'Bishops ask Mark Green to reverse position on death penalty'

That's the headline I was expecting to see this morning, now that the Catholic Bishops of Milwaukee and Madison have decided to plunge into politics.

Wednesday, they asked Gov. Jim Doyle, a Catholic, to rethink and revise his position on the use of embryonic stem cells for research. It made front-page news.

The next logical step, in continuing to speak up for a "culture of life," would be to ask Rep. Mark Green, also a Catholic, to rethink and reverse his position in favor of the death penalty.

"I supported the death penalty. And I support the referendum on the ballot," Green said on Wisconsin Public Television last weekend.

The death penalty advisory referendum on the November ballot will be there because of Republican scheming, with the direct support of Mark Green. Republicans put it on the ballot hoping it would bring out anti-Doyle voters, and moved it from September to the November ballot for purely partisan political gain.

The Catholic Church has consistently argued for the universal abolition of the death penalty. In a declaration to the first World Congress on the Death Penalty held June 21-23, 2001 in Strasbourg, France, the Vatican termed the death penalty "a sign of desperation" for a civil society. The church declared:

It is surely more necessary than ever that the inalienable dignity of human life be universally respected and recognised for its immeasurable value. The Holy See has engaged itself in the pursuit of the abolition of capital punishment and an integral part of the defence of human life at every stage of its development and does so in defiance of any assertion of a culture of death.

Where the death penalty is a sign of desperation, civil society is invited to assert its belief in a justice that salvages hope from the ruin of the evils which stalk our world.

The universal abolition of the death penalty would be a courageous reaffirmation of the belief that humankind can be successful in dealing with criminality and of our refusal to succumb to despair before such forces, and as such it would regenerate new hope in our very humanity.

Closer to home, bishops in the U.S. also have taken a strong stand and have actually launched a campaign to end the death penalty:

While the U.S. Catholic bishops have been calling for an end to the use of the death penalty for 25 years, this new Campaign was launched in March of 2005. The first comprehensive U.S. Catholic bishops’ statement on the topic issued in 1980. This campaign, the bishops renew their call in order to seize a new moment and a new momentum. This is a time to teach clearly, encourage reflection, and call for common action in the Catholic community. To that end the bishops have written a new pastoral statement that will clarify Church teaching and assist the numerous individual bishops and state Catholic conferences have issued similar calls to end the use of the death penalty.

Given the Bishops' willingness to wade in to current matters of public policy that are inconsistent with the Catholic Church, isn’t it time they sent a letter to Mark Green about his public support for the death penalty? That would seem appropriate, since the Bishops' spokesman says,"We're not trying to influence the election in any way." When the Bishops agree with Doyle and Green is on the "wrong" side, don't they have an obligation to say that, too?

E-mail the Bishops and encourage them to be consistent. They'll be happy to hear from you.

Bishop Robert C. Morlino
rmorlino@straphael.org

Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan
archbishopdolan@archmil.org