Preventing Illegal Immigration
Summarized from article on immigration issues by Tim Padgett in Oct. 15, 2007 America magazine.
Internal reforms in the local economy of Mexico are a much more effective means of
preventing illegal immigration to the US than law-enforcement approaches to border
policing by the US, according to Mexican journalists and policymakers. Even the
conservative president of Mexico, Calderon, was so strongly challenged in the 2006
elections by leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, that Calderon had to co-opt some of
Obrador's rhetoric in order to win.
Microcredit, small business loans to the most remote and economically depressed
regions, got a boost when Bangladeshi micro-credit guru Muhammed Yunus won the
Nobel prize for economics. It fills a great need in Mexico. Banking and credit resources
are sparse there; in the developed world, there are usually fewer than 2000 people per
bank branch, but in some Mexican states like Oaxaca, the number is 38,000. And Mexico's
banks virtually shut out small enterprises with exorbitant interest and lots of red tape.
Though the country's financial system is one of the hemisphere's largest, it actually loans
very little to its own economy, and virtually none in the rural areas where most illegal
immigrants come from.
Many of those immigrants are now doing what old-line banks won't: pooling funds to start
micro-credit banks to help fund local businesses that allow residents to work at home
instead of travelling to the US to make a living. 95% of the loans made by a microbank in
Santa Cruz Mixtepec, in the southern Oaxacan mountains, have been repaid on time so
far.
The sorts of businesses funded by these microloans include a metal window-frame shop,
tomato greenhouses, and other products which local consumers can utilize. Thus, profits
are not drained away to overseas multinational corporations, but instead reinvested in
other local concerns, and these loans have a ripple effect throughout the local economies,
in contrast to US-free-trade-policy-supported border-dwelling, polluting maquilladoro
factories. NAFTA has failed as a solution to illegal immigration because the wealth it
creates does not flow through Mexico's economic bloodstream and create incentives for
Mexicans to stay home. A multibillion-dollar fence might make xenophobes feel safer, but
the money would be better channelled into foreign aid for the microbanks loaning to small
businesses in the interior of Mexico, and to pressure the Mexican government to help, too.
Christianity and the Social Crisis - "A middle-class church grown lazy and comfortable . . . "
This note is a paraphrase and summary of a review that appeared in Commonweal Magazine, October 26, 2007, by Casey Nelson Blake
(http://www.commonwealmagazine.org/article.php3?id_article=2038&var_recherche=Casey+Nelson+Blake).
Christianity and the Social Crisis was written in 1907 by Walter Rauschenbusch. His objective was to tear down the wall that
separated faith from the public world. He called on the church to address the suffering and degradation that accompanied the
rapid industrialization of the United States.
A century after its appearance, Paul Raushenbush - a great-grandson of both Walter Rauschenbusch and Louis Brandeis - has
edited a new edition titled Christianity and the Social Crisis in the 21st Century (HarperOne), which intersperses the original text
with commentaries by several contemporary authors. Paul Raushenbush intends this new edition as more than a tribute to his
ancestor’s legacy. Christianity and the Social Crisis remains a powerful statement of the social promise of prophetic Christianity,
and its republication in this form is a forceful intervention in contemporary debates in American religion and politics. The book is
an indispensable resource for our own age of crisis.
What Walter Rauschenbusch offered his Christian readers was a revisionist account of their history and theology.
As Stanley Hauerwas observes, Christianity and the Social Crisis “is best read as a sermon seeking to convict Christians
of our sins as well as call us to the redeeming work of the kingdom of God.” Rauschenbusch championed the uncompromising
stance of prophetic Judaism, Jesus’ refusal of caste and custom, and the communal democracy of the early Christian church
as the core of faith. Those traditions lost their force, according to Rauschenbusch, with the ascendancy of ceremonialism,
priestly hierarchy, and an otherworldly orientation that easily accommodated secular authority. Even worse, in his view, was
the individualistic gospel of personal salvation that followed on centuries of empire and political oppression. By the end of the
nineteenth century, a narrow religious individualism had left the faithful shorn of spiritual and communal support as they faced
the onslaught of an industrializing economy. Rauschenbusch urged a return to the example of an early Christian counterculture
that refused the claims of the powerful and held that “the kingdom of God is at hand.”
Rauschenbusch’s book revived the proud tradition of the American jeremiad to confront readers with the unsettling, indeed
shocking gospel of Jesus and his early followers. A middle-class church grown lazy and comfortable, indifferent to social evil as
it called upon individual sinners to repent, stood condemned by the very creed it professed to uphold. Even as he underscored
that “Jesus was not a social reformer of the modern type” - that Jesus’ greatest lesson for his followers was “how to live a religious
life” - Rauschenbusch believed Jesus’ teachings were a desperately needed corrective to modern complacency. “Jesus was not a
child of this world,” he wrote. “He nourished within his soul the ideal of a common life so radically different from the present that it
involved a reversal of values, a revolutionary displacement of existing relations.”
The Church and Human Rights: An Address by Archbishop Mamberti at the United Nations
Archbishop Mamberti, the secretary for the Vatican’s relations with states, in addressing the 62nd session of the U.N. stated:
“Many of the problems that today are attributed almost exclusively to cultural and religious differences have their origin in economic and social injustices."
