In cold blood

by Editor · March 18, 2009

The cold-blooded murder of two South African priests within a week brings into sharp focus the corruption of ethics in our society, a degeneration which finds expression in brutish crime against the innocent and defenceless.

Women are habitually raped, children � toddlers, even � violated and killed, and those who offer their lives� vocation to the service of humanity are robbed and murdered. The killing of priests adds an indelible stain on our nation�s moral fabric.

The murder of Frs Daniel Mahula of Klerksdorp and Lionel Sham of Johannesburg has produced righteous anger, among Catholics and others. Both men were much-loved servants of God�s people, their light extinguished by persons who exist in enmity with the world.

At times like these, even the most dedicated opponents of capital punishment will question why they should not join the chorus demanding the return of the death penalty. This, however, would be a false response.

The Church teaches that all human life, even the most abominable, is sacred. It is a painful teaching to follow when we are confronted by evil, but we must be guided by the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which holds that capital punishment is permissible only �when this is the only practicable way to defend the lives of human beings effectively against the aggressor�. In the view of the late Pope John Paul II, such conditions today �are very rare, if not practically non-existent�.

Even St Thomas Aquinas, who outlined the case for capital punishment, saw it as a method of deterrence and prevention, not as a means of retribution. There is no empirical evidence that the threat of execution serves any deterrent value. Indeed, statistics from the United States, where the death penalty is applied in some states and not in others, seem to suggest strongly that capital punishment serves no such purpose whatsoever.

The sources of crime in South Africa are diverse. Poverty certainly plays a role, but most poor people do not resort to crime; they are most often the victims of it. Crime in South Africa percolates from society�s decaying moral fabric.

This decay is evident on every level: on dusty township streets as much as in corporate boardrooms, and � deplorably� � in parliament. Crime, and the punishment for breaking laws, is trivialised when the friends of the mighty are required to serve only a small fraction of their jail sentences; when those who broke laws are f�ted as martyrs when they go to prison, and as heroes when they return to parliament; when the future president of the nation claims to be innocent of charges of corruption but fights tooth and nail not to answer these charges in a court of law. Crime is trivialised when arrest rates are inadequate, and conviction rates disgracefully low.

It is not the character of judicial punishment which needs revision, but the system by which law enforcement, justice and punishment are administered. Crime must be fought with proper seriousness on government level, but the fight against crime must be taken to communities where criminals � armed or white collar � often find protection through collaboration, tolerance, apathy or fear. If we cannot trust the government to lead a moral regeneration, then this must grow from the grassroots.

We must be outraged by the murders of Frs Mahula and Sham, and those of countless other innocent victims.� In our outrage, however, we must not preach vengeance, but focus on how we can work towards a society in which priests are not murdered, and in which all can feel safe from the terror of criminality.