Pray with the Pope: To kill the Death Penalty

Intention: We pray that the death penalty, which attacks the dignity of the human person, may be legally abolished in every country.

Since 1976, some 75 countries have abolished the death penalty for all crimes. Hence, we might believe that capital punishment is slowly being rolled back in the world, and we would generally be correct.

However, it’s interesting to note that there has recently been a move to restore it in the separatist areas of eastern Ukraine. What this suggests is that the death penalty is also a feature of insecure regimes. Hardly any country except Russia recognises this breakaway region, and its future and the future of the present rulers is by no means assured.

Indeed, if one looks at the countries where the death penalty persists, we see regimes which look terrifying but brittle. According to Amnesty International, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran and Somalia not only have the death penalty but also conduct public executions, presumably to instil exemplary terror in the populace.

In some states, such as the United Kingdom, crimes against the stability of the state, such as espionage and treason, were still punishable by death even after murder was no longer a capital punishment offence.

We expect this of rulers who think or pretend that they are anointed by God or history to rule for life, but I sometimes wonder whether it goes deeper and wider. When a state is in chaos and a strong leader comes along and imposes order by force (Napoleon’s “whiff of grapeshot” fired into the Paris mob comes to mind), ordinary people often welcome such a development, at least in the short term. We are inclined to sacrifice most of our rights for the sake of stability and security. We cannot abide anarchy for long.

Capital punishment polls

Polls have consistently shown that if there was a referendum on the death penalty in South Africa, it would get quite a large popular “yes” vote. A survey in 2012 found that 76% of young South Africans, between 18 and 34 years old, thought capital punishment should be reinstated. And in 2019, some 300000 South Africans signed a petition demanding the return of the death penalty in the wake of the callous murder of a young student, Uyinene Mrwetyana, by a complete stranger, a postal worker, in Cape Town.

These calls arise precisely because we live with a great deal of insecurity because of the criminal and political violence which we never seem to be able to bring under control.

The murder rates in New Zealand or Iceland are minuscule compared to ours and so it is easy in such countries to oppose the death penalty. However, if we are to oppose it in our own violent society — and I believe we should, if we are to have a “seamless” ethic of life in which we uphold the right to life of all human beings from the unborn onwards — then we must dig deep spiritually. For, let’s face it, we all fear sharing the fate of Uyinene Mrwetyana. The recent tavern massacres are deeply terrifying.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church rules out the death penalty completely. It teaches that “in the light of the Gospel…the death penalty is inadmissible because it is an attack on the inviolability and dignity of the person, and [the Catholic Church] works with determination for its abolition worldwide” (2276).

Therefore, we need to place our fears in the hands of God; we must resign ourselves to living prudently and with a high level of security-consciousness but without letting this destroy our hope or our peace of soul.