He went on to call for a fully operational peacekeeping force in Darfur, Sudan and for a solution for the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians which
is capable of recognizing the legitimate expectations of each side. Referring to the crisis in Myanmar he noted that Pope Benedict's appeal called for
“dialogue, good will and a spirit of humanity. May a solution be found quickly for the good of the country and a better future for all its inhabitants?”
Archbishop Mamberti went on to assert the inherent right to life is to be respected everywhere. He said that we must work to stop and reverse the culture
of death embraced by some social and legal structures that try to make the suppression of life acceptable by disguising it as a medical or social service.
In this sense, the abolition of the death penalty should also be seen as a consequence of full respect for the right to life.
On the issue of equality, he noted that “the quest for equality between men and women has achieved positive results. Nevertheless,
inequalities in the exercise of basic human rights unfortunately persists in many places. This leads to a breakdown in the social fabric and
results in women’s objectification and exploitation. The vindication of equality needs to be accompanied by the awareness that it goes hand
in hand with and does not endanger, much less contradict, the recognition of both the difference and complementarity between men and women.”
He concluded that “Faith in human dignity demands that the problem of migrations is approached in the context of human rights, family rights,
and children’s rights.” He said that “while it is essential to fight human trafficking and it is legitimate to curb illegal migration, no one can justify
measures which put lives at risk or gravely offend human dignity and rights.”
Terry McCaffrey, Parish Human Concerns
Committee, December 2007. From the October 25th 2007 edition of Origins Magazine.
WHEN TRAGEDY BECOMES A STATISTIC:
CHILDREN,
HIV/AIDS AND OTHER DISEASES
An article in the Spring
2006 issue of "Stanford Medicine" is entitled: "The
Unhealthiest Place on the Planet for Children - Sub-Saharan
Africa." It tells a sad story. We must take care that the
enormity of the numbers does not desensitize us to the tragedies
of the individual lives.
In sub-Saharan Africa,
nine children under the age of five die every minute - 4.8
million a year. Cause of death: malaria, diarrheal disease,
respiratory infections, AIDS. (AIDS is the biggie.) Contributing
causes: Poverty, malnutrition, bad water, bad sanitation,
ineffective delivery systems.
[Parishioners will recall
that Fr. Kiriti from Kenya spent time here recently.] In his
country 30,000-40,000 infants are born HIV-positive every year.
Sixty to seventy percent die before age five. Anti-retroviral
(ARV) drugs given to mothers before and after labor and to the
newborn just after birth would reduce deaths to almost zero. This
is the experience of developed nations.
President Bush's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, the UN's Global
Fund to Fight AIDS and private donations help pay for ARV drugs.
(In Kenya only 2% of the people have access to these drugs.) In
sub-Saharan Africa, 26 million are HIV-positive. Of these, 4.8
million need drugs to survive.
In 2003 the UN tried to
jump-start delivery of AIDS drugs with the World Health
Organization's "3 x 5" program: Treat 3 million by
2005. As a result, global spending increased from $4.7 billion
(2003) to $8.3 billion (2005). The program also set a goal for
industrialized nations to provide universal access to drugs by
2010. A hopeful note is that the cost of ARV drugs has dropped
53%. A discouraging note is that their present cost is out of the
reach of many, many wage earners.
While prospects for attaining the goals are slim, the UN feels
the effort is worthwhile.
WHAT TO DO?
The UN Millennium Project
aims to reduce the under-five mortality rate by two-thirds by
2015. The amounts pledged should get the job done. The
amounts delivered are falling short. All participating
nations must be encouraged to match word with deed and put their
money where their mouths are. (Our parishioners will recall
signing letters to lawmakers to do just that - most recently in
March 2006.)
AIDS ORPHANS - A
BY-PRODUCT
In sub-Saharan Africa,
about 15 million children have lost one or both parents to AIDS
(650,000 in Kenya). This is a traumatic blow to children. An
added danger is that because orphanages and existing social
programs are overwhelmed, the children must scavenge to survive.
They become ripe for sexual predators and for recruitment by
terrorist groups.
CHURCH TEACHING
"The demands of the
common good . . . [include] the provision of essential services
to all, some of which are . . . basic health care. . . .
Nor must one forget the contribution that every nation is
required in duty to make towards a truly worldwide cooperation
for the common good of the whole of humanity and for future
generations also."
MORE MONEY NEEDED FOR INTERNATIONAL FOOD AID:
Why
We're behind the Curve
In the 2005 budget year the U.S. Agency for
International Development had $1.183 billion for food aid.
Three-quarters of it was planned for development programs -to
demonstrate and teach variable crop rotation, water conservation
and irrigation; to improve roads, and instruct mothers in healthy
nutritional and sanitation methods. Regrettably, most of the
money had to go for emergency aid.
Andrew S. Natsos, who administers A.I.D., fears the
same will happen this year. The cost of responding to emergencies
is said to be seven times the cost of preventing them. The
shortfall has been compared to a city budget that cancels money
for smoke detectors and fire safety inspections to buy a new fire
engine.
