Crime has no rights

by Editor · June 17, 2009

In the space of only three months, three priests were murdered in South Africa. Fr Ernst Pl�chl CMM of Mariazell in the Eastern Cape had done nothing to deserve a violent death; nor did Frs Daniel Matsela Mahula of Klerksdorp and Lionel Sham of Johannesburg before him.

The deaths of these three servants of God and his people in acts of evil cast a shadow over our welcome of the Year of the Priest. As we celebrate our priests and reflect on their mission, we must also contemplate the dangers so many of them expose themselves to, especially in a society as morally polluted as South Africa�s.

Inevitably many people, including Catholics, will demand the return of the death penalty for violent criminals. It is indeed difficult not to wish the ultimate punishment upon those who feel authorised to kill and rape with impunity. At times of anguish � individual and communal � we must hear the Church when it teaches that capital punishment is an injury to God.

International experience makes it clear that the death penalty does not serve as a deterrent. When applied, it usually serves only the purpose of vengeance. This is at odds with Catholic teaching.

South Africa does not need capital punishment to curb crime, but more effective methods of law enforcement and justice. But even these non-negotiable elements are not enough. Above all, South Africa needs a moral regeneration.

It should not be that criminals are deterred from committing a wicked act only because they might be caught. They ought to be deterred because it is wrong. In the minds of many criminals, life (even their own) is expendable. When life is seen as worthless, murder becomes banal. Our society must regain awe for human life, in every form.

The moral regeneration of society should not as a priority concentrate on issues such as adult content being screened on television (though this wants attention too), but more on instilling in all people a set of scruples which would restrain them from breaking the law and harming others simply because to do so is wrong.

Such a recallibration of public ethics is a long-term project, but its initiation must not be delayed. In the interim, effective law enforcement and justice strategies are absolutely necessary. It must be made unambiguously clear that the state and its people regard criminals as enemies of the people. Criminals must be caught, tried in a court, and punished according to the law. And they should be rehabilitated, as far as possible, so that upon recovering their freedom they will not return to crime.

A moral regeneration would require first that communities embrace the notion that no crime is defensible, and that all criminal activity is intolerable. This must apply also to white collar crime and corruption, and cooperation in criminal activity.

Otherwise law-abiding citizens must be persuaded not to collaborate with criminals, for example by not buying stolen goods. Archbishop Buti Tlhagale, at the funeral of murdered Fr Allard �Mako in October 2007, said that those who benefit from crime �contribute significantly towards the moral bankruptcy of society�. He went as far as suggesting that people who knowingly buy stolen goods or benefit from crime in other ways �ought to be banned from receiving Communion� because �their hands are dripping with the blood of innocent people�. Archbishop Tlhagale�s uncompromising words have much merit.

Churches should counsel those engaged in crime to depart from their ways � and if they do not, churches should not accept their money, not administer to them the sacraments, not accept them as part of the parish community, and not bury them when they die.

That, at least, would be a start in communicating that crime has no rights.