Metropolitan Borys' speech
Dear friends and distinguished guests, it’s an honor to be with you this evening to celebrate the work of the Catholic Mobilizing Network in upholding the dignity of every human life and opposing the death penalty. Tonight, we mark fifteen years of witness and advocacy to human dignity in all circumstances. And we also honor the work of Dale Recinella and Witness to Innocence.
I’d like to speak to you tonight about why this is so worthy of celebrating in the United States, where we have come from, and where we are going.
I want to begin by recalling when Jesus first confronted the law of capital punishment, when he was asked by the scribes and the Pharisees to endorse the execution of the adulterous woman. They said to him, “Now in the law, Moses commanded us to stone such women. So what do you say” (Jn. 8:5)? Sometimes it is lost in this story that the proponents of the execution directly appealed to the law. They masked any hint of wrath or vengeance. There is no reference to morality. Rather, they proposed that stoning the woman they held captive was the epitome of civilization and justice. And not only that, but the law “commanded us”: we, who just happen to be in power, are justified and even obligated to carry out this execution.
In preaching about this story, the focus is often on Jesus’ answer, as it should be, since his answer is foundational to all of our pro-life ministries. We who are sinners must not appropriate to ourselves the power over life and death that belongs to God alone.
But it’s worth remembering the question, too. The direct appeal to the law. To power and authority. Do we not still hear those same scribes and Pharisees in some corners today? The death penalty is just the “law on the books.” The government is just “enforcing the law.” And in fact, the law not only permits execution, but legal permission in effect requires it. It’s not that we want the execution, but under the law, “our hands are tied” – we have no say in the matter! We are dispassionately carrying out our duty. We are “just following orders.”
The scribes and Pharisees wanted to trick Jesus. They wanted to make him either diminish the seriousness of sin or endorse a public execution which would have interrupted and undermined his teaching at the temple area that day. But Jesus didn’t fall for it. He didn’t diminish the harm at issue in that moment: at the end, he exhorted the woman not to sin anymore, after he emphasized that he did not condemn her. And at the same time, he didn’t fall for reductive legalism. It’s not unlike when Jesus was asked about a husband divorcing his wife, and he replied, “Because of the hardness of your hearts [Moses] wrote you this commandment” (Mk. 10:5). One could imagine him saying the same thing here. We are urged sometimes to stay at the surface of the law, not to question what is popular or what comes from the powerful. But Jesus does not stay at the surface of the law or the letter of the law. He sees the deeper reality – he is the deeper reality – that shows us who God is and who we are called to be. In this way, his justice, love, and mercy are the fulfillment of the law. When we are at our best, the Church’s advocacy against the death penalty brings this deeper reality to light.
The Holy Father and his predecessors have spoken to this reality most eloquently. And it’s appropriate to remember their words when they have spoken in the United States. In 1994, according to Gallup, 80% of Americans supported the death penalty. Only 13% had an unfavorable view. That was the high-water mark of roughly the last century. In other words, the death penalty, as recently as thirty years ago, was bipartisan and almost unquestionable. It was only one year later in 1995 that Pope St. John Paul II wrote in Evangelium Vitae “[n]ot even a murderer loses his personal dignity, and God himself pledges to guarantee this.” And in 1999, preaching before a crowd of nearly 100,000 people in a stadium in St. Louis, Missouri, John Paul said “[a] sign of hope is the increasing recognition that the dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil.” Referring to circumstances in the United States, he said, “[m]odern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform. I renew the appeal . . . for a consensus to end the death penalty, which is both cruel and unnecessary.”
Fast forward to 2015, when Pope Francis arrived in Washington, DC, and spoke to a joint session of the United States Congress. Support for the death penalty was down from twenty years earlier, but still at 61% favorability and only 31% against. Pope Francis said to Congress:
The Golden Rule also reminds us of our responsibility to protect and defend human life at every stage of its development.
This conviction has led me, from the beginning of my ministry, to advocate at different levels for the global abolition of the death penalty. I am convinced that this way is the best, since every life is sacred, every human person is endowed with an inalienable dignity, and society can only benefit from the rehabilitation of those convicted of crimes. Recently my brother bishops here in the United States renewed their call for the abolition of the death penalty. Not only do I support them, but I also offer encouragement to all those who are convinced that a just and necessary punishment must never exclude the dimension of hope and the goal of rehabilitation.
And in 2018, as we all know, Pope Franics updated the Catechism to make clear that the death penalty is never acceptable. No exceptions. The bishops of the United States have been calling for an end to the death penalty for several decades, both at the federal and state levels. We continue to stress that each person is created in the image and likeness of God, and the dignity that flows from God’s creative act cannot be removed by the actions of any person, no matter how bad, no matter how hurtful. To oppose the death penalty is not to be “soft on crime.” Rather it is to be strong on the dignity of life. The evidence is clear that the death penalty in the United States is both racially and economically biased, and it varies arbitrarily based on the location of the crime. Finally, we know beyond any doubt that innocent people have been sentenced to death with at least 200 death row exonerations since 1973.
There is still much work to be done, but there are many signs of hope. In 2023, that same Gallup poll found support for the death penalty had fallen to 53%, the lowest level since 1972, and an almost 30% decrease in the last 30 years. There is currently a federal moratorium on the death penalty, and several states in recent years have chosen to abolish the death penalty. We have a ways to go, but progress has been made. Catholic Mobilizing Network has been critical to these efforts in the United States over these past 15 years. They have been, and continue to be, a highly valued and trusted partner of the bishops.
Permit me, then, to close by saying “thank you.” Thank you for the work you have done. Thank you for the work you will continue to do. Your work is a great source of hope in building a culture of life. May God bless you in this holy endeavor. May we redouble our efforts in the next 15 years. I look forward to continuing on this journey with you, calling for an end to the death penalty and striving to uphold the dignity of every human life.