Another billion dollars (not expected to be
forthcoming) would cover both emergency needs AND long-range
development efforts. These programs would be managed by
non-governmental organizations - Save the Children, WorldVision,
Catholic Relief Services and others.
Catholic social teaching is clear: We should feed the
hungry (but we should not create dependencies). Our solidarity
with all people asserts the obligation to help others in a world
that is interconnected and increasingly plagued with hunger and
misery. Pope Paul VI wrote: "Development is the new name for
peace." President Bush (State of the Union message, 2005:)
"If whole regions of the world remain in despair* and grow
in hatred, they will be the recruiting ground for terror."
Conclusion: Pope Paul VI - it is the moral thing to
relieve hunger. President Bush - it is in our national interest
to relieve hunger.
Concerned readers are urged to write to policy makers
in Washington, D.C.
*Some places of despair: Angola: Seventy percent live
on less than 70 cents a day. India: About 300 million (more than
our U.S. population) live on less than a dollar a day.
[Information for this reflection was taken from
"America", Oct. 10, 2005 "The New Name for Peace"]
CENTRAL AMERICAN FREE TRADE AGREEMENT (CAFTA)
Testimony of Archbishop Alvaro Ramazzini Imaro of San
Marcos, Guatemala, before the Congressional Subcommittee on the
Western Hemisphere:
The archbishop expressed deep concerns about the
present plan. He reiterated the plea of Pope John Paul II to
consider the effect of trade policies on those who live in
poverty, not just on the benefits to business and economic
growth.
In Guatemala 56% of the population is poor (16%
extremely poor and living in rural areas). Almost a quarter of
Guatemala's Gross Domestic Product comes from agriculture that
employs the rural poor. "But they cannot compete against the
U.S. Treasure and the $170 billion subsidies . . . in your farm
bill of 2002."
The inability of rural farm families to compete
against subsidized commodity imports or overcome limited access
to [patented] seed and fertilizers drives the ablebodied to move
to the U.S. for work or to jobs in local maquilas that lack labor
rights and safe working conditions.
Archbishop Ramazzini recalled Pope John Paul's words
["Ecclesia in America"] "If globalization is ruled
merely by the laws of the market applied to suit the powerful,
the consequences cannot be but negative."
Some of those
consequences: unemployment, reduced public services, depletion of
natural resources and environmental destruction, increasing
rich-poor gap, and growing inferiority of poor nations to rich
nations.
Said the archbishop: "The path of trade
integration laid down by the free trade agreement . . . has been
presented as a wide avenue along all can travel to a greater
prosperity. In reality it is a narrow path across a deep gorge
that only the strongest can travel. It offers hope only to a few,
and, I fear, no hope to those whom the Pope calls 'the weakest,
the most powerless and the poorest.' "
[The full text may be
found in Origins, Vol. 34, No. 46, 5/5/05]
"FADING FAITH IN FREE TRADE"
The following is a summary of an article appearing in
"America" (July 5-12, 2004) by Robert A. Senser [former
U.S. Foreign Service employee; editor of bulletin"Human
Rights for Workers"]
Some economists are now having second thoughts about
free trade policies. Of particular concern are the protection of
human rights, worker health and safety standards and
environmental protection.
One economist, Joseph E. Stiglitz, [2001 Nobel prize,
chairman Council of Economic Advisors in 1st Clinton
administration, senior VP World Bank] says, "At the end of
the Cold War, the U.S., as the sole superpower, had an
opportunity and a responsibility to reshape the global economic
order based on principles like social justice. . . . But we
lacked a vision. The financial and commercial sector in the U.S.
did have a vision. They might not believe in the government
having an active role, except when it advanced their interest.
The active role they pushed for was to gain market access. . . .
As a result we got some very unbalanced trade agreements."
Stiglitz (and economist Jagdish Baghwati) take issue
with two particular sore points.
1. Protection of intellectual properties [i.e.
patents and copyrights] - "stronger intellectual property
rights typically make some better off (the drug companies) and
many worse off (those who might otherwise have been able to
purchase the drugs."
[Stiglitz] and "Pharmaceutical
and software companies muscled their way into the [World Trade
Organization] and turned it into a royalty-collection agency . .
." [Bhagwati]
2. Bhagwati, on the question of whether capital
should have an unrestricted freedom to flow from one country to
another, says this is in the interest of Wall Street "which
it equates with the good of the world."
Paul C. Roberts [Asst. Secty of Treasury in Reagan
administration] fears present policies on movement of capital
threaten to turn the U.S into a third world economy in 20 years.
Unfettered movement of capital means factories and machinery can
be moved abroad to populous, labor-surplus countries like China
and India.
Author Senser says it is
ironic that owners of capital (investments and property real and
intellectual) receive beneficial protection under trade policies
while jobs, not "owned", do not.
GLOBAL TRADE; WHO'S HELPED? WHO'S STILL HURTING?
