibitions, resentments, and anger, but there is also this growing desire to be free.

To understand the enemy both within us and outside of us is an important part of forgiveness. If we work at it, God works in us, and, one day, resentments start to disappear. Forgiveness is to begin to love and accept ourselves, trying to understand and appreciate all that is valuable in us all, praying that what blocks us all from being free may break like a dam, so that what is most precious in us may flow forth. That is the final prayer of Jesus: “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

Jean Vanier, Becoming Human

People say that executing criminals does not take away from their dignity— if it is done with dignity. But the fact of the matter is that whether you’re waiting to die by lethal injection— waiting for the poison to flow down your veins—or waiting for a bullet, or waiting for a rope, or waiting for gas, or waiting for the electric current—there is no difference:  there is no lesser or greater dignity in dying. The practice of the death penalty is the practice of torture. And by the time people I have been with finally climb into the chair to be killed, they have died a thousand times already because of their anticipation of the final horror.
 
The profound moral question is not, “Do they deserve to die?” but “Do we deserve to kill them?”

Sister Helen Prejean, CSJ