What is at stake is the dignity of the human person, whose defense and promotion have been entrusted to us by our Creator, and to whom the men and women at every moment of history are strictly and responsibly in debt." (John Paul II, SRS 47; CCC 1929)
VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 2011 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI today addressed a group of people working to the end the death penalty, expressing his hopes that their efforts will succeed.
At the end of the general audience, the Pope spoke in English to delegations from a number of countries participating in a meeting being promoted by the Sant’Egidio Community on the theme “No Justice without Life.”
He said: “I express my hope that your deliberations will encourage the political and legislative initiatives being promoted in a growing number of countries to eliminate the death penalty and to continue the substantive progress made in conforming penal law both to the human dignity of prisoners and the effective maintenance of public order.”
January 2005
In the last five years, more juvenile offenders were killed in Texas than in the rest of the world combined. America continues to defend its right to execute children.
“They think we’re beasts. And we deserve nothing else other than our execution,” despairs Oswaldo. He’s been on death row since he was 17, after accidentally killing a man during an armed robbery. “In 12 years, I haven’t had a hug or a kiss.” In Louisiana, Lawrence Jacob Jr is also fighting for his life. Like Oswaldo, he was only 17 when he was sentenced to death. “I’m not asking you to release me. I’m only asking you for the chance to rehabilitate,” he reasons. Cerebral research proves that the brains of 17 year olds have not developed as much as adults. “Youths at that age are much too impulsive and don’t have the control,” explains one expert. But in America, that’s no bar to their execution.