[A review of an article in "America"
12/12/05 by Rev. Andrew Small, O.M.I., foreign policy advisor to
the U.S.Conference of Catholic Bishops and Vatican delegate to
the Dec. World Trade Organization meeting in Hong Kong]
National and international concerns for the poor is
made visible in donations to victims of tsunami, Katrina,
earthquake and HIV/AIDS and by cancellation of the debts of 19
very poor nations. But negatively, "the poor are getting
poorer, and the gap between the rich and poor is getting wider."
The combined wealth of the 500 richest people in the world is
greater than that of the 416 million poorest. Ten percent of the
globe earns over 50% of the world's income; 40% earn 5%.
[The Hong Kong meeting ended in deadlock, the big
hang-up being over trade terms afforded poor countries. Rich
countries were reluctant to reduce barriers (tariffs, quotas and
subsidies) to the entry of products - esp. agricultural - from
poor nations.]
About 1.3 billion people in developing nations are
engaged in agriculture. They'd be better off if they had a market
to sell what they grow or make. Unfortunately, tariffs tend to be
highest on the products that poor people and poor countries
produce: agricultural commodities and garments, footwear and food
products. (The author says you can sell peanuts but don't try to
sell peanut butter.} "Thus Bangladesh (annual per capita
income $440) pays more in tariffs than France (annual per capita
income $24,000), even though France sells 15 time more goods than
Bangladesh.)
Fr. Small suggests there is no one-size-fits-all
solution. Trade strategies should be accommodated to the
particular needs and circumstances of individual countries and
there must be flexible policies to meet changing conditions.
Readers who feel that trade policies and treaties
should work to promote the common good and the well-being of all
[or at least of more] are urged to write Congress and the
administration. Investors [some 70 million households in the
U.S.] can influence their companies to act in a socially
responsible mode and, while doing well, do good also.
[From "The Compendium of the Social Doctrine of
the Church" #364: "The Church's social doctrine has
time and again called attention to aberrations in the system of
international trade which often, owing to protectionist policies,
discriminates against products coming from poorer countries and
hinders the growth of industrial activity in and the transfer of
technology to these countries. The continuing deterioration in
terms of the exchange of raw materials and the widening of the
gap between rich and poor countries has prompted the social
Magisterium to point out the importance of ethical criteria that
should form the basis of international economic relations: the
pursuit of the common good and the universal destination of
goods, equity in trade relationships, and attention to the rights
and needs of the poor in policies concerning trade and
international cooperation. Otherwise 'the poor nations remain
ever poor while the rich ones become still richer.'"]
THE FULLNESS OF LIFE
On April 27, 2003, Cardinal Theodore McCarrick
(Washington, D.C.) wrote a pastoral letter on "The Fullness
of Life" on the subject of HIV/AIDS. Using the Gospel
text "I came that they might have life and have it to the
full." [John l0:l0] the Cardinal described how HIV/AIDS
infects men, women and children and how new drugs permit
sufferers to lead longer and more productive lives.
Sub-Saharan Africa now has 30 million people
infected, of whom 3 million are children under age 15. In
Botswana and Zimbabwe 33% of adults are infected. The resulting
sickness and deaths create orphans and homelessness and cause
enormous social, economic and political devastation.
We [the affluent developed nations] must be in
solidarity with the sufferers. Cardinal McCarrick quotes Pope
John Paul II on solidarity: "Solidarity is not a feeling of
vague compassion or shallow distress at the misfortunes of so
many people. On the contrary, it is a firm and persevering
determination to commit oneself to the common good; that is to
say, to the good of all and to each individual, because we are
really responsible to all."
Our efforts must both treat and prevent. The Catholic
Church worldwide provides 25% of all AIDS care. The Church
encourages chastity, fidelity and sexual abstinence outside
marriage This Church stance is counter-cultural and reflects a
crisis of values. Here the Cardinal cites St. Thomas Aquinas:
"The great kindness we can render to any man consists in
leading him to the truth," and quotes St. Paul's Letter to
the Romans [12:2], "Do not conform yourselves to this age
but be transformed by the renewal of your minds, so that you may
judge what is God's will, what is good, pleasing and perfect."
Both counselling and early testing are required,
along with CHEAP DRUGS [emphasis supplied]. [Parishioners will
recall that our parish Human Concerns Committee has provided
letter-writing opportunities to Congress urging maximum funding
for African disease and hunger relief.]
Faced with this need
for affordable drugs "There is a social mortgage on all
private property." The law of profit does not apply.
[For the full text see Origins,6/l9/03.]
Footnotes:
The Death Penalty
Reflections on the Death Penalty -- October 12,
2006:
October is Respect LIfe Month. In the words of Bishop
McGrath from San Jose "Life is to be respected at all
stages." This means that we support the life of the unborn
and it also means that we support the life of those who kill.
Although I am fortunate that none of my loved ones
has been murdered, I would like to share some of my experiences
with those that have been touched by the death penalty. I have
met family members hat have lost a loved one to violence. Their
pain is enormous. Some are very angry. But some have transformed
their pain and have come to forgive the perpetrator.
But there are others who are also suffering. I have
met a mother whose son is on death row. Every other weekend she
travels from Santa Monica to visit her son in San Quentin. She is
devastated.
