Help End the Death Penalty

Teachings from the church

Florida Catholic Bishops

Call for an end to capital punishment

Catechism of the Catholic Church

2267    Assuming that the guilty party’s identity and responsibility have been fully determined, the traditional teaching of the Church does not exclude recourse to the death penalty, if this is the only possible way of effectively defending human lives against the unjust aggressor.

If, however, non-lethal means are sufficient to defend and protect people’s safety from the aggressor, authority will limit itself to such means, as these are more in keeping with the concrete conditions of the common good and more in conformity with the dignity of the human person.

Today, in fact, as a consequence of the possibilities which the state has for effectively preventing crime, by rendering one who has committed an offense incapable of doing harm—without definitively taking away from him the possibility of redeeming himself—the cases in which the execution of the offender is an absolute necessity “are very rare, if not practically non-existent.

The Catholic bishops of Florida continue to urge our state leaders to reconsider the contradictory practice of state-sanctioned murder to punish and deter murder. The death penalty contributes to a growing disrespect for the sacredness of all human life. It feeds on an underlying sense of vengeance in our culture and adds to a callousness or coarseness towards one another. State-sanctioned killing does not deter or end violence, but instead it perpetuates a cycle of violence.   

Florida Bishops Statement on Death Penalty

The dignity of human life must never be taken away, even in the case of someone who has done great evil. Modern society has the means of protecting itself, without definitively denying criminals the chance to reform."

Pope John Paul II, Evangelium Vitae, 1995

• Florida's Dozier School For Boys: A True Horror Story : NPR
• DeSantis signs bill that will provide $20 million in compensation to Dozier School for Boys victims • Florida Phoenix.

• https://www.usccb.org/death-penalty-q-and-a
• https://www.usccb.org/death-penalty-q-and-a-files

To stay the execution of Loran Cole, the FLCCB has written a letter to Gov. Ron DeSantis explaining the trauma that Loran Cole endured during his time at Florida's Dozier School for Boys and how, sadly, his trauma could've led him to commit grave crimes. The FLCCB asks Governor DeSantis to "commute Mr. Cole's sentence to life without the possibility of parole". To access the full letter please click HERE.

 Governor DeSantis has signed six executions in 2023. The Catholic Bishops of Florida continue to urge our state leaders to reconsider the contradictory practice of state-sanctioned murder to punish and deter murder. The death penalty contributes to a growing disrespect for the sacredness of all human life. It feeds on an underlying sense of vengeance in our culture and adds to a callousness or coarseness towards one another. 

God of Compassion,
You let your rain fall on the just and the unjust.
Expand and deepen our hearts
so that we may love as You love,
even those among us
who have caused the greatest pain by taking life.
For there is in our land a great cry for vengeance
as we fill up death rows and kill the killers
in the name of justice, in the name of peace.
Jesus, our brother,
you suffered execution at the hands of the state
but you did not let hatred overcome you.
Help us to reach out to victims of violence
so that our enduing love may help them heal.
Holy Spirit of God,
You strengthen us in the struggle for justice.
Help us to work tirelessly
for the abolition of state-sanctioned death
and to renew our society in its very heart
so that violence will be no more. Amen.
 
Sister Helen Prejean, C.S.J.

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