Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
June 20, 2001
Catholic chaplain anointed McVeigh before death
Priest expresses regret that execution cut short time for repentance
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Before Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh was executed in Terre Haute, Ind., a Catholic prison chaplain anointed him.
Father Ron Ashmore, pastor of St. Margaret Mary Parish in Terre Haute, told Catholic News Service June 12 that shortly after the June 11 execution he spoke with one of McVeigh's attorneys, Christopher Tritico, "and Chris said he received the anointing of the dying.''
The Catholic chaplain at the prison is Father Francis M. Roof, but in response to a query from The Criterion, Indianapolis' archdiocesan newspaper, Bureau of Prisons spokesman James N. Cross said the priest doing the anointing "was not Father Roof.''
"It was a Bureau of Prisons Catholic chaplain whose name we are not going to release,'' Cross said.
Many media reports referred vaguely to McVeigh receiving Catholic "last rites'' without spelling out which ones.
Father Ashmore, who had spoken and corresponded with McVeigh while he was in the federal prison, said he did not know if McVeigh also received Viaticum — Communion for the dying — or if he went to confession.
But he added, "I don't know if that's essential. We believe as Catholics that there are two sacraments that communicate Christ's forgiveness of our sinfulness.
"One is the sacrament of reconciliation — and everybody knows that,'' he said. "But what most people don't realize is that we also believe that the sacrament of the anointing of the sick — or for those who are dying or coming to death, like Tim, the anointing of the dying — also communicates the Lord's forgiving love to us.''
He added, "That was a point, by the way, when we revised our sacramental prayer (for that rite). At the very first, some deacons were giving that. The Vatican came back and said deacons cannot give that because it also is a communication of forgiveness of sin, and only a priest can do that.''
Father Ashmore challenged the widely reported perception that McVeigh was steadfastly remorseless about the 168 deaths he caused — and he linked that issue to the Catholic Church's growing opposition to the death penalty, which he shares.
"Those people who say he's never expressed remorse only know what he has or hasn't done publicly,'' the priest commented. "They do not know what has happened in the depths of his heart, and Tim did not choose to reveal that, for the most part.
"Except, the last couple of weeks he had begun to reveal some of it that I knew already, and that is that he did have a deep sensitivity for those people who lost lives and those families that were left with the pain and the sorrow.
"For whatever reason, he never expressed it publicly, but in the last few weeks he had begun to express that.''
He said that when McVeigh decided to seek a stay of execution in May, when withheld FBI documents in the case were uncovered, attorney Robert Nigh Jr. said that Mcveigh was not asking for the delay in any way to hurt his family or the victims in Oklahoma.
In recently revealed letters to two authors of a book on the case, according to Father Ashmore, "he (McVeigh) said, I am sorry for the deaths of people in Oklahoma and their pain. He went on to say — and this would be typical Tim — `but that's the nature of the beast,' meaning at war, people lose lives. You have to think militarily if you're going to listen to Tim, and that's not satisfying, I know it's not, for all those people who would have liked to have heard him say, `I'm sorry' — just direct, and leave it at that.''
Father Ashmore said such comments, however limited, showed "the beginning of his ability to express publicly his sensitivity to what he caused in Oklahoma.''
"The unfortunate thing is, now being executed, that road to express his sensitivity and later perhaps even his sorrow has been cut short,'' he added. "That is precisely one of the reasons why the American bishops have said execution is inappropriate. It does not give the time necessary for people to repent, because we do not change our lives in the twinkling of an eye. That can happen, but in most circumstances we need time. We need the journey of our life.''
The night before the execution Father Ashmore led a vigil service at St. Margaret Mary Church. He said the church is just five minutes from the federal penitentiary and the congregation regularly includes prayers for the prisoners in its liturgies.
During the service there were 168 vigil lights at the altar for those killed by McVeigh and another candle, set to the side, for McVeigh.
Father Ashmore said he had spoken to McVeigh earlier about the plans for the service and asked him if he would like to choose a Scripture passage to be read.
He said McVeigh chose Verses 1-8 of Chapter 3 of Ecclesiastes, which speaks of everything in the world having its appointed time — reaping, sowing, living, dying, mourning, laughing, loving, hating.
Father Ashmore found it significant that McVeigh, a former soldier who viewed his bombing as an act of war, asked him to end the reading at the line, "a time of war, and a time of peace.''
Providence Sister Mary Beth Klingel, a pastoral associate who has been at the parish for 25 years and is a local leader of opposition to the death penalty, told CNS, "Even though it (the execution) is so clinically done and seemingly nonviolent, it really is barbaric. It accomplishes nothing.''
She said she and others were preparing now for services and vigils before the next federal execution, that of Juan Raul Garzas.
"We will continue our protest of capital punishment in this country until it ends,'' she said.
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