Then there are those who carry out executions. A few
years ago I interviewed a Warden who was in charge of executing
people. In his interview he said, each night after an execution,
"I went home to my house in the middle of the night and
climbed into the shower and scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed.
But you can't make yourself feel clean."
"I was troubled as I stood and watched these
guys die in the gas chamber thinking: What are my children deep
down thinking of their father? And ultimately what is my God
going to ask of me when my time comes to be judged?"
So you see there is plenty of pain to go all around.
For me the crucial issue about the death penalty is
what does Jesus have to say. We have a direct answer. When Jesus
was confronted by the woman who was about to be stoned to death
he said, "Let you who is without sin cast the first stone."
Jesus was about love, compassion and forgiveness. There is no
love and compassion about killing someone.
The message of forgiveness and reconciliation is a
very difficult one to bridge. Yet in our culture of violence we
have a recent sterling example that stands out. You will all be
familiar with the killing of five Amish school girls in Lancaster
County in Pennsylvania. The universal response of the Amish
community was one of forgiveness. In fact they have set up a
trust fund to take care of the family of the perpetrator of this
crime.
The challenge of the Gospel is not an easy path to
follow. This is the challenge we face regarding the death
penalty.
Terry McCaffrey
A Catholic Response to the Death Penalty
The Catholic Church has been an aggressive opponent
of capital punishment since at least 1995 when Pope John Paul II
issued Evangelium Vitae. He argued that the extent of punishment
ought not to go to the extreme of executing the offender except
in cases of absolute necessity when it would not be possible
otherwise to defend society. “Today, however, such
cases are very rare if not practically nonexistent.” He
went on to say that if bloodless means are sufficient to protect
public order and safety they are more in conformity to the
dignity of the human person. (The new Catechism of
the Catholic Church also reflects this position.) He
mentioned that support for the death penalty is generally rooted
in the desire for revenge and that justice can never be achieved
through vengeance.
John Paul II reminds us that Jesus’ position on the
death penalty was clear: turn the other cheek and forgive.
Pope Benedict XVI in his first Encyclical Letter, Deus Caritas
Est, states that the Holy Spirit harmonizes our hearts with
the heart of Christ so that we see others with the eyes of
Christ. Catholics are committed to justice and called to
advocacy and it is the responsibility of lay faithful to work
directly for a just ordering of society. During her recent
visit to the Vatican, the president of the Philippines was
greeted by Pope Benedict with the words, “Well done!”
The Pope was referring to her decisive role in the abolition of
the death penalty in her country.
In the 1994, the U.S. Catholic Bishops wrote in their
pastoral message, Confronting a Culture of Violence, that our
society looks to a reliance on the death penalty to deal with
crime and that we are tragically turning to violence in the
search for quick and easy answers to complex human problems.
Violence is not the solution; it is the most clear sign of our
failures. We cannot teach that killing is wrong by
killing. The cycle of violence diminishes us all,
especially our children. How do we teach the young to curb
their violence when we embrace it as the solution to social
problems? Violence is a lie for it goes against the
truth of our faith, the truth of our humanity.
“We believe that capital punishment is not just a
question of public policy, but is at its very core a moral issue,
and therefore a religious issue and we must speak to it.”
Archbishop John Roach, St. Paul-Minneapolis.
Evolving Standards of Justice
We can observe an evolution in religious teaching as
societal conditions and attitudes have evolved. History tells us
the application of the death penalty (including the Church's
penalty for heresy) was more frequent and more savage. Today,
with few exceptions, developed and industrialized nations execute
quickly and more humanely; indeed, most of them have abolished
the death penalty. According to Amnesty International, in 2005,
94 per cent of all known executions took place in China, Iran,
Saudi Arabia and the USA. Most European and Latin American
countries have abolished capital punishment. (In the U.S. there
are 12 states and the District of Columbia without the death
penalty.) Notably, Pope John Paul II and his bishops have been
very vigorous in their opposition. But doesn't it almost go
against human nature and our sense of justice to feel concern
about executing a "clearly-guilty" and
"fairly-convicted" killer who, besides a dead victim,
has offended the grieving families and friends and a society
whose fabric of order has been torn by that act? "An eye for
an eye . . . " is scriptural, and lt seems SO RIGHT! in such
a case. Lex talionis - the law of retaliation.
A Little History
In the following we rely on two additional sources:
1. "Dictionary of Biblical Theology", Xavier
Leon-Dufour, 2nd ed. 1973 (vide "Vengeance") 2.
Dictionary of the Bible", John L. McKenzie, S.J., 1965 (vide
"Avenger" and "Murder".]
In a nomadic society, before settlements and laws
became fixed, the clan was the protector of it members or it
killed a murderer and thus safeguarded justice. (But nothing then
prevented the killer's clan from retaliating, and the resulting
feuds went on and on.) With the advance of a more ordered
civilization the right of retribution passed to society and its
laws. Gradually there were restraints on excesses of anger (eye
for eye Ex. 21:23-25 = tit for tat). There was a call for
measured retaliation (Dt. 19:6); determination of intent (Dt.
