Be Our Guest / Mary Ann Etling

We cannot be silent when it comes to the injustice of the death penalty

Growing up in Terre Haute, it always felt disconcerting to me to have the shrine of St. Mother Theodore Guérin just miles away from the only sanctioned prison to execute federal death-row inmates.

However, the Sisters of Providence protesting outside of the death chamber was just a photo in my history book. There had not been a federal execution in 17 years. This year, Attorney General William Barr has issued eight executions already. There are five more scheduled between now and President-elect Joe Biden’s Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2021.

The Church has declared that the death penalty is inadmissible. In his most recent encyclical “Fratelli Tutti,” Pope Francis calls for an abolition of capital punishment worldwide. He quotes

St. Augustine, “Do not let the atrocity of their sins feed a desire for vengeance, but desire instead to heal the wounds which those deeds have inflicted on their souls” (#265).

I have had a few friends reach out, asking what urged me to get involved with these death-row cases. I believe it is the same thing that urges each one of us when we encounter evil.

As long as there is a government-sanctioned death chamber in our archdiocese, we cannot be silent. Our faith fundamentally requires us to stand against injustices that target the most vulnerable.

Some may be inclined to think that surely a federal death-row inmate is not worthy of compassion and human dignity, but as Catholics, we know the truth. Every human person is made in the image and likeness of God and worthy of life.

I remember the day they scheduled inmate Lisa Montgomery’s execution: It was set for Dec. 8, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception. It has since been rescheduled to Jan. 12. If it is not halted, she will be the first female to be executed by the federal government in nearly 70 years

My grandmother texted me, “Mary weeps.” She founded Catholic Charities with my late grandfather in Terre Haute in the 1970s, an organization that embodies compassion, social justice and human dignity. This is who we are as Catholics.

I want to leave you with some intentions we can add to our prayers this Advent season: for those who have been executed, those who are set to be executed, those who will participate or aid in these executions, those who have been harmed by the crimes committed in these cases, and for an increase in compassion in our own hearts. Each one of us is in need of God’s mercy, love and redemption.
 

(Mary Ann Etling is a second-year medical student at Indiana University School of Medicine.) †