What we mean by
the `sanctity of life'

Catholic teaching on human
dignity includes ending
capital punishment

Archbishop Charles J. Chaput, O.F.M. Cap.

This was a hard column to write. Over the past few days, in reflection and prayer, I've tried to find some interior quiet where I can sort through all the conflicted feelings that came with the news of Timothy McVeigh's execution postponement.

Sympathy: The surviving victims and victims' families of the bombing now suffer another bitterly emotional twist. Confusion: What happens next? Frustration: The national media circus surrounding the McVeigh story will continue for another month. And also, hope: As this terrible experience drags on over the next few weeks, maybe more of us will begin to weary of the spectacle. Maybe more of us will see the futility and inhumanity of killing killers in the name of protecting or avenging life.

In a way, Timothy McVeigh has served as a perfect poster boy for those who seek to justify the death penalty. He seems to lack any remorse, and his indifference to the suffering he wrought will make it so very easy for all of us — I say "all of us," because the executioners act in our name — to stick the fatal needle in his vein.

But none of us really knows his heart. Only God does — and implausible as it may sound in the midst of our national anger, Jesus died for Timothy McVeigh too. Even for him. Why? Because he's a child of God; because as a human person his dignity is greater than any evil he can commit. Whether he knows that or not is irrelevant. We should.

Murderers deserve justice. Citizens have a right to personal safety. The victims of the Oklahoma City bombing have suffered enormously for years. But none of these things demands or requires that Timothy McVeigh should die. And exactly because he has chosen to make himself so repellent in his final months, he's purified the capital punishment debate of any shallow sentimentalism.

This man committed a grievous crime. He deserves punishment. But we still shouldn't kill him — for his sake as a human being, but even more importantly, for our sake as human beings. Repaying cruelty with cruelty does not equate to justice.

What's at stake in the debate over capital punishment is what we mean when we talk about the sanctity of human life. As Bishop José Gomez says elsewhere in this issue (see page 6), "the Catholic witness on abortion is cut from exactly the same fabric as Catholic service to the poor, the homeless and the immigrant. These issues are connected. They can't be separated. If the world doesn't yet understand that, then God is inviting each of us as believers to speak more clearly and persuasively."

Catholic teaching on capital punishment is part of that same vital fabric. It's not "the same as" abortion, or euthanasia, or help for the homeless, or aid to the immigrant and the poor. It doesn't need to be. Each of these issues has its own weight and content in our faith. But all of them are serious, and all of them are connected.

Whether we execute Timothy McVeigh on June 11, July 11, or at some time in the undetermined future is irrelevant. The date doesn't matter. For the sake of our own humanity and the humanity of the children who'll come after us, for the sake of his and our dignity as children of God, we shouldn't do it at all.