19:4); restraint on revenge against countrymen (Lv. 19:17-18),
and pardon of countrymen (Jg. 15: 3,7) . All this showed less
rigor, more restraint and more selectivity. [Still, this was no
namby-pamby justice system. The law killed for adultery,
idolatry, false prophecy, working on the Sabbath, sorcery,
cursing God, and disobedience to religious authorities.]
Lastly, it was Jesus who said, "Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do." - the ultimate
rejection of vengeance. . . . God/Man said this.
The Real Question
The rationale for the Catechism's stricture against
the death penalty is public order and the safety of persons.
There exists in the U.S. (and in all non-death penalty nations) a
sentence of Life Without Parole (LWOP) = "throw away the
key" to provide this safeguard. LWOP, moreover, does not
risk the execution of an innocent person. Countless news stories
have shown the danger: In the past 20 years 112 people have been
removed from Death Row after appellate judicial review. Some
reasons? Witness perjury, police/prosecutorial/juror misconduct,
defendant's mental incapacity, inadequate defense counsel and,
more recently, the certainty of DNA evidence. These instances
raise question about the moral certitude of "clearly-guilty"
and "fairly-convicted". Can there ever be foolproof,
error-free death penalty convictions? It is good we ask these
questions now. Since 1976 more than 880 men and women have been
executed. In our state more than 630 await execution. We worship
a God of justice and a God of love and forgiveness and mercy. How
does He keep it all straight?
Update October 2006
Thirty-eight states have constitutions which allow
capital punishment. Twelve do not. From time to time there are
efforts to allow executions in those twelve, some to expand the
application of the death penalty beyond the limits now allowed in
some states and some to eliminate capital punishment where now
allowed. What follows is a look at recent efforts.
WISCONSIN: The November ballot has an advisory
(non-binding) referendum to ask voters whether the death penalty
should be restored after an absence of 153 years. This would be
for cases involving a person convicted of first-degree
intentional homicide if the conviction is supported by DNA
evidence.
The Assembly had passed a similar measure earlier;
the Senate voted 18-15 for the referendum. The incumbent governor
opposes capital punishment; his opponent favors it. Both are
Catholic.
A recent poll reflects that 55.6% of voters favor the
measure but, when given a choice between execution and life
without parole, 45% chose death and 50% preferred imprisonment.
In opposing the measure, the Wisconsin Catholic
Conference pointed out that the state has a murder rate below the
national average and one far below many states which perform
executions frequently.
KANSAS:
The Kansas Catholic Conference continues to work to
repeal the Kansas death penalty. Background: After the Kansas
Supreme Court found one provision of the law unconstitutional,
the Supreme Court of the U.S. reversed (5-4) the decision. At
issue: Is it unfair to defendants to mandate a death sentence
when a jury finds that the aggravating and mitigating
circumstances are equal? The Kansas bishops: "In this case
the Supreme Court said a tie goes to the state instead of the
defendant."
MICHIGAN: There have been no executions, even before Michigan
became a state in 1837. Its constitution bans capital punishment
and its laws mandate life without parole for first-degree murder.
Earlier this year a man committed three violent murders, and the
killings moved the district's assemblyman to move to permit
executions.
A 2/3 vote in both houses is necessary to change the
constitution. The issue awaits consideration by the House
Judiciary Committee.
MISSOURI: In June a U.S. District Court found that
the state's execution procedure could cause "unconstitutional
pain and suffering." (In California and several other states
this same issue has been raised.) The court decision has been
appealed by the Attorney General.
The bishops of Missouri wrote a pastoral letter
urging messages to state and national legislators to push for a
halt to executions and an end to capital punishment. ". . .
more violence is not a solution to society's problems."
NEVADA:
The state recorded its twelfth execution since capital
punishment was restored in 1977. The prisoner denied his guilt
but waived his right to appeal, saying he preferred death to
imprisonment during the lengthy appeals process. (A curious fact:
Of the 11 others executed earlier, all but one waived appeal.)
NEW JERSEY:
The state has formed a Death Penalty Study
Commission. A spokesman for the state's bishops testified that
54% of churchgoers favored life without parole to execution. In
other testimony, victims' family members belonging to Murder
Victims' Family Members for Reconciliation gave their testimony
that they did not seek the death penalty for killers of their
families.
TENNESSEE:
In June the state executed the second person in the
past 46 years. The state's bishops prayed for the victims, their
families and for the killer and his family and said, in a
statement, " . . . our modern society clearly has means to
provide for the safety of its members without resorting to
capital punishment."
VIRGINIA: The governor postponed an execution for six
months pending a further study of the prisoner's mental
retardation or mental illness Without further analysis, he said,
he would consider neither execution nor clemency.
Also, the Virginia Catholic Conferences is opposing
three bills which expand the circumstances allowing the a death
sentence to be imposed.
HOW ABOUT THE REST OF THE WORLD?
PHILIPPINES: President Macapagel-Arroyo signed a law
to replace life without parole for capital punishment. At the
same time she commuted the death sentences of all 1205 people on
death row to LWOP. (Pope Benedict XVI praised her action.)
POLAND:
Poland's president urged the European Union to return
to capital punishment. (Membership in the EU requires or strongly
urges abolition of the death penalty.) The proposal was rejected.
PERU:
Peru's bishops opposed a measure to apply the death
penalty to individuals who sexually assault and murder minors.
Their statement underlined the primacy and inviolability of human
life and declared that all killing is an offense against God, the
sole owner of life.
ALGERIA:
Algeria announced in a radio address a plan to end
capital punishment. It will be the first Arab country to do so.
Algeria has not had an execution in 13 years. Abolition "is
an urgent measure essential for the constitution of a state based
on rights," and capital punishment is "totally absurd
and has no effect on the reduction of crime," said a
spokesman.
CHINA:
In April China ratified an extradition treaty with
Spain in which it agreed not to execute repatriated criminals.
(Last year China executed more than four times as many people as
all other countries combined.)
GREAT BRITAIN:
Forty years ago the death penalty was abolished. Ever
since then there has been a strong sentiment to restore it. Now,
polls show, for the first time public support for restoration has
dropped to 49%.
KYRGYZSTAN:
A death penalty moratorium has been in place since
1998, and legislators seem to be moving toward abolition.
RUSSIA:
There has been a moratorium for 10 years. Recently,
despite very, very strong pressure for the execution of the only
surviving participant in the Beslan school massacre (330 deaths),
a judge imposed a sentence of life without parole.
Walt Lundin, Parish Human Concerns
Committee, October 2007
Update January 2007
INTERNATIONAL
MOLDOVA abolished the death penalty.
RWANDA pledged to pass legislation by the end of 2006
[unable to learn if this occurred] to abolish the death penalty.
Rwanda wants to hold war crimes trials for 1994 genocide. Most
countries holding those accused will not extradite to a death
penalty nation.
The president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for
Justice and Peace made a statement soon after the hanging of
Saddam Hussein. "The killing of the guilty is not the way to
rebuild justice and reconcile society; rather there is a risk of
nourishing the spirit of revenge and inciting fresh violence."
Under domestic and international criticism, CHINA
adopted new rules requiring Supreme Court review of all death
sentences. Final review had been relegated to provincial courts
in 1983. [Some observers estimate that China has accounted for
80% of the world's executions.]
JAPANese courts sentenced 60 people to death in 2006,
the largest number in 26 years. Japan has been experiencing an
increase in violent crimes. [Ninety people are now on Japan's
Death Row.]
ITALY - Just after Hussein's hanging the Italian
government petitioned the U.N. to begin a process for an
international moratorium on the death penalty. [The Italian
constitution bans the death penalty.]
UNITED NATIONS
In July 2006 the U.N. Human Rights Commission
recommended a U.S. moratorium on the death penalty. ". . .
the death penalty may be imposed disproportionately on ethnic
minorities as well as on low income groups, a problem which does
not seem to be fully acknowledged." The panel also urged the
U.S. to limit the number of crimes punishable by the death
penalty and to review its suggestion of disproportionate
application. [The panel has no authority to enforce its
recommendations.]
The U.N.'s new Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon,
commented on Hussein's hanging. He said that capital punishment
is an issue for each country to decide. Later, his spokeswoman
said his opinion was a personal one. She acknowledged that the
U.N. policy is against executions. [South Korea, Ki-moon's
country, has not banned the death penalty.]
UNITED STATES
MISSOURI halted executions because of a challenge to
its lethal injection procedures. [See TE, CA, MD, SD and FL
below.]
SOUTH CAROLINA's governor signed a bill which allows
the death penalty on those convicted of two or more sex crimes
against children under age 11.
TENNESSEE - The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear
an appeal of a state Supreme Court decision that its method of
execution was not "cruel and unusual."
VERMONT - A federal jury imposed the death penalty on
a murderer. This was the first death sentence issued since 1954.
[The state eliminated the death penalty in 1987.]
CALIFORNIA - Last year U.S. District Court Judge
Jeremy Fogel ordered the state to review its execution protocols.
Recently the Attorney General informed him that a report would be
forthcoming in May. The Attorney General asked for secrecy about
the deliberations and anonymity for the consultants used.
NEW JERSEY - A 13-person legislative commission
called for abolition of the death penalty. One member dissented.
The governor said he supports the recommendation.
MARYLAND's death penalty protocols are under court
review. Meanwhile, the newly-elected governor announced plans to
ask the legislature to repeal the death penalty.
TEXAS - Over the past 10 years the number of death
penalty sentences has dropped 65%, (40 in 1996; 14 in FY 2006)
The number of murders was pretty stable - 1476 in 1996; 1405 in
2005.
FLORIDA's Gov. Bush ordered a moratorium on
executions and formed an expert panel to review procedures, this
after the last execution took more than twice as long and
required a second lethal injection.
NORTH DAKOTA - The bishop of Fargo criticized the
death penalty sentence imposed by a federal jury on a man guilty
of murdering a college student: ". . . it reinforces the
false perspective of revenge as justice."
SOUTH DAKOTA - Gov. Grounds stayed a lethal injection
execution until July, pending a legislative review of a required
2-drug injection and a planned 3-drug method.
WISCONSIN - [See Death Penalty Updates No. I for
background.] Death penalty reinstatement advocates are dubious of
the outcome of the pending vote. The make-up of the Senate
changed with the November election, and the re-elected governor is
likely to veto an affirmative vote.
PUERTO RICO - A federal jury sentenced a killer to
life instead of death, despite the urging of the U.S. prosecutor.
(Puerto Rico's territorial legislature abolished the death
penalty 80 years ago.)
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS - The annual convention of the
KofC in August resolved ". . . to speak out to our elected
representatives about our continued opposition to the death
penalty." (KofC opposition dates from 2000.)
Walt Lundin, Parish Human Concerns
Committee, July 2007
Update August 2007
NEW JERSEY - The Senate Judiciary Committee (8-2) approved repeal of
capital punishment. The measure will go to the Senate in Nov. or Dec.,
then to the Assembly. The governor has said he'll sign it.
NEW YORK - [New York's highest court ruled in 2004 that major portions
of the current execution law were unconstitutional.] The Senate has
now passed a bill to restore capital punishment for killers of police
and correctional officers; however the Speaker of the Assembly said
the measure would not likely be considered there.
(In both states Catholic bishops issued strong statements for repeal
and against restoration.)
CLOSE - - - BUT NO CIGAR
MARYLAND - The Senate Judicial Proceedings Committee (5-5) killed a
measure to end executions. The House of Delegates had indicated strong
backing for abolition.
MONTANA - The Senate (27-21) approved abolition; the House Judiciary
Committee (9-8) tabled it.
NEBRASKA - The unicameral legislature defeated (25-24) a bill to end
executions. (The governor had said he'd veto the measure if it
passed.)
NEW MEXICO - A House-passed (41-28) repeal was tabled by the Senate
Judiciary Committee (4-5).
NEW HAMPSHIRE - The House (no vote count available) rejected a bill to
replace the death penalty with life without parole.
Even these narrow misses have cumulative value One criterion used by
the Supreme Court is "evolving standards of decency". This concept was
mentioned in its decision to ban executions of juvenile offenders.
(The Court noted thathirty states had already banned this already.)
NORTH CAROLINA - The Medical Board adopted a policy that physicians
should not facilitate executions beyond being present, as state law
requires. (Many state medical boards discourage physician
participation.)
INDIANA - The state American Bar Association Assessment Team called
for a moratorium. It said only 10 of the ABA's 79 death penalty
criteria had been met. Among the deficiencies:
1. No ban on executing mentally ill people.
2. Not all interrogations are recorded.
3. No independent authority appoints defense attorneys. 4.
There are not tough qualifications for or monitoring of defense
attorneys.
INTERNATIONAL
IRELAND - Mr. Justice Scalia (Irish Times, Mar. 7), speaking at
University College Dublin said he would resign from the bench if he
learned that Catholic doctrine prohibited the death penalty. (A month
earlier the Vatican sent a message to the 3rd annual World Congress
calling capital punishment "an affront to human dignity."
SOUTH AFRICA - The President, despite a rising crime rate, said
reinstatement of the death penalty was not an option.
ZAMBIA - The President said he'll sign no death warrants. He pledged
to commute all current executions to life without parole.
FRANCE - Parliament banned executions and made the ban a part of the
Constitution.
MOROCCO is the first Arab state to abolish capital punishment. Said a
proponent, "The positive aspects of Islam need to be stressed. It does
not order people to kill, carry out reprisals or state executions."
Worldwide there were 1,591 executions in 2006, down from 2005's 2,198.
Executions were heavily concentrated in China, Iran, Pakistan, Iraq and
the United States.
Walt Lundin, Parish Human Concerns
Committee, August 2007
Child Labor Diminishing Worldwide
June 11 was the annual World Day against Child Labor.
The International Labor Organization, one of the watchdogs over
global labor abuses, reported that the number of child workers
fell 11% globally over the past four years. Especially
gratifying, the number of children doing hazardous work decreased
overall 26% and, in the 5-14 year age group, by 33%. (In raw
numbers [year 2004] there were 218 million child laborers, with
126 million in hazardous work. More boys work than girls. Latin
America and the Caribbean showed the greatest progress. Only 5%
of the children in those regions worked. Child labor levels in
sub-Saharan Africa remained high. Child labor is most prevalent
in nations heavily reliant on agriculture.
Church Doctrine
Since 1891 (Rerum Novarum) the Church has opposed
child labor abuses. Pope Leo XIII stated children should not work
before their minds and bodies were sufficiently developed In 1996
Pope John Paul II described onerous child labor as a form of
violence. Nonetheless, the Church does recognize that some child
labor contributes significantly (and indispensably) to family
income. The Church's concern is over "veritable slavery"
which chooses utility over human dignity. [#29, "Compendium
of Catholic Social Doctrine]
A spokesperson for the Indian bishops' Commission for
Labor said that India leads the world in the use of child labor.
This is caused by poverty, but also by broken families and "vices
of the heads of families." Because children are a nation's
future, the bishops urged that more nutrition, education, health
care and child rights be provided.
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